looking for an OS and wanting to know if this is the one.

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2007-08-13 23:51, Brooks Lackey <shinesomber at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Okay i have a Dell Inspiron 9300 with centrino mobil technology at
> 1.86GHZ, 512MB of memory and a 60Gig HDD.
>
> Basically I need to know which of the OS from freebsd will be the best
> for me to use?

Any recent release should do.  The officially supported releases of
FreeBSD are described in our web site:

    http://www.freebsd.org/

The front page of the web site includes a nice "Get FreeBSD Now" link,
which will lead you to the release selection page.  For your Dell
Inspiron laptop, you should try to use the "i386" build of 6.2-RELEASE
(the latest "stable" release of FreeBSD).

> Can i use Yahoo Messanger, Itunes, & AOL Messanger.

No, these programs are written by their respective vendors and they are
released only for Microsoft Windows systems.  In some cases, like MSN
and Yahoo IM, you can use alternative FreeBSD programs, like Gaim,
Pidgim, Kopete, and so on.  In other cases, like iTunes, it may be
impossible to find something compatible on FreeBSD.

> I am just looking around as i am now tired of Windows.  I dont know
> everything about OS but i like to learn new things and if there is
> something better out there i def. would like to use it.

Brace yourself and prepare for a _very_ bumpy ride then!

FreeBSD is a *different* operating system.  It works in different ways,
it includes different programs, and it generally uses, supports and
encourages a different philosophy, its own way of looking at things.

These differences may alienate Windows users and keep them from trying
to use FreeBSD at first.  If you honestly _try_ to use FreeBSD though,
and keep trying to "unlearn" the Windows habits and learn the new ones,
which FreeBSD encourages, you may start to like our system a bit.  It
may even turn out that it was better than Windows for the kind of work
you want to do.

There's no way to _really_ know, without trying :-)

Cheers,
Giorgos