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1145524Sdarrenr<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [ 2145524Sdarrenr<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN"> 3145524Sdarrenr%man; 4145524Sdarrenr<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN"> 5145524Sdarrenr%authors; 6145524Sdarrenr<!ENTITY % mlists PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Mailing List Entities//EN"> 7%mlists; 8<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 9%release; 10<!ENTITY % misc PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Miscellaneous FreeBSD Entities//EN"> 11%misc; 12]> 13 14<article> 15 <articleinfo> 16 <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 17 18 <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 19 20 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 83092 2001-09-05 17:04:36Z bmah $</pubdate> 21 22 <copyright> 23 <year>2000</year> 24 <year>2001</year> 25 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 26 </copyright> 27 </articleinfo> 28 29 <abstract> 30 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 31 &release.current;. It includes a roadmap to the other release 32 documentation files, as well as some pointers on obtaining &os; and 33 contacting the &os; development team.</para> 34 </abstract> 35 36 <sect1> 37 <title>Introduction</title> 38 39 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 40 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 41 42 <sect2> 43 <title>About &os;</title> 44 45 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 46 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 47 hardware and Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers. Versions 48 for the IA64, PowerPC, and Sparc64 architectures are currently under 49 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 50 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 51 from software development to games to Internet Service 52 Provision.</para> 53 54 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 55 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 56 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 57 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 58 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 59 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 60 all works.</para> 61 62 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 63 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 64 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX 65 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 66 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 67 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 68 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 69 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 70 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 71 commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also available as 72 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 73 installed from the installation program.</para> 74 </sect2> 75 76 <sect2> 77 <title>Target Audience</title> 78 79<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 80 81 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 82 and various other users who want to get involved with the 83 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 84 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 85 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 86 work-in-progress.</para> 87 88 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type are 89 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 90 ongoing development process of &os; &release.current; (as 91 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 92 93 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 94 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 95 (such as &release.prev;) are frequently more appropriate. 96 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 97 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 98 99]]> 100 101<![ %release.type.release; [ 102 103 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 104 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 105 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 106 dependability.</para> 107 108]]> 109 110 </sect2> 111 </sect1> 112 113 <sect1> 114 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 115 116 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 117 focuses on those ways that are primarily of use for obtaining a 118 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 119 installation.</para> 120 121 <sect2> 122 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 123 124 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 125 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 126 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 127 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 128 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 129 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 130 Collection.</para> 131 132 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 133 project are listed in the <ulink 134 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 135 FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 136 </sect2> 137 138 <sect2> 139 <title>FTP</title> 140 141 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 142 optional packages from <ulink 143 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 144 &os; release site, or any of its 145 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 146 147 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 148 <ulink 149 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 150 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 151 url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 152 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 153 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 154 155 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 156 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 157 becoming an official mirror site.</para> 158 159 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 160 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 161 needed for the install process itself. Some mirrors also 162 contain some of the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 163 a &os; release.</para> 164 165 </sect2> 166 </sect1> 167 168 <sect1 id="contacting"> 169 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 170 171 <sect2> 172 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 173 174 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 175 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 176 177 <para>If you're tracking the -current development efforts, you 178 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 179 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 180 affect the way you use and maintain the system. 181 182 <para>Additionally, being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 183 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help 184 — there are already far more desired enhancements than 185 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 186 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 187 the &a.hackers;.</para> 188 189 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 190 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic and if you 191 have slow or expensive mail access and are only interested in 192 keeping up with significant &os; events, you may find it 193 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 194 195 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 196 wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo; and include the 197 keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself somewhere 198 in the body of the message. This will give you more 199 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 200 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 201 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 202 obtained either through majordomo or the <ulink 203 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 204 lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 205 206 <important> 207 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 208 asking to be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address 209 instead.</para> 210 </important> 211 </sect2> 212 213 <sect2> 214 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 215 216 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 217 always valued — please do not hesitate to report any 218 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 219 course even more welcome.</para> 220 221 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 222 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 223 command or use the Web form at <ulink 224 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>. 225 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 226 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 227 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 228 possible. <ulink 229 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 230 of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 231 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 232 have encountered.</para> 233 234 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 235 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 236 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 237 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 238 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 239 240 <para>In any case, before submitting a PR, please try to 241 determine whether the problem might have already been fixed 242 since.</para> 243 </sect2> 244 </sect1> 245 246 <sect1> 247 <title>Further Reading</title> 248 249 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 250 <title>Release Documentation</title> 251 252 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 253 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 254 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 255 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 256 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 257 may also include other formats such as PostScript 258 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 259 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 260 261 <itemizedlist> 262 <listitem> 263 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 264 gives some general information about &os; as well as 265 some cursory notes about obtaining a 266 distribution.</para> 267 </listitem> 268 269 <listitem> 270 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 271 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 272 &release.current; compared to &os; 273 &release.prev;.</para> 274 </listitem> 275 276 <listitem> 277 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 278 compatability list, showing devices with which &os; has 279 been tested and is known to work.</para> 280 </listitem> 281 282 <listitem> 283 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 284 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 285 media.</para> 286 </listitem> 287 288 <listitem> 289 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 290 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 291 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 292 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 293 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 294 contains the latest information on problems which have 295 been found and fixed since the release was 296 created.</para> 297 </listitem> 298 </itemizedlist> 299 </para> 300 301 <para>Most information is also available from the Documentation 302 menu during installation.</para> 303 </sect2> 304 305 <sect2> 306 <title>Books and Articles</title> 307 308 <para>Pointers to more documentation on &os; can be found in the 309 <ulink 310 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html#BIBLIOGRAPHY-FREEBSD">Books 311 & Magazines Specific to FreeBSD</ulink> section of the 312 &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, many 313 other articles and books written for UNIX systems are 314 applicable as well. A selection of these documents can be 315 found in the Handbook's <ulink 316 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">Bibliography</ulink>. 317 </para> 318 319 <para>If you're new to &os; then you should also read all of the 320 documentation files listed in <xref linkend="release-docs">, 321 all of which are available from the Documentation menu in the 322 installation program. It may seem like a lot to read, but 323 it's important to at least acquaint yourself with the types of 324 information available, should you run into problems later. 325 Once the system is installed, you can also revisit this menu 326 by running the &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 327 328 <para>On-line versions of the <ulink 329 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 330 (Frequently Asked Questions document) and <ulink 331 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> 332 are always available from the <ulink 333 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 334 page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 335 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 336 browser to read the FAQ and Handbook locally.</para> 337 338 <note> 339 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 340 given release before installing it, to learn about any 341 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 342 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 343 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 344 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 345 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 346 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 347 <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> (as 348 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 349 location).</para> 350 </note> 351 </sect2> 352 </sect1> 353 354 <sect1> 355 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 356 357 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 358 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 359 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 360 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 361 <ulink 362 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/">Contributors 363 to FreeBSD</ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 364 mirrors.</para> 365 366 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 367 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 368 simply would not have been possible.</para> 369 </sect1> 370</article> 371 372<!-- 373 Local Variables: 374 mode: sgml 375 sgml-indent-data: t 376 sgml-omittag: nil 377 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 378 End: 379--> 380