Dec 03, 2003 08:53 AM
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(Updated Dec 03, 2003 08:53 AM)
FreeBSD is a unix flavor and easy to install if you know what to expect. If you would like to know what FreeBSD can do for you (which windows and linux cannot please refer to the review ''the FreeBSD experience''). If you are happy with your computer running Mac or windows you may as well not bother to install FreeBSD. FreeBSD can even be installed on 486 intel based machines. So if you have a machine that was made in 1996, yes, it can run the latest FreeBSD version provided it has enough memory and HDD space. I have an old digital pc with 64MB and 2.1 GB which runs BSD perfectly fine.
Documentation: As far as makers of computer software go, they can be classified into two - those who document their products exceedingly well and those who do not. Examples of the former are Digital (VMS), SYBASE, IBM. Examples of latter are Oracle. FreeBSD belongs to the former class. Everything you can do with a FreeBSD machine is documented. Thus the FreeBSD handbook is the bible for FreeBSD users. Installing BSD is quite easy, though it may be intimidating for people coming from linux (RH, MDK..).
First you need to eliminate hardware conflicts. This is easy provided you know what hardware your machine has. Go to the hardware component which has a CONF against it and press del key.
Choose a standard distribution
partition your disks. This is quite tricky initially. BSD needs one slice for itself. This is usually one primary partition. Within this slice, you need to create as many 'partitions' for /,/usr,/home,swap...This is an excellent design because BSD has created one primary partition for itself and you can have 3 primary partitions or 2 primary partitions and 1 extended partition for other OSes. Linux would install its directories like /,/usr etc wherever it finds place. You have very little control (unless you know how to use a monstrous tool called fdisk). At this point you may be a bit confused: what is a partition and a slice? In windows world, C: would be a partition, D: would be a partition etc. This means windows installer assumes that it has a right to use the entire hard disk. But with BSD you need to tell the installer ''you only have this much of hard disk to play with''.BSD is a gentleman who doesn't take liberties. Thus what is known as a partition to normal users is a slice to BSD. WITHIN the SLICE, you create partitions. In unix world the advantage of having different directories on different partitions is that, when you want to upgrade, you can selectively format the dirrectories. This is like saying ''format C:\WINNT\SYSTEM but not C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32'' except that there is no way you can do this in windows.
You have to decide whether you need a bootloader or not. Choose to have a bootloader in the MBR. From here the installer will format your hard disk and install the minimal OS set. When this is done you have a working FreeBSD installation.
Now you have decide what type of installation you want - if you want windows, or just command line etc.
You can optionally enable linux compatibility and then choose a set of packages you want to install. You are done.
USING FreeBSD: If you had chosen KDE/GNOME, using freeBSD will be simple. Unlike linux, you can't shutdown from a normal user account. It is most likely that you will need to recompile your kernel if you want to enable auto power off, sound etc. But this is explained very well in the handbook and the user community will lend help, but make sure you have done your homework by reading the handbook and the archives. Just follow the handbook verbatim and you will be fine (almost!).
