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| <!-- $Id: preface.sgml,v 1.39 1999-06-18 13:13:31 jesusr Exp $ -->
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| <!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
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| 
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|   <sect>
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|     <heading>Preface<label id="preface"></heading>
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| 
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|     <p>Welcome to the FreeBSD 2.X FAQ!
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>What is the purpose of this FAQ?</heading>
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| 
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|       <p>As is usual with Usenet FAQs, this document aims to cover the most
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|       frequently asked questions concerning the FreeBSD operating system
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|       (and of course answer them!).  Although originally intended to reduce
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|       bandwidth and avoid the same old questions being asked over and over
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|       again, FAQs have become recognized as valuable information resources.
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| 
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|       <p>Every effort has been made to make this FAQ as informative as
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|       possible; if you have any suggestions as to how it may be improved,
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|       please feel free to mail them to the <url url="mailto:FAQ@FreeBSD.ORG"
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|       name="FAQ maintainer">.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>What is FreeBSD?</heading>
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| 
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|       <p>Briefly, FreeBSD 2.X is a UN*X-like operating system based on
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|       U.C. Berkeley's 4.4BSD-lite release for the i386 platform.  It is
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|       also based indirectly on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's
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|       Net/2 to the i386, known as 386BSD, though very little of the 386BSD
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|       code remains.  A fuller description of what FreeBSD is and how
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|       it can work for you may be found on the <url url="http://www.freebsd.org"
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|       name="FreeBSD home page">.
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| 
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|       <p>FreeBSD is used by companies, Internet Service Providers, researchers,
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|       computer professionals, students and home users all over the world
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|       in their work, education and recreation.  See some of them in the
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|       <url url="../gallery/gallery.html" name="FreeBSD Gallery.">
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| 
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|       <p>For more detailed information on FreeBSD, please see the
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|       <url url="../handbook/index.html" name="FreeBSD Handbook.">
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>What are the goals of FreeBSD?</heading>
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| 
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|       <p>The goals of the FreeBSD Project are to provide software that may
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|       be used for any purpose and without strings attached.  Many of us
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|       have a significant investment in the code (and project) and would
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|       certainly not mind a little financial compensation now and then,
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|       but we're definitely not prepared to insist on it.  We believe
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|       that our first and foremost "mission" is to provide code to any
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|       and all comers, and for whatever purpose, so that the code gets
 | |
|       the widest possible use and provides the widest possible benefit.
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|       This is, we believe, one of the most fundamental goals of Free
 | |
|       Software and one that we enthusiastically support.
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>That code in our source tree which falls under the GNU General 
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|       Public License (GPL) or GNU Library General Public License (LGPL) 
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|       comes with slightly more strings attached, though at least on the 
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|       side of enforced access rather than the usual opposite.  Due to the 
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|       additional complexities that can evolve in the commercial use of 
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|       GPL software, we do, however, endeavor to replace such software 
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|       with submissions under the more relaxed BSD copyright whenever 
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|       possible.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>Why is it called FreeBSD?</heading>
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| 
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|       <p>
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|       <itemize>
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|         <item>It may be used free of charge, even by commercial users.
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| 
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|         <item>Full source for the operating system is freely available, and
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|         the minimum possible restrictions have been placed upon its
 | |
|         use, distribution and incorporation into other work (commercial
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|         or non-commercial).
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| 
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|         <item>Anyone who has an improvement and/or bug fix is free to submit
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|         their code and have it added to the source tree (subject to
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|         one or two obvious provisos).
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|       </itemize>
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| 
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|       <p>For those of our readers whose first language is not English, it
 | |
|       may be worth pointing out that the word ``free'' is being used in two
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|       ways here, one meaning ``at no cost'', the other meaning ``you can do
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|       whatever you like''.  Apart from one or two things you <tt /cannot/
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|       do with the FreeBSD code, for example pretending you wrote it, you
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|       really can do whatever you like with it.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>What is the latest version of FreeBSD?</heading>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>Version <url url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/3.2-RELEASE"
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|       name="3.2"> is the latest <em/stable/ version; it was released
 | |
|       in May, 1999. This is also the latest <em/release/ version.
