Free BSD install tutorial I wrote

[Frank J. Laszlo]

Allen wrote:

>I wrote this quite a while ago and I've posted it to the docs list before and 
>it got a good repsonce, but I've seen a couple install questions on here so 
>I'm going to link to it again for this list. I don't think there is an easier 
>to follow installer help anywhere. Not arrogance, but I did do very well with 
>it in making it easy as crap to install:
>
>http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=259335
>
>You don't have to sign up to read this.
>
>-Allen
>  
>

I dont want this to sound like a flame, though it will probably come 
across that way. But there are many typographical errors in your "howto" 
and also many misconceptions that could cause newbies to be confused. I 
found myself getting confused and I've been using FreeBSD for years. 
Heres a few notable portions:

A) FreeBSD 5.0 is very old, and was never a production release, I 
noticed you wrote your howto in 2002, so I'll let that one slide.

B) Using words like "Hit enter twice" "down" "up" "right" etc.. will 
confuse people. you're better of saying something along the lines of. 
"Scroll down to 'foo'" etc.

C) You make a reference to X86, I assume you mean "XFree86"

Overall is gives a pretty basic description of the procedure, however 
you should reference the freebsd handbook 
(http://www.freebsd.org/handbook) for more information on certain sections.

Now, heres where its gets raunchy, I read further in the post, and you 
are making reference to security on freebsd. If you actually read the 
advisories, you will notice 9 times out of 10 they are applications on 
the base system, generally not exploitable remotely. Also, You have to 
remember that freebsd base and kernel are developed together, I'll find 
you'll be hard to find a freebsd 'kernel' exploit. Oh, just noticed, you 
said:

User B on the other hand is running Free BSD, and has no idea how to 
update it. SSH was installed and running by default, and the user 
doesn't know how to use upgrade_pkg.

What is "upgrade_pkg?" I think you mean portupgrade.

Overall, my rant is just the fact I dont think you are in a position to 
be judging security of an OS without knowing the OS. Its apparent that 
you do not. I'm not going to comment on the accuracy of your slackware 
experience, I think I read that you've been using it for 2 years? Good 
luck on your future writing, I hope that I didnt come across to strong 
on this post, But it is what it is.

Regards,
    Frank