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    <p>The following resources are some of those which &os;
      newbies have found most helpful when learning to use &os;.
      Please send corrections and additions to
      <a href="mailto:freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org">FreeBSD-doc@FreeBSD.org</a>.</p>

    <ul>
      <li><a href="#web-site">Using the &os; web site</a></li>
      <li><a href="#fbsd">Learning about &os;</a></li>
      <li><a href="#derived">Learning about &os;-derived projects</a></li>
      <li><a href="#unix">Learning about &unix;</a></li>
      <li><a href="#xwin">Learning about the X Window System</a></li>
      <li><a href="#people">Helping other people</a></li>
    </ul>


    <h2><a name="web-site">Using the &os; web site</a></h2>
    
    <p>This web site is the main source of up to date information about
      &os;. Newbies have found the following pages particularly helpful:</p>

    <ul>
      <li><p><a href="&base;/search/search.html">Search</a> the Handbook and FAQ, the
	  whole web site, or the &os; mailing list archives.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>The <a href="&base;/docs.html">Documentation</a> page has links to the
	  Handbook and FAQ, tutorials, information about contributing to the
	  Documentation Project, documents in languages other than English,
	  online manual pages, and much more.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>The <a href="&base;/support.html">Support</a> page contains a wealth of
	  information about &os;, including mailing lists, user groups, web
	  and FTP sites, release information, and links to some sources of
	  &unix; information.</p></li>
    </ul>

    <h2><a name="fbsd">Learning about &os;</a></H2>

    <ul>
      <li><p>If you have not yet installed, and have not yet decided
	  which version of &os; is the best for your needs, the <a
	  href="&url.articles;/version-guide/index.html">Choosing
	  the &os; Version That Is Right For You</a> article is meant
	  to help you to decide.  You should most probably look for the
	  <a href="&u.rel.announce;">latest mainstream release</a>.
          (See the Handbook for why you should <strong>not</strong> be tempted
          by any of the other branches.) Before you begin, carefully read the
          <a href="&url.books;/handbook/install.html">installation instructions</a>,
          as well as each one of the *.TXT files in the FTP directory
          or on the installation CD. They are there because they contain information
          that you will need. Also pick up the latest
          <a href="&base;/releases/index.html">errata file</a>
          from the web site, in case it has been updated.</p>

      <li><p>A number of <a href="&base;/docs/books.html#ARTICLES">short
          articles and tutorials</a> are available.  The short tutorial,
          <a href="&url.articles;/new-users/index.html">For
          People New to Both &os; and Unix</a>, is popular with absolute
          beginners.  You do not have to know much about anything to enjoy
          this one.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>There is a lot of documentation to help for setting up ppp.
	  You might start with the <a
	    href="&url.books;/handbook/ppp-and-slip.html">PPP and SLIP</a>
	  chapter of the &os; Handbook and explore the
          <a href="http://www.awfulhak.org/ppp.html">ppp page</a>
          for links to the other valuable information and the latest updates.</p></li>

      <li><p><a name="cfbsd" href="http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/CFBSD/">The
	    Complete &os;</a> by Greg Lehey, published by O'Reilly.
	  This book assumes minimal UNIX experience and takes the
	  beginner step by step through each stage from installation to
	  everything you need to know to set up and run a &os; system. You
	  also get to understand what you are doing and why.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>The <a href="&url.books;/handbook/index.html">&os; Handbook</a> and <a
	    href="&url.books;/faq/index.html">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</a> are the
	  main documents for &os;. Essential reading, they contain a lot of
	  material for newbies as well as some pretty advanced stuff. Do not
	  worry if you are unable to understand the advanced sections. The handbook
	  contains the installation instructions and also provides lists of
	  books and on-line resources, and the FAQ has a troubleshooting
	  section.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>Join the &os;-Questions mailing list to see the questions you
	  were too afraid to ask, and their answers. Subscribe by filling out
	  the following form:
	  <a href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions">http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions</a>.
	  You can look up old questions and
	  answers via the <a href="&base;/search/search.html#mailinglists">search</a>
	  page.</p></li>
    
      <li><p>The main newsgroup for &os; is <a
	    href="news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc">comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc</a>.
	  You might want to keep an eye on <a
	    href="news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce">comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce</a>
	  as well.</p></li>
      
      <li><p><a href="&cgibase;/man.cgi">Manual pages</a> are good
	  for reference but not always
	  the best introduction for a novice. The more you work with man pages
	  the more familiar they become. Some are very good for newbies, so
	  always check them out. The ppp man page, for example, is more like a
	  tutorial.</p></li>
    </ul>

    <h2><a name="derived">Learning about &os;-derived projects</a></h2>

    <p>&os; is widely used as a building block for other commercial
      and open-source operating systems.  Some of the most widely used
      and publicly available systems are listed below.</p>

    <ul>
      <li><p><a href="http://www.pcbsd.org">PC-BSD</a> is a &os;
        derivative with a graphical installer and impressive desktop
        tools aimed at ease of use for the casual computer
        user.</p></li>

      <li><p><a href="http://www.freesbie.org/">FreeSBIE</a> is a
        LiveCD based on &os;.  It works directly from a CD, without
        touching your hard drive.  It also includes a simple and easily
        extendable toolkit used for the creation of embedded
        images.</p></li>

      <li><p>Apple's <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx">Mac OS
        X</a>
        is <a href="http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology/unix.html">based
        in part</a> on &os; and includes a rich &unix; foundation in
        addition to the proprietary Apple user interface.</p></li>
    </ul>

