New User to FreeBSD

[Matthew Seaman]

On Sun, Oct 07, 2012 at 12:47:26PM +0530, alwin doss wrote:

> Which is when I came across FreeBSD. I fell in love with it, but yes I have
> never used it yet, I have tried many times to install it, but the
> installation process is really hard, I must say.
> I really want to install it on my laptop and all my systems.

Have you tried PC-BSD?  It is effectively a 'distro' of FreeBSD, but
aimed very much at desktop users.  The installation process has been
extensively modified, and should be much more accessible to new users.

Also, laptops can be difficult to install FreeBSD on -- they tend to
have non-standard versions of many of the typical components.  Try
looking up your hardware here: http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/
to see what tricks and tweaks may be needed.

If you'ld like to contribute towards FreeBSD, you will be more that
welcome.  The easiest and simplest way to start is to become an active
participant on the various mailing lists or the FreeBSD forums.  Then,
as you become familiar with the system, find and characterise any bugs
you run into, and submit well-formed problem reports, for any of the
ports, docs or the base system.  "Well-formed" in the sense that just
saying "foo is broken" doesn't really help: it is much better to show
output from foo illustrating the brokenness and explain what you'ld
expect to see specifically.  Even better is if you can include patches
to fix the problem.  Don't be disenheartened if your patches get quite
rigourously critiqued -- that's a good sign: it usually means that
committers are taking your ideas seriously but want you to improve the
implementation before it can be committed.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
JID: matthew at infracaninophile.co.uk               Kent, CT11 9PW
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