162cebe676
our resources. Clean up the Handbook section and add a link to the X Windows chapter instead. Reviewed by: gjb
134 lines
5.6 KiB
XML
134 lines
5.6 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional-Based Extension//EN"
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"http://www.FreeBSD.org/XML/share/xml/xhtml10-freebsd.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY title 'Resources for Newbies'>
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<!ENTITY url.articles "&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles">
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<!ENTITY url.books "&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books">
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]>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<head>
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<title>&title;</title>
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<cvs:keyword xmlns:cvs="http://www.FreeBSD.org/XML/CVS">$FreeBSD$</cvs:keyword>
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</head>
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<body class="navinclude.docs">
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<h2><a>Using the &os; web site</a></h2>
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<p>The latest &os; releases are available <a
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href="&enbase;/where.html">here</a>.</p>
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<p>This web site is the main source of up to date information
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about &os;. Newbies have found the following pages particularly
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helpful:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><p><a href="&base;/search/search.html">Search</a> the
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Handbook and FAQ, the whole web site, or the &os; mailing list
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archives.</p></li>
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<li><p>The <a href="&base;/support.html">Support</a> page
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contains a wealth of information about &os;, including mailing
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lists, user groups, web and FTP sites, release information,
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and links to some sources of &unix; information.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a>Learning about &os;</a></h2>
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<ul>
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<li><p>You should most probably look for the <a
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href="&u.rel.announce;">latest mainstream release</a>. (See
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the Handbook for why you should <strong>not</strong> be
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tempted by any of the other branches.) Before you begin,
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carefully read the <a
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href="&url.books;/handbook/bsdinstall.html">installation
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instructions</a>, as well as each one of the *.TXT files in
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the FTP directory or on the installation CD. They are there
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because they contain information that you will need. Also pick
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up the latest <a href="&base;/releases/index.html">errata
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file</a> from the web site, in case it has been
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updated.</p></li>
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<li><p>The <a href="&url.books;/handbook/index.html">&os;
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Handbook</a> and <a
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href="&url.books;/faq/index.html">Frequently Asked Questions
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(FAQ)</a> are the main documents for &os;. Essential reading,
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they contain a lot of material for newbies as well as advanced
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users. For users interested in installing a GUI, see the <a
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href="&url.books;/handbook/x11.html">X Windows</a> chapter.
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</p></li>
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<li><p>Join the &os;-Questions mailing list to see the questions
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you were too afraid to ask, and their answers. Subscribe by
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filling out the following form: <a
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href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions">http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions</a>.
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You can look up old questions and answers via the <a
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href="&base;/search/search.html#mailinglists">search</a>
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page.</p></li>
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<li><p>The &os; <a href="https://forums.freebsd.org">Forums</a>
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offer another support channel. Many users have written various
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tutorials and lots of new users receive help there.</p></li>
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<li><p><a href="&cgibase;/man.cgi">Manual pages</a> are good for
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reference but not always the best introduction for a novice.
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They generally provide information on a specific command,
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driver or service.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a>Learning about &os;-derived projects</a></h2>
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<p>&os; is widely used as a building block for other commercial
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and open-source operating systems. Some of the most widely used
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and publicly available systems are listed below.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><p><a href="http://www.pcbsd.org">PC-BSD</a> is a &os;
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derivative with a graphical installer and impressive desktop
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tools aimed at ease of use for the casual computer
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user.</p></li>
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<li><p><a href="http://www.pfsense.org">pfSense</a> is a &os;
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free network security solution, based on &os;. pfSense
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software, with the help of the package system, is able to
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provide the same functionality or more of common commercial
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firewalls, without any of the artificial limitations. It has
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successfully replaced every big name commercial firewall you can
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imagine in numerous installations around the world.</p></li>
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<li><p>Apple's <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx">Mac OS
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X</a> is <a
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href="http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology/unix.html">based
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in part</a> on &os; and includes a rich &unix; foundation in
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addition to the proprietary Apple user interface.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a>Helping other people</a></h2>
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<p>Everyone has something to contribute to the &os; community,
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even newbies! Some are busy working with the new advocacy group
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and some have become involved with the <a
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href="&base;/docproj/docproj.html">Documentation Project</a> as
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reviewers. Other &os; newbies might have particular skills and
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experiences to share, either computer related or not, or just
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want to meet new newbies and make them feel welcome. There are
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always people around who help others simply because they like
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to.</p>
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<p>Friends who run &os; are a great resource. No book can replace
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chatting on the phone or across a pizza with someone who has the
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same interests, enjoys similar accomplishments, and faces the
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same challenges. If you do not have many friends who use &os;,
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consider using your old &os; CDs to create some more.</p>
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<p><a href="&base;/usergroups.html">User groups</a> are good
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places to meet other &os; users. If there is no one nearby, you
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might consider starting one!</p>
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<p>Before talking to real humans about your new skills, you might
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want to check the <a href="http://www.catb.org/jargon/">Jargon
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File</a>.</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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