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[KURT BUFF]

Markus said:
| Are 13yrs old people in highschool? :-p

I was, 30+ years ago. Depends in large part at which point of the year you
were born, and just how smart you are.

<snip>
Robert said"
| I am no
| sure totally what he means by OS purism? What does it mean to
| be a purist and like BSD so much because of this belief? Also

I don't know either. Don't worry about it. It's probably some sort of
snobbery, which he'll probably lose once he encounters the real world.
However, it's worth concentrating on one OS for a while, to get to know it
well.

| I was checking out BSD on the web at the OS world and I dont
| get something. I dont get why you guys call your OS FREEBSD
| when OPENBSD is free as well. I just dont see why there is
| two different OS's here within BSD. What is the difference.

There are more than 2 types of BSD. I'm also aware of at least two others,
NetBSD, and Macintosh OS X, which isn't a "pure" BSD, but is based on
FreeBSD.

I don't know much at all about NetBSD, but I believe (I'm willing to be
corrected on all of this) that FreeBSD came first, then NetBSD and
OpenBSD. One of NetBSD's aims is to run on as many different types of CPUs
a possible, so that what's created on one platform will work almost
everywhere, if you're using NetBSD. OpenBSD is all about security, and has
achieved an excellent reputation in that area.

All of them cooperate, though, and share code amongst themselves. They are
a community of OSes, and don't really compete with each other.

| Will you guys write back to me so I dont have to do
| something stupid and get involved with an OS I dont want to
| and get lost in thte wrong thingz?............Robert, Hillsboro OR USA

The only stupid mistake is the one you refuse to learn from.

Find yourself a computer, and start working at installing FreeBSD, or
NetBSD, or OpenBSD (I recommend FreeBSD, because it seems to be more
widely supported, but that's just my opinion.) Learn how to use 'make',
and one (or more) of the shells, such as BASH or ZSH, and either vi or
emacs for editing. Learn some C or C++ programming, and also one or more
of the popular scripting languages, such as PERL, RUBY or PYTHON.

Ask lots of questions, in a respectful manner, on this listserv and
elsewhere.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes, and don't have too much ego about being
corrected. If you're wrong, you're wrong - pick up the pieces, correct
your mistake, and move on. If you can, thank the person who corrected you,
and offer gentle instruction and corrections to others who ask. Ignore
flames, and don't flame others. Also, don't be too proud of what you know.
We are all ignorant, to one degree or another.

The first step to knowledge and wisdom is being able to truthfully say the
following 7 words: "I don't know, but I'll find out."

Offer help wherever and whenever you can. Do it not because you're a
goody-two-shoes, but because it's the way you'll learn the most. Feeling
good about helping others is all fine, but teaching others is the best way
to learn what you don't know.

Kurt