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1<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [ 2<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN"> 3%man; 4<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN"> 5%authors; 6<!ENTITY % mlists PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Mailing List Entities//EN"> 7%mlists; 8<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 9%release; 10]> 11 12<article> 13<articleinfo> 14 <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 15 16 <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 17 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 81339 2001-08-09 04:27:11Z bmah $</pubdate> 18 19 <copyright> 20 <year>2000</year> 21 <year>2001</year> 22 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 23 </copyright> 24</articleinfo> 25<abstract> 26 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 27 &release.current;. It includes a roadmap to the other release 28 documentation files, as well as some pointers on obtaining &os; and 29 contacting the &os; development team.</para> 30</abstract> 31<sect1> 32 <title>Introduction</title> 33 34 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 35 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 36 37 <sect2> 38 <title>About &os;</title> 39 40 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD 41 Lite for Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 42 hardware and Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers. Versions for 43 the IA64 and PowerPC architectures are currently under 44 development as well. &os; works with a 45 wide variety of peripherals and configurations and can be 46 used for everything from software development to games to Internet Service 47 Provision.</para> 48 49 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 50 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and all 51 utilities in the base distribution. With the 52 source distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 53 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for students, 54 researchers, or users who simply want to see how it all works.</para> 55 56 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 57 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it easy 58 to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX 59 utilities for &os;. Each 60 <quote>port</quote> consists of a set of scripts to retrieve, 61 configure, build, and install a piece of software, with a single 62 command. Over 5000 ports, from editors to programming 63 languages to graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and 64 comprehensive operating environment that extends far beyond what's 65 provided by many commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also 66 available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be 67 quickly installed from the installation program.</para> 68 </sect2> 69 70 <sect2> 71 <title>Target Audience</title> 72 73<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 74 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters and 75 various other users who want to get involved with the ongoing 76 development of &os;. While the &os; development team tries its 77 best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 78 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a work-in-progress.</para> 79 80 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type are 81 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the ongoing 82 development process of &os; &release.current; 83 (as discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 84 85 <para>For those more interested 86 in doing business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 87 technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev;) are frequently more 88 appropriate. Releases undergo a period of testing and quality 89 assurance checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 90]]> 91 92<![ %release.type.release; [ 93 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It has 94 undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 95 checking to ensure the highest reliability and dependability.</para> 96]]> 97 98 </sect2> 99 100<sect1> 101 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 102 103 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 104 focuses on those ways that are primarily of use for obtaining a 105 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 106 installation.</para> 107 108 <sect2> 109 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 110 111 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions (for example, 4.3-RELEASE) may 112 be ordered on CDROM or DVD from several publishers. This is 113 frequently the most convenient way to obtain &os; for new 114 installations, as it provides a convenient way to quickly 115 reinstall the system if necessary. Some distributions include 116 some of the optional, precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the 117 &os; Ports Collection.</para> 118 119 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD 120 publishers known to the project are listed in the <ulink 121 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 122 FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 123 </sect2> 124 125 <sect2> 126 <title>FTP</title> 127 128 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 129 optional packages from <ulink 130 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which 131 is the 132 official &os; release site, or any of its <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 133 134 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; 135 can be found in the <ulink 136 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 137 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the 138 <ulink url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 139 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 140 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 141 142 <para>Additional mirror sites are 143 always welcome. 144 Contact <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more 145 details on becoming an official mirror site.</para> 146 147 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 148 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files needed 149 for the install process itself. Some mirrors also contain some of 150 the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of a &os; release.</para> 151 152 </sect2> 153</sect1> 154<sect1 id="contacting"> 155 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 156 157 <sect2> 158 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 159 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, please send 160 mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 161 162 <para>If you're tracking the -current development efforts, you 163 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to keep 164 abreast of recent developments and changes that may affect the way 165 you use and maintain the system. 166 167 <para>Additionally, being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 168 Project is always happy to 169 have extra hands willing to help — there are already far more 170 desired enhancements than there is time to implement them. 171 To contact the developers on technical matters, or with offers of help, please 172 send mail to the &a.hackers;.