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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 18 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 81484 2001-08-10 21:18:35Z bmah $</pubdate> 19 20 <copyright> 21 <year>2000</year> 22 <year>2001</year> 23 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 24 </copyright> 25</articleinfo> 26<abstract> 27 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 28 &release.current;. It includes a roadmap to the other release 29 documentation files, as well as some pointers on obtaining &os; and 30 contacting the &os; development team.</para> 31</abstract> 32<sect1> 33 <title>Introduction</title> 34 35 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 36 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 37 38 <sect2> 39 <title>About &os;</title> 40 41 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD 42 Lite for Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 43 hardware and Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers. Versions for 44 the IA64 and PowerPC architectures are currently under 45 development as well. &os; works with a 46 wide variety of peripherals and configurations and can be 47 used for everything from software development to games to Internet Service 48 Provision.</para> 49 50 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 51 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and all 52 utilities in the base distribution. With the 53 source distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 54 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for students, 55 researchers, or users who simply want to see how it all works.</para> 56 57 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 58 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it easy 59 to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX 60 utilities for &os;. Each 61 <quote>port</quote> consists of a set of scripts to retrieve, 62 configure, build, and install a piece of software, with a single 63 command. Over 5000 ports, from editors to programming 64 languages to graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and 65 comprehensive operating environment that extends far beyond what's 66 provided by many commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also 67 available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be 68 quickly installed from the installation program.</para> 69 </sect2> 70 71 <sect2> 72 <title>Target Audience</title> 73 74<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 75 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters and 76 various other users who want to get involved with the ongoing 77 development of &os;. While the &os; development team tries its 78 best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 79 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a work-in-progress.</para> 80 81 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type are 82 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the ongoing 83 development process of &os; &release.current; 84 (as discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 85 86 <para>For those more interested 87 in doing business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 88 technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev;) are frequently more 89 appropriate. Releases undergo a period of testing and quality 90 assurance checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 91]]> 92 93<![ %release.type.release; [ 94 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It has 95 undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 96 checking to ensure the highest reliability and dependability.</para> 97]]> 98 99 </sect2> 100</sect1> 101 102<sect1> 103 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 104 105 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 106 focuses on those ways that are primarily of use for obtaining a 107 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 108 installation.</para> 109 110 <sect2> 111 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 112 113 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions (for example, 4.3-RELEASE) may 114 be ordered on CDROM or DVD from several publishers. This is 115 frequently the most convenient way to obtain &os; for new 116 installations, as it provides a convenient way to quickly 117 reinstall the system if necessary. Some distributions include 118 some of the optional, precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the 119 &os; Ports Collection.</para> 120 121 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD 122 publishers known to the project are listed in the <ulink 123 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 124 FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 125 </sect2> 126 127 <sect2> 128 <title>FTP</title> 129 130 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 131 optional packages from <ulink 132 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which 133 is the 134 official &os; release site, or any of its <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 135 136 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; 137 can be found in the <ulink 138 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 139 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the 140 <ulink url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 141 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 142 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 143 144 <para>Additional mirror sites are 145 always welcome. 146 Contact <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more 147 details on becoming an official mirror site.</para> 148 149 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 150 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files needed 151 for the install process itself. Some mirrors also contain some of 152 the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of a &os; release.</para> 153 154 </sect2> 155</sect1> 156<sect1 id="contacting"> 157 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 158 159 <sect2> 160 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 161 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, please send 162 mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 163 164 <para>If you're tracking the -current development efforts, you 165 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to keep 166 abreast of recent developments and changes that may affect the way 167 you use and maintain the system. 168 169 <para>Additionally, being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 170 Project is always happy to 171 have extra hands willing to help — there are already far more 172 desired enhancements than there is time to implement them. 173 To contact the developers on technical matters, or with offers of help, please 174 send mail to the &a.hackers;.