Technical questions and Newbie experience.

[Krzysztof Sroka]

On Wednesday 26 of May 2004 19:30, Olivier Gautherot wrote:

> That's a good point. There are at least 2 types of newbies:
>
> 1) the "I have 50 years of experience in Solaris and you-name-IX and 5
> Linux distros and I'm starting with FreeBSD now" on one hand and

Well, I don't think that people with 50-year experience in *NIXes subscribe to 
this group. FreeBSD isn't much different than most of UNIX-based OS'es that 
these people need any advice in running all the basic components they want. 
At least they know how to find the exact information they need. But in fact 
there is a group experienced in Linux'es who need to know little diffs 
between deamon and tux, and they are most often redirected to 
freebsd-questions.

> 2) the "my room mate installed FreeBSD on my machine and I have just
> discovered that there is an ON switch on the front panel" on the other

Oh, these ones shouldn't install FreeBSD at all. They would rather prefer 
Mandrake or anything a bit simplier than BSD. After two moths of my own 
experience in FBSD I have to admit that not everything is as user-friendly as 
in Linux - begining with post-install XFree configuration ending with 
handling ports collection and bringing up sound. If someone isn't tought to 
read manuals the first months under BSD can be real road through hell for 
him/her.

> Having been a newbie myself a few months ago (with fairly extensive
> Linux background), I acknowledge that, even though the manual is really
> good, it's a thick reading for people switching or simply starting with
> computers (no flame, I don't mean to start a controversy about whether
> FreeBSD is good for a very beginner :-).
>
> What I missed is a "Installation and first steps in FreeBSD in 10
> lessons". I know there are 1,000 web sites that claim this but I've
> found no short document on the official FreeBSD web site telling you
> where to look for info when you start - I was probably too eager to get
> started... All software products I know have a "Getting started" guide
> so I guess we should have one too (X in VESA mode, no sound, networking
> in DHCP client - and pointers to the manual for 3D graphics support,
> sound servers, firewall, NAT, DHCP server etc.)

Right. Some simple HOW-TO's would be very helpful. For example a short 
introduction to XF86. But many of these can be taken from a large ammount of 
Linux guides. Personally, I will start a BSD-guide section as a part of my 
weblog and if someone wishes to participate in this, please e-mail me.

Excuse me for using not-very-good english, but I still need to learn it a bit.

Chris