re changing from vista

[Glyn Millington]

eculp at casasponti.net writes:

> Jerry McAllister <jerrymc at msu.edu> escribió:
>
>> On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 08:00:23AM +1000, Da Rock wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, 2008-11-14 at 11:58 +0100, peter wrote:
>>> > Dear sirs
>>> >
>>> > please can you help me i am totally confused i want to change from
>>> > windows vista
>>> >
>>> > but i cannot understand which system to use
>>> >
>>> > i am not sure if freebsd will work with my hardware and software


Take a look at the FreeBSD FAQ here - section 4 is the one you need.


http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/index.html

Some research om the hardware front can save you lots of pain later.



>>> >
>>> > kind regards
>>> >
>>> > Peter
>>>
>>> Welcome to the free world Peter!
>>>
>>> FreeBSD is a very powerful and stable system, but that said it is also
>>> very hands on - the opposite extreme of vista which is all hands off.
>>> This means that you will have a very steep learning curve.
>>>
>>> This list is /very/ helpful, others may not be so friendly or helpful.
>>> This is great for newbies who need some real help in getting to know
>>> their system and fixing problems, but there are times when even this is
>>> not enough if you don't have enough experience with the system.
>>>
>>> My advice is this: get used to the *nix (linux, unix and other
>>> derivatives) systems and how they do things, and the best way to do this
>>> is to use linux which is like a halfway house for windows users. The
>>> software available for all systems is HUGE. And all this software will
>>> usually run on both systems. The difference is linux will take care of a
>>> lot of maintenance for you (like vista), but still allows you to get
>>> your hands dirty hacking the system to your hearts content.
>>>
>>> This is not to deter you from using FreeBSD - linux is a tough system
>>> when compared to windows, but FreeBSD is even tougher; bit like
>>> comparing a tank to fort knox. But the ease of use and experience you'll
>>> gain from using linux will be more forgiving than using FreeBSD.
>>
>> This is just wrong.    I have always found FreeBSD to be easier
>> to install and configure the way I want it that the Red Hat or Suse
>> I often have to use for some servers at work.
>
> Amen to that.  I've converted many Ubuntu users who had shot
> themselves in the foot.  They are now happy freeBSD users. YMMV
>
> ed
>>
>> You can learn them all if you want and use them all.
>> But, don't be bullied in to believing that FreeBSD is any harder
>> than the Lunix flavors out there.

Well, depending on the needs, expectations and background of the learner
I guess that sometimes it might feel harder! Again YMMV.

One thing which makes the transition easier is the marvellous FreeBSD
handbook and documentation.  

Two websites I found helpful were (and are!) Roland Smith's FreeBSD page
here 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/freebsd/

(Thank you Roland!!)


and this one


http://www.math.colostate.edu/~reinholz/freebsd/freebsd.html

Good luck,


atb

Glyn