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>Briefly explained, <em/-stable/ is aimed at the ISP or other
 | |
|       corporate user who wants stability and a low change count over
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|       the wizzy new features of the latest <em/-current/ snapshot.
 | |
|       Releases can come from either "branch," but you should only use
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|       <em/-current/ if you're sure that you're prepared for its
 | |
|       increased volatility (relative to <em/-stable/, that is).
 | |
| 
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|       <p>Releases are only made <ref id="release_freq" name="every few
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|       months">. While many people stay more up-to-date with the
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|       FreeBSD sources (see the questions on <ref id="current"
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|       name="FreeBSD-current"> and <ref id="stable"
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|       name="FreeBSD-stable">) than that, doing so is more of a
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|       commitment, as the sources are a moving target.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>What is FreeBSD-current?<label id="current"></heading>
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| 
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|       <p><url url="../handbook/cutting-edge.html#CURRENT" name="FreeBSD-current"> is the
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|       development version of the operating system, which will in due
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|       course become 4.0-RELEASE.  As such, it is really only of interest
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|       to developers working on the system and die-hard hobbyists.
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|       See the <url url="../handbook/cutting-edge.html#CURRENT" name="relevant section">
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|       in the <url url="../handbook/index.html" name="handbook"> for
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|       details on running -current.
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| 
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|       <p>If you are not familiar with the operating system or are not
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|       capable of identifying the difference between a real problem and
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|       a temporary problem, you should not use FreeBSD-current.  This
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|       branch sometimes evolves quite quickly and can be un-buildable
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|       for a number of days at a time.  People that use FreeBSD-current
 | |
|       are expected to be able to analyze any problems and only report them
 | |
|       if they are deemed to be mistakes rather than ``glitches''.  Questions
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|       such as ``make world produces some error about groups'' on the
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|       -current mailing list are sometimes treated with contempt.
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| 
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|       <p>Every now and again, a <url url="../releases/snapshots.html"
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|       name="snapshot"> release is also made of this -current development
 | |
|       code, CDROM distributions of the occasional snapshot even now being
 | |
|       made available. The goals behind each snapshot release are:
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| 
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|       <itemize>
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|         <item>To test the latest version of the installation software.
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| 
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|         <item>To give people who would like to run -current but who don't
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|         have the time and/or bandwidth to follow it on a day-to-day
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|         basis an easy way of bootstrapping it onto their systems.
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| 
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|         <item>To preserve a fixed reference point for the code in question,
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|         just in case we break something really badly later. (Although
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|         CVS normally prevents anything horrible like this happening :)
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| 
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|         <item>To ensure that any new features in need of testing have the
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|         greatest possible number of potential testers.
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|       </itemize>
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| 
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|       <p>No claims are made that any snapshot can be considered
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|       ``production quality'' for any purpose.  For stability
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|       and tested mettle, you will have to stick to full releases.