    <h2><a name="unix">Learning about &unix;</a></h2>

    <p>Many of the problems we have as newbies come from being unfamiliar
      with the UNIX commands, needed to fix our &os; problems.
      Without a UNIX background you will be faced with two things to learn
      at once. Fortunately a lot of resources are available to make this
      easier.</p>

    <ul>
      <li><p>The <a href="&url.books;/handbook/basics.html">&unix;
	  Basics</a> chapter of the &os; Handbook covers the basic
	  commands and functionality of &os; operating system.  Most
	  of information provided in this document is also relevant for
	  any other &unix;-like operating system.</p></li>

      <li><p>There are many easy books, such as the "Dummies" guides, in any
	  large book shop. If you want something really easy, take a look at
	  what is available and pick one that seems to speak your language.
	  Pretty soon you will want to move on to a book that gives more
	  coverage.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>One book mentioned frequently by newbies is <a name="ufti"><em>UNIX for
	  the Impatient</em></a> by Paul W. Abrahams and Bruce R. Larson, published
	  by Addison-Wesley. It is intended both as a book for learning UNIX
	  and a reference, and includes an introduction to UNIX concepts and
	  handy chapter on using the X Window System.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>Another popular book is <em>UNIX Power Tools</em> by Jerry Peek,
	  Tim O'Reilly and Mike Loukides, published by O'Reilly and
	  Associates. It is organized as a series of short articles each of
	  which solves a problem, and these articles are cross-referenced to
	  other articles with related material. Though not specifically aimed
	  at newbies, the design makes it ideal for a newbie with a burning
	  question or the odd few minutes to browse. More elementary material
	  is near the front of the book, but there are short easy articles
	  throughout.</p></li>

      <li>
	<p>A <a href="http://www.cs.duke.edu/csl/docs/unix_course/">UNIX
	  Introductory Course</a> from Ohio State University is
	  available online in HTML format.</p>
      </li>

      <li>
	<p>A <a href="http://www.cs.duke.edu/csl/docs/sysadmin_course/">UNIX
	  System Administration Course</a> from Ohio State University
	  is available online in HTML format.</p>
      </li>

      <li><p><a href="http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/unixhelp/">UNIXhelp
	    for Users</a> is another introductory guide which is available in
	  HTML at a mirror site near you, or can be installed on your own
	  system.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>UNIX questions are dealt with in the newsgroup <a
	    href="news:comp.unix.questions">comp.unix.questions</a> and the
	  associated
	  <a href="ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/unix-faq/faq/">FAQ</a>
          from the RMIT FTP site. Newbies are likely to be most interested in
          sections 1 and 2 initially.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>Another interesting newsgroup is <a
	    href="news:comp.unix.user-friendly">comp.unix.user-friendly</a>.
	  Although this newsgroup is for discussing user-friendliness, it can
	  contain some good information for newbies. The <a
	    href="ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/unix-faq/user-friendly">FAQ</a>
	  is also available by FTP.</p></li>
      
      <li><p>Many other web sites hold lists of UNIX tutorials and reference
	  material. One of the best places to start looking is the UNIX page
	  at <a
	    href="http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/Operating_Systems/Unix/">Yahoo!</a>.</p></li>
      
    </ul>

    <h2><a name="xwin">Learning about the X Window System</a></h2>

    <p>The X Window System is used with a number of operating systems,
      including &os;. The documentation for X can be found at the
      <a href="http://www.x.org/">X.Org Foundation</a>
      web site.
      Beware, much of this documentation is reference material which is
      more likely to be difficult for newcomers to digest.</p>

    <ul>
    <li><p>For basic information about installing, configuring and using the
      X Window System, three of the books mentioned above have sections
      dealing with X at beginner level:
      <a href="&url.books;/handbook/x11.html">The X Window System</a> chapter
	of the &os; Handbook, <a href="#cfbsd">The Complete &os;</a>,
      and <a href="#ufti">UNIX for the Impatient</a>.</p></li>

    <li><p>Before you can get X running exactly the way you like, you will need
      to choose a window manager.
      Visit the <a href="http://xwinman.org/">Window Managers for X</a>
      page and follow the link to the introduction to find out about window
      managers, then return and read "The Basics". Then go back and compare
      the different types that are available. (Bonus: there is another
      beginners guide to UNIX there too.)
      Most, if not all, of these window managers are available to
      install from the &os; Ports Collection.</p></li>
    </ul>

    <h2><a name="people">Helping other people</a></h2>

    <p>Everyone has something to contribute to the &os; community, even
     newbies! Some are busy working with the new advocacy group and some have
     become involved with the
     <a href="&base;/docproj/docproj.html">Documentation Project</a> as reviewers.
     Other &os; newbies might have particular skills and experiences to
     share, either computer related or not, or just want to meet new
     newbies and make them feel welcome. There are always people around
     who help others simply because they like to.</p>

    <p>Friends who run &os; are a great resource. No book can replace
      chatting on the phone or across a pizza with someone who has the
      same interests, enjoys similar accomplishments, and faces the same
      challenges. If you do not have many friends who use &os;,
      consider using your old &os; CDs to create some more.</p>

    <p><a href="&base;/usergroups.html">User groups</a> are
      good places to meet other &os; users. If there is no one nearby,
      you might consider starting one!</p>
    
    <p>Before talking to real humans about your new skills, you might
      want to check the <a
      href="http://www.catb.org/jargon/">Jargon File</a>.</p>

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