BSD Question's.

[Robert Slade]

On Sat, 2005-12-24 at 08:10, Andy Sjostrom wrote:
> To whom this may concern,
> H-E-L-P!
> LOL!
>  I've been online since 1992( the windows 3.1 days for me.) I'm 48 yrs.old. and also a windows XP
> user.
>  Because of recent issue I have had with Mr. William Gates and his product.
> about every 6 months I have had to overhaul my windows XP. during the last up grade I was told
> that my XP product code was invaild, then when is made the repair up grades something in my
> registory changed, and when that auto updater downloaded the new security patches it somehow
> downloaded 2969 trojans as well.
> 
>  I have decided to start the search for a new OS.
> In my case the new OS must be completely 100 percent user friendly.
> Please bare in mind that 100 percent means "NO CODE" writting. I'm not a programer...LOL!
>  I run a very small one man company at,
> http://www.geocities.com/andy_sjostrom/index.html
> 
>  From time to time I also like to rip and burn a CD as well,
> Publish articles to my yahoo 360 blog. edit a few images from time to to time.
>  surf the net, copy and paste, chat with friends in my favorite yahoo chat room.
>  fold protiens for the fold at home project at stanford U.
> (I'm on team #40154.)
>  I also have a logitech Clicksmart420 that the new OS must be willing to accept.
> I've been doing some reading and every thing I have been able to find for OS's boils down to three
> basic choices.
> BSD
> Unix
> Linux
> A windows Hybird like ReactOS.
> 
> There is one other very important thing Because I'm on a fixed income and things with me are very
> tight money wise the new OS must be free.
>  Is there any thing you can do to help me. Such as point me in the right direction.
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
>   .
> D&A Consultants 
> George A. Sjostrom II
> Helping those who can help them selves
> http://www.geocities.com/andy_sjostrom/index.html
> 

Andy,

Welcome.

I understand your position, and if you will accept some thoughts from
someone older than you by 10 years.

Very few of the alternatives to Windows have the ability to run on any
platform and it is likely that you will run into compatibility problems
so you will need to be more aware of the hardware you are using
including editing scripts etc. 

You are probably more used to doing things via a GUI. Whilst BSD does
run either gnome or KDE etc, you will still need to do a fair amount via
the command line even if it is just to get the GUI working. There is one
tip here - read the handbook. The Linux Distributions are in general
more suited to running a GUI and some install one as the default. 

I have not used any of the other versions of BSD (Net and Open) but
FreeBSD is more suited to server applications although that is changing
and it will run as a desktop machine. 

I would suggest that you try some to the Linux distributions - you can
get or download live CD's which will run without being installed so you
can try them before committing to an installation. ISTR that there is a
FreeBSD live CD available.


You can find out more about the various distributions at:

http://distrowatch.com/

BTW, I used to say I'm no programmer but .....

Let me know if you have any questions.

Rob