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| 
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|       <p>Snapshot releases are directly available from <url
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|       url="ftp://current.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/"> and are generated,
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|       on the average, once a day for both the 4.0-current and 3.0-stable
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|       branches.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>What is the FreeBSD-stable concept?<label id="stable"></heading>
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| 
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|       <p>Back when FreeBSD 2.0.5 was released, we decided to branch FreeBSD
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|       development into two parts.  One branch was named <url
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|       url="../handbook/stable.html" name="-stable">, with the
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|       intention that only well-tested bug fixes and small incremental
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|       enhancements would be made to it (for Internet Service Providers
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|       and other commercial enterprises for whom sudden shifts or
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|       experimental features are quite undesirable).  The other branch was
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|       <url url="../handbook/cutting-edge.html#CURRENT" name="-current">, which
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|       essentially has been one unbroken line leading towards 4.0-RELEASE
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|       (and beyond) since 2.0 was released. If a little ASCII art would
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|       help, this is how it looks:
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| 
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| <verb>
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|                  2.0
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|                   |
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|                   |
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|                   |  [2.1-stable]
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|  *BRANCH*       2.0.5 -> 2.1 -> 2.1.5 -> 2.1.6 -> 2.1.7.1  [2.1-stable ends]
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|                   |                            (Mar 1997)
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|                   |
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|                   |
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|                   |  [2.2-stable]
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|  *BRANCH*       2.2.1 -> 2.2.2-RELEASE -> 2.2.5 -> 2.2.6 -> 2.2.7 -> 2.2.8 [end]
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|                   |       (Mar 1997)    (Oct 97) (Apr 98) (Jul 98) (Dec 98)
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|                   |
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|                   |
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|                3.0-SNAPs  (started Q1 1997)
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|                   |
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|                   |
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|              3.0.0-RELEASE (Oct 1998)
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|                   |
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|                   |  [3.0-stable]
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|  *BRANCH*        3.1  (Feb 1999) -> 3.2 -> ... future 3.x releases ...
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|                   |               (May 1999)
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|                   |
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|                  \|/
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|                   +
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|           [4.0-current continues]
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| </verb>
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| 
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|       <p>The -current branch is slowly progressing towards 4.0 and beyond,
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|       the previous 2.2-stable branch having just retired with the release
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|       of 2.2.8.  3.0-stable has now replaced it, the next release coming
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|       up with 3.3 in Q3 1999.  4.0-current is now the "current branch",
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|       with the first 4.0 releases appearing in Q1 2000.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>When are FreeBSD releases made?<label id="release_freq"></heading>
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| 
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|       <p>As a general principle, the FreeBSD core team only release a new
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|       version of FreeBSD when they believe that there are sufficient new
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|       features and/or bug fixes to justify one, and are satisfied that the
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|       changes made have settled down sufficiently to avoid compromising the
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|       stability of the release.  Many users regard this caution as one of
 | |
|       the best things about FreeBSD, although it can be a little
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|       frustrating when waiting for all the latest goodies to become
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|       available...
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| 
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|       <p>Releases are made about every 4 months on average.
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| 
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|       <p>For people needing (or wanting) a little more excitement, there are
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|       SNAPs released more frequently, particularly during the month or so
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|       leading up to a release.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>Is FreeBSD only available for PCs ?</heading>
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| 
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|       <p>FreeBSD 3.x currently runs on the <url
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|       url="../alpha/alpha.html" name="DEC Alpha"> as well as the
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|       x86 architecture.  Some interest has also been expressed in a
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|       SPARC port, but details on this project are not yet clear.
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| 
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|       If your machine has a different architecture and
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|       you need something right now, we suggest you look at
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|       <url url="http://www.netbsd.org/" name="NetBSD"> or
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|       <url url="http://www.openbsd.org/" name="OpenBSD">.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading> Who is responsible for FreeBSD?</heading>
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| 
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|       <p>The key decisions concerning the FreeBSD project, such as the
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|       overall direction of the project and who is allowed to add code to
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|       the source tree, are made by a <url url="../handbook/staff.html#STAFF-CORE"
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|       name="core team"> of some 15 people. There is a much larger team of
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|       over 150 <url url="../handbook/staff-committers.html"
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|       name="committers"> who are authorized to make changes directly to the
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|       FreeBSD source tree.
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| 
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|       <p>However, most non-trivial changes are discussed in advance in the
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|       <ref id="mailing" name="mailing lists">, and there are no restrictions
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|       on who may take part in the discussion.
