LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
  To  : <ian_hogben@computercorp.com.au>
        < Matthew Geddes >
  Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 14:29:21 +0930

Re: bsd for linux users?

On Monday, 30 April 2001 at 11:56:42 +0800, ian_hogben@computercorp.com.au wrote:
> Hello, list:
>
> I am interested in expanding my interests in unix, and trying to have some
> fun with FreeBSD 4.3. It looks pretty similar to linux (mandrake and redhat,
> for instance), but there are some differences. In looking through the web
> there doesn't seem to be the same wealth of information available as for
> linux users. There's no ldp-compatible site, for instance.

This is a cultural difference.  Information for Linux is available all
over the web; information for FreeBSD is on the FreeBSD web site.  We
prefer it that way; it makes looking for docco easier :-)

> As linux users, have any of you out there ventured into bsd, and are
> there any resources that you would recommend to me? I have heard
> great things about "The Complete FreeBSD" second edition. 

The second edition is out of date.  In fact, the third edition is out
of date, but it's still the current version.

> Since that's not available as free hypertext, I'm hoping to find
> some more accessible resources before committing to this OS.

There's the handbook at http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/index.html.  I
personally don't think it's as good, but then I might be biased.

> As an example, I have a Xircom RBEM-56G PCMCIA lan/modem card. What do I do
> to configure this? It is so easy in linux... ;]

In principle, you plug it in and it works.  YMMV.  I've checked the
CIS data we have, and I can't find any reference to RBEM.  What are
the CIS strings?  I note that Alfred Perlstein, one of the FreeBSD
developers, is using this card, so it's obviously possible; if things
go wrong you could contact him.

On Monday, 30 April 2001 at 15:01:30 +0930, Matthew Geddes wrote:
> ian_hogben@computercorp.com.au wrote:
>>
>> Hello, list:
>>
>> I am interested in expanding my interests in unix, and trying to have some
>> fun with FreeBSD 4.3. It looks pretty similar to linux (mandrake and redhat,
>> for instance), but there are some differences.
>
> It's closer to slackware. Some of the more cosmetic differences include
> things like SysV-style init scripts (as found in most linux
> distributions) and different naming conventions for /dev/* (as is the
> case with most unixes). BSD people also don't appear to put PAM down as
> a big priority (which is their choice, I guess).

What problems do you have with PAM in FreeBSD?

>> In looking through the web there doesn't seem to be the same wealth
>> of information available as for linux users. There's no
>> ldp-compatible site, for instance.
>
> At freebsd.org, theres a bit of documentation. I also think Greg Lehey
> wrote a book which is shipped with the boxed version of FreeBSD.

Yes, he referred to it.

>> As linux users, have any of you out there ventured into bsd, and are there
>> any resources that you would recommend to me? I have heard great things
>> about "The Complete FreeBSD" second edition. Since that's not available as
>> free hypertext, I'm hoping to find some more accessible resources before
>> committing to this OS.
>
> Greg also runs a BSD mailing list. 

Send mail to majordomo@lemis.com with 'subscribe buga' in the body.

If send me a reply paid envelope, I'll send you back some FreeBSD
4.2-RELEASE CD-ROMs.  Not the latest version (barely).

Greg
--
Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key
See complete headers for address and phone numbers

-- 
LinuxSA WWW: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/  IRC: #linuxsa on irc.linux.org.au
To unsubscribe from the LinuxSA list:
  mail linuxsa-request@linuxsa.org.au with "unsubscribe" as the subject