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1<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [ 2<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN"> 3%articles.ent; 4 5<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 6%release; 7]> 8 9<article> 10 <articleinfo> 11 <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 12 13 <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 14 15 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 179456 2008-05-31 13:45:35Z hrs $</pubdate> 16 17 <copyright> 18 <year>2000</year> 19 <year>2001</year> 20 <year>2002</year> 21 <year>2003</year> 22 <year>2004</year> 23 <year>2005</year> 24 <year>2006</year> 25 <year>2007</year> 26 <year>2008</year> 27 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 28 </copyright> 29 30 <legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 31 &tm-attrib.freebsd; 32 &tm-attrib.intel; 33 &tm-attrib.opengroup; 34 &tm-attrib.sparc; 35 &tm-attrib.general; 36 </legalnotice> 37 </articleinfo> 38 39 <abstract> 40 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 41 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 42 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 43 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 44 information.</para> 45 </abstract> 46 47 <sect1 id="intro"> 48 <title>Introduction</title> 49 50 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 51 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 52 53 <sect2> 54 <title>About &os;</title> 55 56 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 57 AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 58 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;), 59 Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;), 60 NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;), 61 and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions 62 for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 63 &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 64 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 65 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 66 from software development to games to Internet Service 67 Provision.</para> 68 69 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 70 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 71 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 72 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 73 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 74 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 75 all works.</para> 76 77 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 78 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 79 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 80 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 81 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 82 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 83 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 84 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 85 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 86 commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 87 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 88 installed from the installation program.</para> 89 </sect2> 90 91 <sect2> 92 <title>Target Audience</title> 93 94<![ %release.type.current; [ 95 96 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 97 and various other users who want to get involved with the 98 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 99 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 100 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 101 work-in-progress.</para> 102 103 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 104 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 105 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 106 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 107 108 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 109 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 110 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 111 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 112 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 113 114]]> 115 116<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 117 118 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 119 and various other users who want to get involved with the 120 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 121 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 122 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 123 work-in-progress.</para> 124 125 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 126 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 127 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 128 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 129 130 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 131 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 132 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 133 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 134 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 135 136]]> 137 138<![ %release.type.release; [ 139 140 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 141 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 142 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 143 dependability.</para> 144 145]]> 146 147 </sect2> 148 </sect1> 149 150 <sect1 id="obtain"> 151 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 152 153 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 154 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 155 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 156 installation.</para> 157 158 <sect2> 159 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 160 161 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 162 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 163 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 164 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 165 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 166 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 167 Collection, or other extra material.</para> 168 169 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 170 project are listed in the <ulink 171 url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 172 &os;</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 173 </sect2> 174 175 <sect2> 176 <title>FTP</title> 177 178 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 179 optional packages from <ulink 180 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 181 &os; release site, or any of its 182 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 183 184 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 185 <ulink 186 url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 187 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 188 url="http://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 189 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 190 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 191 192 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 193 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 194 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 195 information for mirror sites at the <ulink 196 URL="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 197 &os;</ulink> article.</para> 198 199 <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 200 create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 201 floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 202 files necessary to do an installation over the network. 203 Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 204 the most current release.</para> 205 </sect2> 206 </sect1> 207 208 <sect1 id="contacting"> 209 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 210 211 <sect2> 212 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 213 214 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 215 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 216 217 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 218 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 219 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 220 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 221 222 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 223 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 224 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 225 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 226 the &a.hackers;.</para> 227 228 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 229 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 230 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 231 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 232 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 233 234 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 235 wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 236 &os; Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more 237 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 238 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 239 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 240 obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink 241 url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 242 lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 243 244 <important> 245 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 246 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 247 instead.</para> 248 </important> 249 </sect2> 250 251 <sect2> 252 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 253 254 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 255 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 256 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 257 course even more welcome.</para> 258 259 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 260 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 261 command. 262 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 263 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 264 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 265 possible. <ulink 266 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 267 of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 268 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 269 have encountered.</para> 270 271 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 272 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 273 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 274 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 275 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 276 277 <para>For more information, <ulink 278 url="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 279 &os; Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 280 site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 281 effective problem reports.</para> 282 </sect2> 283 </sect1> 284 285 <sect1 id="seealso"> 286 <title>Further Reading</title> 287 288 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 289 included with this distribution, while others are available 290 on-line or in print versions.</para> 291 292 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 293 <title>Release Documentation</title> 294 295 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 296 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 297 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 298 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 299 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 300 may also include other formats such as Portable Document Format 301 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 302 303 <itemizedlist> 304 <listitem> 305 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 306 gives some general information about &os; as well as 307 some cursory notes about obtaining a 308 distribution.</para> 309 </listitem> 310 311 <listitem> 312 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 313 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 314 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 315 &release.prev;).</para> 316 </listitem> 317 318 <listitem> 319 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 320 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 321 been tested and is known to work.</para> 322 </listitem> 323 324 <listitem> 325 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 326 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 327 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 328 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 329 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 330 contains the latest information on problems which have 331 been found and fixed since the release was 332 created.</para> 333 </listitem> 334 </itemizedlist> 335 </para> 336 337 <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 338 &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 339 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 340 installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 341 &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 342 343 <note> 344 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 345 given release before installing it, to learn about any 346 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 347 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 348 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 349 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 350 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 351 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 352 <ulink url="&url.base;/releases/"></ulink> (as 353 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 354 location).</para> 355 </note> 356 </sect2> 357 358 <sect2> 359 <title>Manual Pages</title> 360 361 <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 362 with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 363 &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 364 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 365 pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 366 manual pages provide information on the different commands and 367 APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 368 369 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 370 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 371 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 372 &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 373 &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 374 </sect2> 375 376 <sect2> 377 <title>Books and Articles</title> 378 379 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 380 maintained by the &os; Project, 381 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 382 Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 383 url="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</ulink> 384 and <ulink 385 url="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</ulink> 386 are always available from the <ulink 387 url="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 388 page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 389 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 390 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 391 note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 392 installing &os;.</para> 393 394 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 395 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 396 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 397 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 398 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 399 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 400 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 401 distribution set.</para> 402 403 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 404 found in the <ulink 405 url="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 406 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 407 many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 408 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 409 bibliography.</para> 410 </sect2> 411 </sect1> 412 413 <sect1 id="acknowledgements"> 414 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 415 416 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 417 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 418 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 419 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 420 <ulink 421 url="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 422 to &os;</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 423 mirrors.</para> 424 425 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 426 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 427 simply would not have been possible.</para> 428 </sect1> 429</article> 430 431<!-- 432 Local Variables: 433 mode: sgml 434 sgml-indent-data: t 435 sgml-omittag: nil 436 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 437 End: 438--> 439