</para> 173 174 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 175 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic and if you have 176 slow or expensive mail access and are only interested in keeping up 177 with significant &os; events, you may find it preferable to 178 subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 179 180 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 181 wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo; 182 and include the keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself 183 somewhere in the body of the message. This will give you more 184 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, etc. 185 There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest 186 groups not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either 187 through majordomo or the <ulink 188 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing lists 189 section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 190 191 <important> 192 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists asking to 193 be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address 194 instead.</para> 195 </important> 196 </sect2> 197 198 <sect2> 199 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 200 201 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 202 always valued — please do not hesitate to report any problems you 203 may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of course even more 204 welcome.</para> 205 206 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine with 207 Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; command or 208 use the Web form at <ulink 209 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>. 210 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way will be filed and 211 their progress tracked; the &os; developers will do their best to respond to all 212 reported bugs as soon as possible. <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list of all active PRs</ulink> is 213 available on the &os; Web site; this list is useful to see what 214 potential problems other users have encountered.</para> 215 216 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that should 217 be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using this interface 218 is highly preferred. 219 If, for some reason, you are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to 220 submit a bug report, you can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 221 222 <para>In any case, before submitting a PR, 223 please try to determine whether the problem might have already been 224 fixed since.</para> 225 226 </sect2> 227 228</sect1> 229 230<sect1> 231 <title>Further Reading</title> 232 233 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 234 <title>Release Documentation</title> 235 236 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 237 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are provided 238 in various formats. Most distributions will include both ASCII 239 text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 240 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions may 241 also include other formats such as PostScript 242 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 243 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 244 245 <itemizedlist> 246 <listitem> 247 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 248 gives some general information about &os; as well as some 249 cursory notes about obtaining a distribution.</para> 250 </listitem> 251 <listitem> 252 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release notes, 253 showing what's new and different in &os; &release.current; 254 compared to &os; &release.prev;.</para> 255 </listitem> 256 <listitem> 257 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 258 compatability list, showing devices with which &os; has been 259 tested and is known to work.</para> 260 </listitem> 261 <listitem> 262 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 263 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 264 media.</para> 265 </listitem> 266 <listitem> 267 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 268 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in this 269 file, which is principally applicable to releases (as opposed to 270 snapshots). It is important to consult this file before 271 installing a release of &os;, as it contains 272 the latest information on problems which have been found and 273 fixed since the release was created.</para> 274 </listitem> 275 </itemizedlist> 276 277 </para> 278 279 <para>Most information is also available from the 280 Documentation menu during installation.</para> 281 282 </sect2> 283 284 <sect2> 285 286 <title>Books and Articles</title> 287 288 <para>Pointers to more documentation on &os; can be found in the 289 <ulink 290 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html#BIBLIOGRAPHY-FREEBSD">Books 291 & Magazines Specific to FreeBSD</ulink> section of the &os; Handbook. 292 Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, many other articles and books written 293 for UNIX systems are applicable as well. A selection of these documents 294 can be found in the Handbook's <ulink 295 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">Bibliography</ulink>. 296 </para> 297 298 <para>If you're new to &os; then you should also read 299 all of the documentation files listed in <xref linkend="release-docs">, 300 all of which are available from the Documentation menu in the 301 installation program. 302 It may seem 303 like a lot to read, but it's important to at least acquaint yourself with 304 the types of information available, should you run into problems later. Once 305 the system is installed, you can also revisit this menu by running 306 the &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 307 308 <para>On-line 309 versions of the <ulink 310 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 311 (Frequently Asked Questions document) and <ulink 312 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> are always 313 available from the <ulink 314 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 315 page</ulink> or its mirrors. 316 If you install the 317 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a 318 Web browser to read the FAQ and Handbook locally.</para> 319 320 <note> 321 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any given 322 release before installing it, to learn about any 323 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 324 The 325 errata file accompanying each release 326 (most likely right next to this file) is already out of 327 date by definition, but other copies are kept updated on the Internet 328 and should be consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for 329 this release. These 330 other copies of the errata are located at 331 <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> 332 (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 333 location).</para> 334 </note> 335 </sect2> 336</sect1> 337 338<sect1> 339 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 340 341 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 342 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 343 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. 344 For a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 345 <ulink 346 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/">Contributors 347 to FreeBSD</ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its mirrors.</para> 348 349 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users and 350 testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; simply would 351 not have been possible.</para> 352 353</sect1> 354</article> 355