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>Where can I get FreeBSD?<label id="where-get"></heading>
 | |
| 
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|       <p>Every significant release of FreeBSD is available via anonymous ftp
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|       from the <url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/"
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|       name="FreeBSD FTP site">:
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| 
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|       <itemize>
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|         <item>For the current 2.2-stable release, 2.2.8R, see the
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|         <url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/releases/2.2.8-RELEASE/"
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|         name="2.2.8-RELEASE"> directory.
 | |
| 
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|         <item>For the current 3.0-stable release, 3.0-RELEASE, see the
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|         <url url="ftp://current.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/3.0-RELEASE/" name="3.0-RELEASE"> directory.
 | |
| 
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|         <item><url url="ftp://releng22.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/"
 | |
|         name="2.2 Snapshot"> releases are made once a day along the
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|         RELENG_2_2 branch (post 2.2.8) as it slowly winds down in
 | |
|         maintenance mode.  The RELENG_2_2 branch is currently being carefully
 | |
|         maintained by the legacy support folks and no changes other than
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|         those strictly necessary for security or reliability enhancements
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|         are now made.
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| 
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|         <item><url url="ftp://releng30.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/"
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|         name="3.0 Snapshot"> releases are also made once a day along the
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|         RELENG_3 branch (post 3.0-release) as it continues on its way
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| 	towards 3.2-RELEASE.
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| 
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|         <item><url url="ftp://current.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/"
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|         name="4.0 Snapshot"> releases are made once a day for the
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|         <ref id="current" name="-current"> branch, these being of service
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|         purely to bleeding-edge testers and developers.
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|       </itemize>
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| 
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|       <p>FreeBSD is also available via CDROM, from the following place(s):
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| 
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|       <p>Walnut Creek CDROM<newline>
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|       4041 Pike Lane, Suite F<newline>
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|       Concord, CA  94520  USA<newline>
 | |
|       Orders:     +1 800 786-9907<newline>
 | |
|       Questions:  +1 925 674-0783<newline>
 | |
|       FAX:        +1 925 674-0821<newline>
 | |
|       email:      <url url="mailto:orders@cdrom.com" name="WC Orders address">
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|                   <newline>
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|       WWW:        <url url="http://www.cdrom.com/" name="WC Home page">
 | |
|                   <newline>
 | |
| 
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|       <p>In Australia, you may find it at:
 | |
| 
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|       <p>Advanced Multimedia Distributors<newline>
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|       Factory 1/1 Ovata Drive<newline>
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|       Tullamarine, Melbourne<newline>
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|       Victoria<newline>
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|       Australia<newline>
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|       Voice: +61 3 9338 6777<newline>
 | |
| 
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|       CDROM Support BBS<newline>
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|       17 Irvine St<newline>
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|       Peppermint Grove  WA 6011<newline>
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|       Voice: +61 9 385-3793<newline>
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|       Fax:   +61 9 385-2360<newline>
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| 
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|       And in the UK:
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| 
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|       The Public Domain & Shareware Library<newline>
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|       Winscombe House, Beacon Rd<newline>
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|       Crowborough<newline>
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|       Sussex. TN6 1UL<newline>
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|       Voice: +44 1892 663-298<newline>
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|       Fax:   +44 1892 667-473<newline>
 | |
| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>
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|         Where do I find info on the FreeBSD mailing lists?<label id="mailing">
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|       </heading>
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| 
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|       <p>You can find full information in the <url
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|       url="../handbook/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-MAIL"
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|       name="Handbook entry on mailing-lists.">
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>Where do I find the FreeBSD Y2K info?</heading>
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| 
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|       <p>You can find full information in the <url
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|       url="http://www.freebsd.org/y2kbug.html" name="FreeBSD Y2K page.">
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| 
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|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>What FreeBSD news groups are available?</heading>
 | |
| 
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|       <p>You can find full information in the<url
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|       url="../handbook/eresources-news.html"
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|       name="Handbook entry on newsgroups.">
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| 
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|     <sect1>
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|       <heading>
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|         Are there FreeBSD IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels?
