FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your Personal Computer, Second Edition (with CD-ROM)

FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your Personal Computer, Second Edition (with CD-ROM)
Price: $24.00 USD
This book is a friendly, task-oriented introduction to FreeBSD, a free, open-source, industrial strength operating system that runs on a personal computer (the same computer that runs Microsoft Windows) for users new to both FreeBSD and UNIX. The second edition includes a FreeBSD 4.4 installation CD-ROM.

FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your Personal Computer includes:

· installation CD-ROM for the full system plus many software applications
· space requirements, screen shots, and detailed instructions for installing FreeBSD
· descriptions of third-party software applications and how to get them running
· step-by-step instructions on configuring and running FreeBSD, connecting to the Internet,
setting up an internal network, and setting up sound, graphics (X Window), and printing

Based on the UNIX developed at the University of California at Berkeley, FreeBSD is a major competitor to Linux for running Internet servers, the computers that handle electronic mail for many users, provide files for download, and serve web pages.

With this book and the included installation CD-ROM, individual users can install FreeBSD and run a system that goes beyond Microsoft Windows in capability, stability, and flexibility, provides full source code, and makes available thousands of ready-to-install third-party software programs (most of them free) including electronic mail, desktop applications, Netscape, programming languages, graphics, and web servers and other Internet applications.

Author: Annelise Anderson
Publisher: The Bit Tree Press
Customer Reviews
  • Get this book!
    This book is a must if you are learning BSD Unix. All the commands you'll ever use are covered in this book. This book is easy to read and explains important topics without being exhaustive (a skill some authors never learn). A great book for newbies to BSD Unix!
  • Perfect for newbies
    If you're looking for a place to start with FreeBSD (or with open soruce in general), this is really the book to get. I knew a little UNIX before I picked this up, but essentially I was a babe in the woods. This book helped me get my system up and running with clear, task-oriented discussions of all of the essentials. This doesn't go as deep as some of the other FreeBSD books out there (for that you'll probably want "Absolute BSD" by Michael Lucas), but it does tell you what you need to know to get started.
  • Excellent for learning FreeBSD
    I first tried to install FreeBSD 4.8 on my K6-2 500mhz machine using the FreeBSD Handbook as a guide. While this book (the Handbook) is the standard for reference on the subject, it doesn't really explain it to a newbie's needs (even someone coming from Linux). My first attempts failed. I bought Annelise's book and was able to get 4.8 up and running following her suggestions. Though my copy came with a CD of FreeBSD 4.7, I had already burned ISO images of 4.8. The processes detailed in the book applied equally well. My only complaint would be that the book needs updating to reflect areas that a lot of people (most people) are interested in these days: burning music to CD - especially ATAPI CD devices, and USB mass storage devices. Both could be covered by a chapter on how to use SCSI emulation. I still give it 5 stars.
  • Worth every penny !
    I bought the book after I had installed a broken FreeBSD 4.7 on my old AMD K6-II. Despite the few typos here and there, the book helped me figure out what mistakes I had made during my previous installation ! I thus re-installed from scratch, following page by page. In no time, the system was up and running, I was customizing my shell behavior, connecting to the internet through my cable modem (Roadrunner/Earthlink), etc...<p>With some extra hardware, my old AMD K6-II is now a router/firewall between my cable modem and my WinXP/Red Hat 8.0 dual-boot box without a glitch, and am planning to add a second box to my LAN and use it as a printer server too.<p>For those who still hesitate, this book is written in english, not in nerdish. That itself makes it stand out from all the computer litterature I've read. This book is very valuable.<p>Annelise: your book made my hardware firewall project feel like a walk in the park. Thank you so much !
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