Dead tree documentation

[Michael M.]

Kevin Kinsey wrote:
> Michael M. wrote:
>> I've been using various Linux distros and OS X for a while now, and 
>> Windows before those, and am interested in trying out FreeBSD.  Call 
>> me old fashioned, but as an engaged-but-non-technical user, I find it 
>> really useful to have at least some accompanying documentation in book 
>> form when embarking on something like this.  Okay, forget 
>> "old-fashioned," just call me "old."  :-)  Book-learnin' was the only 
>> thing we had when I was a yung-un, and it's what I'm used to.
>>
>> I understand that the be-all-and-end-all of authoritative FreeBSD 
>> reference is the online handbook (and, of course, the man pages and 
>> docs included with the OS itself).  I was wondering if more 
>> experienced users could give me a few pointers about the best book 
>> supplements for delving into this OS.  Specifically, I'm looking for 
>> advice about what might be too outdated to be useful (or worse, might 
>> end up being more confusing than helpful) and what isn't.  From 
>> looking around and lurking here for a while, the books that look most 
>> promising to me are:
>>
>> "The Complete FreeBSD, 4th Ed." by Greg Lehey
>> "FreeBSD 6 Unleashed" by Brian Tiemann
>> "Absolute BSD" by Michael Lucas
>> "BSD Hacks" by Dru Lavigne
>>
>> The latter, at least, seems like something best left for later, if I 
>> really stick with it,.  Of the first three -- well, the first is the 
>> most appealing to me, but it's somewhat more dated than the others (I 
>> have seen the regularly posted reminders about online updates).  I'm 
>> certainly not averse to buying two books; however, I don't want to 
>> drown myself -- keeping in mind that I'm not the most technically 
>> inclined person and my purpose is to learn to use FreeBSD as a 
>> general-purpose desktop system.  I've no special or advanced uses in 
>> mind, though I am hoping that ultimately learning more about FreeBSD 
>> will also have the benefit of teaching me more about making use of the 
>> Darwin subsystem of OS X.
>>
>> Any thoughts, advice, pointers?  Anything I missed, especially any 
>> general UNIX books that might go well with one of the above?
>>
> 
> 
> Well, I can understand, to some extent, where you're coming from.
> It's much easier to justify throwing the book down beside the bed
> when you're about to doze off, as opposed to, say, a new laptop.
> 
> Recently, "Grog" Lehey released "The Complete FreeBSD" under the
> Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license.
> Source is available, as well as a PDF document.
> 
> I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you buy a paper copy, but you
> could print your own, also:
> 
> http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/CFBSD/
> 

I would much prefer to buy a paper copy, I was really wondering if the 
paper copy is too outdated to be of use or so outdated that it might get 
me in trouble.  I imagine there's lots of things that haven't changed 
much at all -- more in the vein of "concepts" and "principles" if not 
nitty-gritty specifics.

There are many things I would know to watch out for, mostly userland/GUI 
apps and software.  I'm not worried, for example, about instructions for 
configuring the X server being out of date.  I've already gone through 
the transition to X.org 7.0 from X.org 6.9 on a couple of Linux distros, 
and I don't think FreeBSD 6.1 is using X.org 7.0 yet.  So if the book 
goes into detail about configuring XFree86, that's not a big deal.  I'm 
more concerned about messing up on things about which I don't know any 
better, but even there I can always check the updates and the current 
handbook online before I monkey around too much.  It's just that if 
there's *too* much of that, then the usefulness of the printed book is 
questionable.


-- 
Michael M. ++ Portland, OR ++ USA
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions 
of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to 
dream." --S. Jackson