Free operating system for home pc

[Jerry McAllister]

> 
> 
>                     I would  like to find an open source operating 
> system to use for a personal computer. I have "WindowsXP" now, but I 
> feel I'd be at home with something at least a little in tune with my 
> personal philosophy, which "microsoft" is not.. Can anybody tell me if 
> there are any free open source versions available ?  The computer I use 
> is a simple e-machine with a celeron processor (1.4ghz).

You have come to the right place.
Go to the FreeBSD web page and start learning.
  http://www.freebsd.org/

Starting on that web page there is a huge amount of material
linked to tell you how to get started, download free installation ISOs, 
do the installations and configurations, add ports of useful additional
utilities and manage the system.   

Start with everything under Documentation, then go to the
Software section and then installation guides and release notes.
At least skim everything so you have a good idea - it is too much 
to read in detail all at once.  Then get the latest production
release (currently 4.8 - soon to be 4.9 == skip the development
release - 5.x for now until you are well versed) and install it.
You will learn more by just doing it than all the reading, except
you have to do some reading before you start.  

You can either buy a CD set for the nominal production cost or
download the ISO for free and burn your own CD.  In that case
unless your net connection is really slow, just download the mini-ISO
and then do the install over the net.   Download the whole ports
tree with it (that is just the structure, not all the source for 
the ports - the ports sources download when you building them)..  

The initial basic install is pretty easy.  Most people get hung
up in adding extras to their system.  There are enough possibilities
and variations to boggle the mind.

It will take some time and effort to get over the initial hump
learning the basics, but you will find that it is worth it in
the long run. 

Have fun,

////jerry

>                                                                                                           
> Thank you,
>                                                                                                                          
> Frank
>                                                                          
> 
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