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|       </heading>
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| 
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|       <p>Yes, most major IRC networks host a FreeBSD chat
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|       channel:
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| 
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|       <itemize>
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|         <item>Channel <tt>#FreeBSD</tt> on EFNet is
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| 	a FreeBSD forum, but don't go there for tech support
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| 	or to try and get folks there to help you avoid the pain of
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| 	reading man pages or doing your own research.  It is a chat
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| 	channel, first and foremost, and topics there are just as likely
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| 	to involve sex, sports or nuclear weapons as they are FreeBSD.
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| 	You Have Been Warned!
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| 	Available at server <tt>irc.chat.org</tt>.
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item>Channel <tt>#FreeBSD</tt> on DALNET
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| 	is available at <tt>irc.dal.net</tt> in the US and 
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|         <tt>irc.eu.dal.net</tt> in Europe.
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item>Channel <tt>#FreeBSD</tt> on UNDERNET is
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| 	available at <tt>us.undernet.org</tt> in the US and 
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| 	<tt>eu.undernet.org</tt> in Europe.  Same provisions as
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| 	for EFNET apply - either don't ask questions or learn to
 | |
| 	ask amazingly politely if you want help.  It's a chat channel,
 | |
| 	not a help channel.
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item>Finally, you can also join <tt>#FreeBSD</tt> on BSDNET,
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|         a smaller BSD only chat network, at <tt>irc.FreeBSD.org</tt>.
 | |
| 	This network attempts to do more tech support and not be
 | |
| 	as anarchistic as EFNET, UNDERNET or DALNET, but it's also
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| 	nowhere near as popular as a result.  Why not volunteer to
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| 	answer FreeBSD questions on BSDNET today?
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
| 
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|       <p>Each of these channels are distinct and are not connected to
 | |
|       each other.  Their chat styles also differ, so you may need to try 
 | |
|       each to find one suited to your chat style.  As with *all* types
 | |
|       of IRC traffic, if you're easily offended or can't deal with lots
 | |
|       of young people (and more than a few older ones) doing the verbal
 | |
|       equivalent of jello wrestling, don't even bother with it.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>Books on FreeBSD</heading>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>There is a FreeBSD Documentation Project which you may contact (or
 | |
|       even better, join) on the <tt>doc</tt> mailing list:
 | |
|       <url url="mailto:freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG" 
 | |
|       name="<freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG>">.
 | |
|       This list is for discussion of the FreeBSD documentation.  For
 | |
|       actual questions about FreeBSD, there is the <tt>questions</tt>
 | |
|       mailing list:
 | |
|       <url url="mailto:freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG"
 | |
|            name="<freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>">.
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>A FreeBSD ``handbook'' is available, and can be found as:
 | |
|       <url url="../handbook/index.html" name="the FreeBSD Handbook">.
 | |
|       Note that this is a work in progress, and so parts may be incomplete.
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>The definitive printed guide on FreeBSD is ``The Complete FreeBSD'',
 | |
|       written by Greg Lehey and published by Walnut Creek CDROM Books.  Now
 | |
|       in its second edition, the book contains 1,750 pages of install &
 | |
|       system administration guidance, program setup help, and manual pages.
 | |
|       The book (and current FreeBSD release) can be ordered from 
 | |
|       <url url="http://www.cdrom.com" name="Walnut Creek">,
 | |
|       <url url="http://www.cheapbytes.com" name="CheapBytes">, or at your
 | |
|       favorite bookstore.  The ISBN is 1-57176-227-2.
