New FreeBSD Book Aimed At Newest Users

Chris Coleman writes: "Annelise Anderson has written a new FreeBSD book titled "FreeBSD: An Open Source Operating System for Your Personal Computer". The book includes: * installation CD-ROM for the entire system plus many software applications * space requirements, screen shots, and detailed instructions for installing FreeBSD * step-by-step instructions on configuring and running FreeBSD, connecting to the Internet, setting up an internal network, and setting up sound, X Window System (the graphical user interface), and printing." I think the raftload of available books have helped tremendously in making GNU/Linux popular, by first making it possible for non-experts to install it -- with more BSD books, perhaps the same will happen. Fame awaits you if you care to give this book a Slashdot review :)

Re:Great

[ednopantz]

I just don't get the contempt some have for people who prefer the GUI.

The GUI is the single most signifigant development in computer user interfaces in the past 20 years. Sure OS's don't like using all those resources on a GUI, but for users, it turns the computer from a cryptic oracle that speaks in an arcane language to an tool that coresponds to our innate understanding of the world. "I need to stop using this file, so I will drop it on the desktop for a minute."

When I fist installed Linux, my first reaction was: "So THIS is what the hype is all about? A user interface from the 1970s? No wonder this is free, who would pay for it?" I gave up on Linux for a year and have only recently tried again, mostly unsuccessfully because the install and hardware detection routines are damn so hard to use. The contempt that experienced users have for those of us who would prefer a GUI certainly doesn't help.

While I agree that Linux GUIs aren't really the right tool for interacting with a lot of Linux's features, that is a failing of the GUIs and distributions, not a failing of the concept of a GUI.

an opensource os?

[Stochi]

why is it that everything has to be billed as opensource? like that's really a selling point? i mean sure, there are some people that are just looking into the opensource thing, but it makes it seem as though that's the only reason you might want to run FreeBSD. never mind the fact that it's stable, fast, and has many of the popular apps that linux does. plus it includes linux emulation so that you can run native linux apps under FreeBSD. why not have a title that shows this in addition to it's being opensource? "FreeBSD: The opensource OS for your PC that's fast, versatile, and dependable". Sounds much more catchy to me.

Re:Hrmm

[Octorian]

Well, to explain this, I can easily quote a friend of mine as saying:

"Linux is for people who hate Windows. FreeBSD is for people who like UNIX."

What this pretty much means, is that FreeBSD is popular in the role Linux was originally intended for ('nix for low-cost PCs), while Linux is touted as the big/noisy "alternative to Microsoft".

Another thing to note, is that while Linux can't technically be called a UNIX (it looks the same, but is very different inside), BSD is a real UNIX (though it can't be called one only for legal reasons).

Hrmm

[NitsujTPU]

I dunno. BSD has been around for a LONG TIME. In many ways, no offense, I am using a linux box to type this, it is a superior OS to linux (not to say that linux doesn't beat it in other areas). It's not any harder to install than most linux distributions (save mandrake, redhat, oh, perhaps it is harder to install), but I think that what makes Linux more popular is a face recognition and the loud mouths of its user (again, nothing wrong with that). BSD has been popular in academic circles for AGES, but you hardly ever hear someone who's never touched unix say "hrmm, maybe I'll try BSD." Whereas you hear plenty of windows users either slamming linux, in an uninformed manner, or saying "gosh, maybe I'll try that, often in an equally uninformed manner." BSD is a great OS, but I don't think that a lack of documentation is the reason linux has "more popularity (if it does)." I just think that it's more advertised.

At Last

[Erasei]

I think this is just what the general public needs. Most of the 'into' *nixish books assume a general command line background, if even DOS. Many of the younger geeks have not been exposed to DOS or a command line in general. If there is a book they can read through and gather background knowledge, in easy to understand format, that will be at help to them, at least.