</para> 175 176 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 177 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic and if you have 178 slow or expensive mail access and are only interested in keeping up 179 with significant &os; events, you may find it preferable to 180 subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 181 182 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 183 wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo; 184 and include the keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself 185 somewhere in the body of the message. This will give you more 186 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, etc. 187 There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest 188 groups not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either 189 through majordomo or the <ulink 190 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing lists 191 section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 192 193 <important> 194 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists asking to 195 be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address 196 instead.</para> 197 </important> 198 </sect2> 199 200 <sect2> 201 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 202 203 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 204 always valued — please do not hesitate to report any problems you 205 may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of course even more 206 welcome.</para> 207 208 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine with 209 Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; command or 210 use the Web form at <ulink 211 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>. 212 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way will be filed and 213 their progress tracked; the &os; developers will do their best to respond to all 214 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 215 available on the &os; Web site; this list is useful to see what 216 potential problems other users have encountered.</para> 217 218 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that should 219 be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using this interface 220 is highly preferred. 221 If, for some reason, you are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to 222 submit a bug report, you can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 223 224 <para>In any case, before submitting a PR, 225 please try to determine whether the problem might have already been 226 fixed since.</para> 227 228 </sect2> 229 230</sect1> 231 232<sect1> 233 <title>Further Reading</title> 234 235 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 236 <title>Release Documentation</title> 237 238 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 239 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are provided 240 in various formats. Most distributions will include both ASCII 241 text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 242 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions may 243 also include other formats such as PostScript 244 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 245 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 246 247 <itemizedlist> 248 <listitem> 249 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 250 gives some general information about &os; as well as some 251 cursory notes about obtaining a distribution.</para> 252 </listitem> 253 <listitem> 254 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release notes, 255 showing what's new and different in &os; &release.current; 256 compared to &os; &release.prev;.</para> 257 </listitem> 258 <listitem> 259 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 260 compatability list, showing devices with which &os; has been 261 tested and is known to work.</para> 262 </listitem> 263 <listitem> 264 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 265 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 266 media.</para> 267 </listitem> 268 <listitem> 269 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 270 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in this 271 file, which is principally applicable to releases (as opposed to 272 snapshots). It is important to consult this file before 273 installing a release of &os;, as it contains 274 the latest information on problems which have been found and 275 fixed since the release was created.</para> 276 </listitem> 277 </itemizedlist> 278 279 </para> 280 281 <para>Most information is also available from the 282 Documentation menu during installation.</para> 283 284 </sect2> 285 286 <sect2> 287 288 <title>Books and Articles</title> 289 290 <para>Pointers to more documentation on &os; can be found in the 291 <ulink 292 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html#BIBLIOGRAPHY-FREEBSD">Books 293 & Magazines Specific to FreeBSD</ulink> section of the &os; Handbook. 294 Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, many other articles and books written 295 for UNIX systems are applicable as well. A selection of these documents 296 can be found in the Handbook's <ulink 297 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">Bibliography</ulink>. 298 </para> 299 300 <para>If you're new to &os; then you should also read 301 all of the documentation files listed in <xref linkend="release-docs">, 302 all of which are available from the Documentation menu in the 303 installation program. 304 It may seem 305 like a lot to read, but it's important to at least acquaint yourself with 306 the types of information available, should you run into problems later. Once 307 the system is installed, you can also revisit this menu by running 308 the &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 309 310 <para>On-line 311 versions of the <ulink 312 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 313 (Frequently Asked Questions document) and <ulink 314 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> are always 315 available from the <ulink 316 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 317 page</ulink> or its mirrors. 318 If you install the 319 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a 320 Web browser to read the FAQ and Handbook locally.</para> 321 322 <note> 323 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any given 324 release before installing it, to learn about any 325 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 326 The 327 errata file accompanying each release 328 (most likely right next to this file) is already out of 329 date by definition, but other copies are kept updated on the Internet 330 and should be consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for 331 this release. These 332 other copies of the errata are located at 333 <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> 334 (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 335 location).</para> 336 </note> 337 </sect2> 338</sect1> 339 340<sect1> 341 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 342 343 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 344 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 345 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. 346 For a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 347 <ulink 348 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/">Contributors 349 to FreeBSD</ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its mirrors.</para> 350 351 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users and 352 testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; simply would 353 not have been possible.</para> 354 355</sect1> 356</article> 357