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>However, as FreeBSD 2.2.X is based upon Berkeley 4.4BSD-Lite2, most
 | |
|       of the 4.4BSD manuals are applicable to FreeBSD 2.2.X.  O'Reilly
 | |
|       and Associates publishes these manuals:
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|         <item>4.4BSD System Manager's Manual <newline>
 | |
|         By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
 | |
|         1st Edition June 1994, 804 pages <newline>
 | |
|         <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-080-5" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-080-5 <newline>
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item>4.4BSD User's Reference Manual <newline>
 | |
|         By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
 | |
|         1st Edition June 1994, 905 pages <newline>
 | |
|         <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-075-9" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-075-9 <newline>
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item>4.4BSD User's Supplementary Documents <newline>
 | |
|         By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
 | |
|         1st Edition July 1994, 712 pages <newline>
 | |
|         <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-076-7" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-076-7 <newline>
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item>4.4BSD Programmer's Reference Manual <newline>
 | |
|         By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
 | |
|         1st Edition June 1994, 886 pages <newline>
 | |
|         <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-078-3" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-078-3 <newline>
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item>4.4BSD Programmer's Supplementary Documents <newline>
 | |
|         By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
 | |
|         1st Edition July 1994, 596 pages <newline>
 | |
|         <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-079-1" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-079-1 <newline>
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>A description of these can be found via WWW as:
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <url url="http://gnn.com/gnn/bus/ora/category/bsd.html"
 | |
|       name="4.4BSD books description">.  Due to poor sales, however, these
 | |
|       manuals may be hard to get a hold of.
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>For a more in-depth look at the 4.4BSD kernel organization,
 | |
|       you can't go wrong with:
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>McKusick, Marshall Kirk, Keith Bostic, Michael J Karels,
 | |
|       and John Quarterman.<newline>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p><em>The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating
 | |
|       System</em>.  Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1996.<newline>
 | |
|       <url url="&isbn.amazon/0-201-54979-4" name="ISBN"> 0-201-54979-4<newline>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>A good book on system administration is:
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass & Trent R. Hein,<newline>
 | |
|       ``Unix System Administration Handbook'', Prentice-Hall, 1995<newline>
 | |
|       <url url="&isbn.amazon/0-13-151051-7" name="ISBN">: 0-13-151051-7<newline>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p><bf/NOTE/ make sure you get the second edition, with a red cover,
 | |
|       instead of the first edition.
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>This book covers the basics, as well as TCP/IP, DNS, NFS,
 | |
|       SLIP/PPP, sendmail, INN/NNTP, printing, etc..  It's expensive
 | |
|       (approx. US$45-$55), but worth it.  It also
 | |
|       includes a CDROM with the sources for various tools; most of
 | |
|       these, however, are also on the FreeBSD 2.2.6R CDROM (and the
 | |
|       FreeBSD CDROM often has newer versions).
 | |
| 
 | |
|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>How do I access your Problem Report database?</heading>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>The Problem Report database of all open user change requests
 | |
|       may be queried (or submitted to) by using our web-based PR
 | |
|       <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html" name="submission">
 | |
|       and <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi"
 | |
|       name="query"> interfaces.  The <em>send-pr(1)</em> command
 | |
|       can also be used to submit problem reports and change requests via
 | |
|       electronic mail.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>Where can I get ASCII/PostScript versions of the FAQ?</heading>
 | |
|       
 | |
|       <p>The up-to-date FAQ is available from the FreeBSD Web Server or any
 | |
|       mirror as PostScript and plain text (7 bit ASCII and 8-bit Latin1).
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>As PostScript (about 370KB):
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|         <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.ps" 
 | |
|                name="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.ps">
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
|  
 | |
|       <p>As ASCII text (about 220KB):
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|          <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.ascii"
 | |
|                 name="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.ascii">
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>As ISO 8859-1 text (about 220KB):
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|          <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.latin1"
 | |
|                 name="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.latin1">
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
| 
 | |
|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>Where can I get ASCII/PostScript versions of the Handbook?</heading>
 | |
|       
 | |
|       <p>The up-to-date Handbook is available from the FreeBSD Web Server or any
 | |
|       mirror as PostScript and plain text (7 bit ASCII and 8-bit Latin1).
