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<title>&title;</title>
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<p>The following resources are some of those which &os;
newbies have found most helpful when learning to use &os;.
Please send corrections and additions to
<a href="mailto:freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org">FreeBSD-doc@FreeBSD.org</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#web-site">Using the &os; web site</a></li>
<li><a href="#fbsd">Learning about &os;</a></li>
<li><a href="#derived">Learning about &os;-derived projects</a></li>
<li><a href="#unix">Learning about &unix;</a></li>
<li><a href="#xwin">Learning about the X Window System</a></li>
<li><a href="#people">Helping other people</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="web-site">Using the &os; web site</a></h2>
<p>This web site is the main source of up to date information about
&os;. Newbies have found the following pages particularly helpful:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="&base;/search/search.html">Search</a> the Handbook and FAQ, the
whole web site, or the &os; mailing list archives.</p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="&base;/docs.html">Documentation</a> page has links to the
Handbook and FAQ, tutorials, information about contributing to the
Documentation Project, documents in languages other than English,
online manual pages, and much more.</p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="&base;/support.html">Support</a> page contains a wealth of
information about &os;, including mailing lists, user groups, web
and FTP sites, release information, and links to some sources of
&unix; information.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="fbsd">Learning about &os;</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><p>You should most probably look for the
<a href="&u.rel.announce;">latest mainstream release</a>.
(See the Handbook for why you should <strong>not</strong> be tempted
by any of the other branches.) Before you begin, carefully read the
<a href="&url.books;/handbook/install.html">installation instructions</a>,
as well as each one of the *.TXT files in the FTP directory
or on the installation CD. They are there because they contain information
that you will need. Also pick up the latest
<a href="&base;/releases/index.html">errata file</a>
from the web site, in case it has been updated.</p></li>
<li><p>A number of <a href="&base;/docs/books.html#ARTICLES">short
articles and tutorials</a> are available. The short tutorial,
<a href="&url.articles;/new-users/index.html">For
People New to Both &os; and Unix</a>, is popular with absolute
beginners. You do not have to know much about anything to enjoy
this one.</p></li>
<li><p>There is a lot of documentation to help for setting up ppp.
You might start with the <a
href="&url.books;/handbook/ppp-and-slip.html">PPP and SLIP</a>
chapter of the &os; Handbook and explore the
<a href="http://www.awfulhak.org/ppp.html">ppp page</a>
for links to the other valuable information and the latest updates.</p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="&url.books;/handbook/index.html">&os; Handbook</a> and <a
href="&url.books;/faq/index.html">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</a> are the
main documents for &os;. Essential reading, they contain a lot of
material for newbies as well as some pretty advanced stuff. Do not
worry if you are unable to understand the advanced sections. The handbook
contains the installation instructions and also provides lists of
books and on-line resources, and the FAQ has a troubleshooting
section.</p></li>
<li><p>Join the &os;-Questions mailing list to see the questions you
were too afraid to ask, and their answers. Subscribe by filling out
the following form:
<a href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions">http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions</a>.
You can look up old questions and
answers via the <a href="&base;/search/search.html#mailinglists">search</a>
page.</p></li>
<li><p>The main newsgroup for &os; is <a
href="news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc">comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc</a>.
General UNIX questions are dealt with in the newsgroup <a
href="news:comp.unix.questions">comp.unix.questions</a> and the
associated <a
href="ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/unix-faq/faq/">FAQ</a>
from the RMIT FTP site. Newbies are likely to be most
interested in sections 1 and 2 initially.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="&cgibase;/man.cgi">Manual pages</a> are good
for reference but not always
the best introduction for a novice. The more you work with man pages
the more familiar they become. Some are very good for newbies, so
always check them out. The ppp man page, for example, is more like a
tutorial.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="derived">Learning about &os;-derived projects</a></h2>
<p>&os; is widely used as a building block for other commercial
and open-source operating systems. Some of the most widely used
and publicly available systems are listed below.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://www.pcbsd.org">PC-BSD</a> is a &os;
derivative with a graphical installer and impressive desktop
tools aimed at ease of use for the casual computer
user.</p></li>
<li><p>Apple's <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx">Mac OS
X</a>
is <a href="http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology/unix.html">based
in part</a> on &os; and includes a rich &unix; foundation in
addition to the proprietary Apple user interface.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="unix">Learning about &unix;</a></h2>
<p>Many of the problems we have as newbies come from being unfamiliar
with the UNIX commands, needed to fix our &os; problems.
