FreeBSD download

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

bernardos at cits.br wrote:

>Dear Sir or Madam, 
> 
>I'm interested in using FreeBSD as part of rearrengement of my professional skills. 
>I'm currently studing Linux but I'd like to feel a bit of a true UNIX system. 
> 
>I noticed FreeBSD is presented in a 4 CD set case by FreeBSD Mall, for example. 
>However, the download options are different. 
>I supose the minimum I might download is: 
>   4.8-RELEASE-i386-disk1.iso (610.4MB) 
>   4.8-RELEASE-i386-disk2.iso (259.1MB) 
> 
>What is in fact the other 2 files? I.e.: 
>  4.8-RELEASE-i386-mini.iso (199.6MB) and  
>  CHECKSUM.MD5 (203 bytes) 
> 
>Do I need them too? 
> 
>What shall be the 5.x release? What is the "new technology" you will include in it? 
>I might probably buy it (a combo promotion of 4 CD set + Handbook 2nd edition). 
>However I'd like to know a bit more about it first. 
> 
>Could you send me more information in order to clarify my doubts, please? 
>Thanks in advance for your assistance. 
> 
>Kind regards, 
>Bernardo 
>+55 41 9911-2666 
>  
>
Hi, Bernardo ...

Welcome to the freebsd-question mailing list!

Notice first that you've sent mail to a mailing
list, so there's no guarantee you'll get an answer,
or that the answers you get might help.  Everyone
who sends you mail on this subject is doing so
on a strictly volunteer basis.

Secondly, notice that it isn't the year 1969,
nor the year 2069, and check to see what
your mailer thinks the date really is.  It's likely
some other machine between you and the
FreeBSD.org mail server, but it's worth a look :-)

Now, to your questions.

The second two files/ISO's you listed are
the "Mini" distribution CD, and the MD5
(cryptographic) checksum.  You'd use the
MD5 checksum to determine that the
files you download are complete and
legitimate, more or less.  Take a look
at documentation around the net on
the subject of "checksums."

The MINI ISO is the *only* thing that
you would need for a *bare minimum* installation
of FreeBSD.  It contains no 3rd party software,
no X server, etc., etc.  You could download this
file and burn it to CD and have a running system,
however.  Recently I created a new FreeBSD 5.1
by simply installing the 'bin' distribution via FTP
over a modem connection; I then had a working
CLI system and over the next few days I downloaded
the entire source tree, and ports tree, and ran a "buildworld"
procedure to create a complete system.  I then installed
a great deal of other software via the ports system.

The largest ISO file should get you up and running
with binaries, documentation, source, and X Windows,
or at least most of that.  Take a look at the README
files on ftp://ftp.freebsd.org and you can get a better
idea of what's in them.

I'd strongly recommend that you download the
handbook from ftp.freebsd.org and do some
reading before you make your decision about
what to download ....

Hope This Helps,

Kevin Kinsey