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>As PostScript (about 1.7MB):
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|         <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.ps" 
 | |
|                name="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.ps">
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
|  
 | |
|       <p>As ASCII text (about 1080KB):
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|          <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.ascii"
 | |
|                 name="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.ascii">
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>As ISO 8859-1 text (about 1080KB):
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|          <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.latin1"
 | |
|                 name="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.latin1">
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
| 
 | |
|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>The ASCII handbook isn't plain text!</heading>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>True, the ASCII and Latin1 versions of the FAQ and Handbook aren't
 | |
|       strictly plaintext; they contain underlines and overprints that
 | |
|       assume the output is going directly to a dot matrix printer.  If you 
 | |
|       need to reformat them to be human-readable, run the file through col:
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <verb>
 | |
|           $ col -b < inputfile > outputfile
 | |
|       </verb>
 | |
| 
 | |
|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>I'd like to become a FreeBSD Web mirror!</heading>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>Certainly!  There are multiple ways to mirror the Web pages.
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|          <item>Using CVSUP:  You can retrieve the formatted files using CVSUP
 | |
|          from cvsup.freebsd.org.  Add this line to your cvsup file:
 | |
| 
 | |
| <verb>
 | |
| www release=current hostname=/home base=/usr/local/etc/cvsup 
 | |
| prefix=/usr/local/www/data/www.freebsd.org delete old use-rel-suffix
 | |
| 
 | |
| </verb>
 | |
| 
 | |
|          <item>Using rsync:  See <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/internal/mirror.html"
 | |
|          name="the mirroring page"> for information.
 | |
|          <item>Using ftp mirror:  You can download the FTP server's copy of
 | |
|          the web site using your favorite ftp mirror tool.  Simply start at
 | |
|          ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/www.
 | |
|      </itemize>
 | |
| 
 | |
|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>I'd like to translate the documentation into Friesian.</heading>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>Well, we can't pay, but we might arrange a free CD or T-shirt and a 
 | |
|       Contributor's Handbook entry if you submit a translation of the
 | |
|       documentation.
 | |
| 
 | |
|     <sect1>
 | |
|       <heading>Other sources of information.</heading>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>The following newsgroups contain pertinent discussion for FreeBSD
 | |
|       users:
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|         <item><url url="news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce"
 | |
|         name="comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce"> (moderated)
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item><url url="news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc"
 | |
|         name="comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc">
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item><url url="news:comp.unix.bsd.misc" name="comp.unix.bsd.misc">
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>Web resources:
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <itemize>
 | |
|         <item>The <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/" name="FreeBSD Home Page">.
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item><label id="pao">If you have a laptop, be sure and see
 | |
|         <url url="http://www.jp.FreeBSD.org/PAO/"
 | |
|         name="Tatsumi Hosokawa's Mobile Computing page"> in Japan.
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item><label id="smp">For information on SMP (Symmetric
 | |
|         MultiProcessing), please see the <url
 | |
|         url="http://www.freebsd.org/~fsmp/SMP/SMP.html"
 | |
|         name="SMP support page">.
 | |
| 
 | |
|         <item><label id="multimedia">For information on FreeBSD multimedia
 | |
|         applications, please see the <url
 | |
|         url="http://www.freebsd.org/~faulkner/multimedia/mm.html"
 | |
|         name="multimedia">page.  If you're interested specifically in
 | |
|         the <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/~ahasty/Bt848.html"
 | |
|         name="Bt848"> video capture chip, then follow that link.
 | |
|       </itemize>
 | |
| 
 | |
|       <p>The FreeBSD handbook also has a fairly complete
 | |
|       <url url="../handbook/bibliography.html" name="bibliography">
 | |
|       section which is worth reading if you're looking for actual
 | |
|       books to buy.
 | |
| 
 | |
|   </sect>
 | |
| 
 |