Some questions from a newcomer

[Mike Jakubik]

Daniel Mouritsen wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm playing around with using freebsd for my home server (which used 
> to use
> linux), and I have a quick question regarding the distributions you can
> select with sysinstall during the install phase.
>
> I've chosen developer(since i wish to use the ports packages, i figured
> selecting developer might be a good idea to get gcc and such), user and
> minimal.
>
> Just out of  curiosity, is does one cancel out the other? i mean, is it
> really necessary to pick user and minimal if i choose developer? I mean,
> wont everything in "minimal" be included in "developer"?
>
> The reason im asking is, all this server is gonna be running is 
> apache, pf
> and ntpd to handle the clock. I pretty much want to close down everything
> else and make as minimal a system as possible. Any suggestions about the
> layout of this machine? Is developer "overkill"?
>

You don't need the developer packages to compile or use the ports. I 
would recommend you choose the basic user option instead.

> Also, i was wondering, i tried playing around with portsnap, but dear 
> lord
> it was slow :D I tried googling for European mirrors close to me, but i
> haven't had much success, any help with finding a faster portsnap server
> would be much appreciated

You may want to try cvsup instead.