*nix trial

[J. Seth Henry]

If you have a good Internet connection (and by good, I mean 128kpbs or
more), then all you absolutely require to install FreeBSD is two floppy
disks. However, this is far from quick - taking over two hours on my cable
modem. If you just want the base OS, then the first CD ROM contains
everything you need to install a workstation, with X. As was mentioned in
previous posts, not all of the optional software will be available - but
the more commonly used stuff will be there (desktop environments, for
example)

Once you get the base OS up and running, use /stand/sysinstall to
download/copy and install more software. The installer will automatically
grab any dependencies for you. This is probably one of the nicer features
of FreeBSD.

The installer is network aware, and will give you a choice of whether to
look on the CD/DVD drive, or download from an FTP site - so you CD's won't
be wasted.

Good luck,
Seth Henry

On Fri, 18 Apr 2003, Mohsin Sabir. wrote:

> Thanks for your valuable advise.
>
> Yes, I want to beef up my resume and also looking to work on more stable and
> demanding *.nix.  Tell me some thing is FREE BSD officially considered Unix
> or not?
>
> I have downloaded FREE BSD ISO images form here
> ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ISO-IMAGES and it was a 7 hour download of
> 1.4 GB.  Later  I read that 4.8-release-i386-mini ISO image was enough for
> me, anyways I have all of it now.
>
> Should I still go and buy those 4 CD's from FREE BSD Mall?
>
> Thanks again
>
> WILDPACKET
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> %%%%%5
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "J. Seth Henry" <jshamlet at comcast.net>
> To: "Mohsin Sabir" <mohsinsabir at rogers.com>
> Cc: <freebsd-questions at FreeBSD.ORG>
> Sent: Friday, April 18, 2003 4:44 PM
> Subject: RE: *nix trial
>
>
> > You may want to ask yourself what you envision doing with *nix before
> > deciding on an operating system to learn on. If you are just trying to
> > "get the hang of" *nix, then almost any flavor will teach you the basics
> > (though clearly I prefer FreeBSD ;)
> >
> > Most jobs these days that use *nix, usually involve Solaris, AIX (or some
> > other Unix variant) or Linux. Sad as it may be, Linux has more "sex
> > appeal" than FreeBSD, despite being less mature in a lot of ways. As a
> > result, it has more popular support, and gets device drivers much sooner
> > (and in some cases, at all) Unfortunately, Linus only blesses a
> > kernel, and a kernel is not the same as an operating system. They
> > have to be included in distributions which provide a "world" (as
> > FreeBSD calls it) Distros can vary from absolutely zero production
> > engineering to a high level of integration and high overall quality. Both
> > Debian and Mandrake (at least when I used them) were very good
> > distributions overall. If you have an eye on a job that involves *nix,
> > you might inquire as to what flavor, and find an OS that has a fairly
> > similar interface.
> >
> > I just wanted to get that out there, since I get the impression you are
> > trying to beef up your resume.
> >
> > That said, I believe FreeBSD to be a superior operating system to Linux
> > with respect to "newbies" because of its simplicity, elegance, and
> > intelligent port system. Library issues are rarely a problem if you
> > stick with the ports tree or package system, and you can easily review
> > what you have installed, and their dependencies. Only Debian's apt-get is
> > superior, IMHO - but not by much!
> >
> > The difference is that FreeBSD is an operating system, not a kernel. There
> > is only one "distro" per revision, and it is very well crafted to work
> > right. For the most part, every FreeBSD system of the same version works
> > like any other. With a few notable exceptions, any FreeBSD system of the
> > same major release works like any other as well. I switched to FreeBSD
> > from Linux (Mandrake linux to be exact) after using NetBSD extensively on
> > an old Mac (68'040 system). It was that good :)
> >
> > As for obtaining it, I'd go with the 4CD set from the FreeBSD Mall. Go
> > with the 4.8-RELEASE version - it's the current "production" release. 5.0
> > is actually closer to a final beta than a production OS. Running it would
> > be like learning to drive in an experimental car. Also, the 4CD set
> > includes every port available for that release. No Internet access
> > required at all - which can be helpful, especially if you are having
> > problems getting your network running in the installer.
> >
> > Good luck,
> > Seth Henry
> >
> > Mohsin Sabir. wrote:
> > > I am a Microsoft Product Administrator and been engaged with Microsoft
> > > Products from the last 7 years.  Now, I have opted that I should add
> > > something more to my expertise and thought about *nix but have hard time
> > > to pick which Unix, as there are quite a bit of flavors available out
> > > there.
> > >
> > > I read about you, saw the sites hosted by you.  I want to try BSD Unix
> > > and please advise me which version is the latest and greatest from where
> > > I can start.
> >
> >
>
>
>