FREEBSD

[digitizen]

guys

im thinkin of tryin freebsd . can someone explain me about freebsd . please dont post any link people caz im a newbie to freebsd . but i have experience in lot of linux flavors .

[mediator]

Ok I tell ya my experience
Freebsd installation swapped my XP and 98 drives..cool huh!!
Thats true....the installation is quite tough with freebsd !!

[digitizen]

hey i am not afraid of the installation part . i know that i can do a safe install caz im lot experienced in these things what i wanna know is . whether freebsd is as flexible as other linux distro's . can i install softwares meant for linux in freebsd . and is it good in the graphical front . (i.e) eye candy .

[mehulved]

I'm also looking forward to installing FreeBSD in my vacations. For the same i've got a book from my library titled "The Complete FreeeBSD-Documentation from Source". It explains the concept of FreeBSD very well. I'm like you installing it for the first time. I had a first look at it a few days back. But, i got stuck at partitioning as it was a bit different than fdisk./cfdisk I used to install slackware. So, I've decided to install it when I get more time and I back up my stuff. If you go ahead with the installation first please inform me on our experience. I will do so as and when I install it.

[vignesh]

Try PC-BSD its based in FreeBSD but very easy.

[praka123]

FreeBSD is not as easy as A RH distro installation.but its a gr8 OS as many servers in www are running on it rock solid also MAC OS even have this OS as its base?

[mehulved]

Yeah right. I've heard so much about its solidity that's one reason why I'm trying out.
Tough=Fun. I think I can make it through using the book as a guide.

[vignesh]

I read the manuals but still no luck.last time I tried went till labelling and then gone.I wasn`t able to label the swap partition.

[Satissh S]

I removed Ubuntu and i'm running PC-BSD now. It's fantastic. But does it have any gui tools to configure my data1 connection. What's more weird is that it detected and configured my connexant Softlink Modem.. Howzzat!!! Also The NVIDIA GPU was configured perfectly in first run. I had to just install drivers..

[shlok]

It depends what is your aim in installating freebsd.
If it's just for PC based GUI running on *nix based powerful OS experience, PC-BSD seems excellent choice!

If you are planning to run/test servers, freebsd is better option.
Installation:
1. Try to print-out / save hardware details of monitor, graphics card, ethernet card.
2. It provides an option of starting up X-based GUI environment for desktop experience.

Packager/Server Installations:
1. This is cool about freebsd. All packages/servers for freebsd are "port'ed" to freebsd environment. Almost all useful packages [for especially server based systems] are port'ed and available. To install any package, lets say from source:
a. go to /usr/ports/
b. to search: ls /usr/ports/*package* ; if not found: ls */usr/ports/*/*package*
c. cd to that directory and simply type: make install clean
d. That's it. it will be installed!!

Security:
Offers lot more/better security.

Resources:
Excellent resource management. Uses far lesser resources **memory**, even in desktop environment [**compared to linux distros running desktop env like Gnome].

Documentation:
Excellent documentation available online.

I hope this helps.