Without a UNIX background you will be faced with two things to learn
at once. Fortunately a lot of resources are available to make this
easier.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The <a href="&url.books;/handbook/basics.html">&unix;
Basics</a> chapter of the &os; Handbook covers the basic
commands and functionality of &os; operating system. Most
of information provided in this document is also relevant for
any other &unix;-like operating system.</p></li>
<li><p>There are many easy books, such as the "Dummies" guides, in any
large book shop. If you want something really easy, take a look at
what is available and pick one that seems to speak your language.
Pretty soon you will want to move on to a book that gives more
coverage.</p></li>
<li><p>Another popular book is <em>UNIX Power Tools</em> by Jerry Peek,
Tim O'Reilly and Mike Loukides, published by O'Reilly and
Associates. It is organized as a series of short articles each of
which solves a problem, and these articles are cross-referenced to
other articles with related material. Though not specifically aimed
at newbies, the design makes it ideal for a newbie with a burning
question or the odd few minutes to browse. More elementary material
is near the front of the book, but there are short easy articles
throughout.</p></li>
<li>
<p>A <a href="http://www.cs.duke.edu/csl/docs/unix_course/">UNIX
Introductory Course</a> from Ohio State University is
available online in HTML format.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A <a href="http://www.cs.duke.edu/csl/docs/sysadmin_course/">UNIX
System Administration Course</a> from Ohio State University
is available online in HTML format.</p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/unixhelp/">UNIXhelp
for Users</a> is another introductory guide which is available in
HTML at a mirror site near you, or can be installed on your own
system.</p></li>
<li><p>Many other web sites hold lists of UNIX tutorials and reference
material. One of the best places to start looking is the
little known search engine <a
href="https://google.com">Google</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="xwin">Learning about the X Window System</a></h2>
<p>The X Window System is used with a number of operating systems,
including &os;. The documentation for X can be found at the
<a href="http://www.x.org/">X.Org Foundation</a>
web site.
Beware, much of this documentation is reference material which is
more likely to be difficult for newcomers to digest.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Before you can get X running exactly the way you like, you will need
to choose a window manager.
Visit the <a href="http://xwinman.org/">Window Managers for X</a>
page and follow the link to the introduction to find out about window
managers, then return and read "The Basics". Then go back and compare
the different types that are available. (Bonus: there is another
beginners guide to UNIX there too.)
Most, if not all, of these window managers are available to
install from the &os; Ports Collection.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="people">Helping other people</a></h2>
<p>Everyone has something to contribute to the &os; community, even
newbies! Some are busy working with the new advocacy group and some have
become involved with the
<a href="&base;/docproj/docproj.html">Documentation Project</a> as reviewers.
Other &os; newbies might have particular skills and experiences to
share, either computer related or not, or just want to meet new
newbies and make them feel welcome. There are always people around
who help others simply because they like to.</p>
<p>Friends who run &os; are a great resource. No book can replace
chatting on the phone or across a pizza with someone who has the
same interests, enjoys similar accomplishments, and faces the same
challenges. If you do not have many friends who use &os;,
consider using your old &os; CDs to create some more.</p>
<p><a href="&base;/usergroups.html">User groups</a> are
good places to meet other &os; users. If there is no one nearby,
you might consider starting one!</p>
<p>Before talking to real humans about your new skills, you might
want to check the <a
href="http://www.catb.org/jargon/">Jargon File</a>.</p>
</body>
</html>
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