article.xml revision 82350
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<!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 82350 2001-08-26 17:31:03Z 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<abstract> 29 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 30 &release.current;. It includes a roadmap to the other release 31 documentation files, as well as some pointers on obtaining &os; and 32 contacting the &os; development team.</para> 33</abstract> 34<sect1> 35 <title>Introduction</title> 36 37 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 38 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 39 40 <sect2> 41 <title>About &os;</title> 42 43 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD 44 Lite for Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 45 hardware and Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers. Versions for 46 the IA64 and PowerPC architectures are currently under 47 development as well. &os; works with a 48 wide variety of peripherals and configurations and can be 49 used for everything from software development to games to Internet Service 50 Provision.</para> 51 52 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 53 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and all 54 utilities in the base distribution. With the 55 source distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 56 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for students, 57 researchers, or users who simply want to see how it all works.</para> 58 59 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 60 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it easy 61 to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX 62 utilities for &os;. Each 63 <quote>port</quote> consists of a set of scripts to retrieve, 64 configure, build, and install a piece of software, with a single 65 command. Over &os.numports; ports, from editors to programming 66 languages to graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and 67 comprehensive operating environment that extends far beyond what's 68 provided by many commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also 69 available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be 70 quickly installed from the installation program.</para> 71 </sect2> 72 73 <sect2> 74 <title>Target Audience</title> 75 76<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 77 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters and 78 various other users who want to get involved with the ongoing 79 development of &os;. While the &os; development team tries its 80 best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 81 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a work-in-progress.</para> 82 83 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type are 84 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the ongoing 85 development process of &os; &release.current; 86 (as discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 87 88 <para>For those more interested 89 in doing business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 90 technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev;) are frequently more 91 appropriate. Releases undergo a period of testing and quality 92 assurance checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 93]]> 94 95<![ %release.type.release; [ 96 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It has 97 undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 98 checking to ensure the highest reliability and dependability.</para> 99]]> 100 101 </sect2> 102</sect1> 103 104<sect1> 105 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 106 107 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 108 focuses on those ways that are primarily of use for obtaining a 109 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 110 installation.</para> 111 112 <sect2> 113 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 114 115 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may 116 be ordered on CDROM or DVD from several publishers. This is 117 frequently the most convenient way to obtain &os; for new 118 installations, as it provides a convenient way to quickly 119 reinstall the system if necessary. Some distributions include 120 some of the optional, precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the 121 &os; Ports Collection.</para> 122 123 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD 124 publishers known to the project are listed in the <ulink 125 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 126 FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 127 </sect2> 128 129 <sect2> 130 <title>FTP</title> 131 132 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 133 optional packages from <ulink 134 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which 135 is the 136 official &os; release site, or any of its <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 137 138 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; 139 can be found in the <ulink 140 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 141 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the 142 <ulink url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 143 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 144 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 145 146 <para>Additional mirror sites are 147 always welcome. 148 Contact <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more 149 details on becoming an official mirror site.</para> 150 151 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 152 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files needed 153 for the install process itself. Some mirrors also contain some of 154 the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of a &os; release.</para> 155 156 </sect2> 157</sect1> 158<sect1 id="contacting"> 159 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 160 161 <sect2> 162 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 163 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, please send 164 mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 165 166 <para>If you're tracking the -current development efforts, you 167 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to keep 168 abreast of recent developments and changes that may affect the way 169 you use and maintain the system. 170 171 <para>Additionally, being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 172 Project is always happy to 173 have extra hands willing to help — there are already far more 174 desired enhancements than there is time to implement them. 175 To contact the developers on technical matters, or with offers of help, please 176 send mail to the &a.hackers;.</para> 177 178 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 179 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic and if you have 180 slow or expensive mail access and are only interested in keeping up 181 with significant &os; events, you may find it preferable to 182 subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 183 184 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 185 wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo; 186 and include the keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself 187 somewhere in the body of the message. This will give you more 188 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, etc. 189 There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest 190 groups not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either 191 through majordomo or the <ulink 192 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing lists 193 section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 194 195 <important> 196 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists asking to 197 be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address 198 instead.</para> 199 </important> 200 </sect2> 201 202 <sect2> 203 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 204 205 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 206 always valued — please do not hesitate to report any problems you 207 may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of course even more 208 welcome.</para> 209 210 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine with 211 Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; command or 212 use the Web form at <ulink 213 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>. 214 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way will be filed and 215 their progress tracked; the &os; developers will do their best to respond to all 216 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 217 available on the &os; Web site; this list is useful to see what 218 potential problems other users have encountered.</para> 219 220 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that should 221 be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using this interface 222 is highly preferred. 223 If, for some reason, you are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to 224 submit a bug report, you can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 225 226 <para>In any case, before submitting a PR, 227 please try to determine whether the problem might have already been 228 fixed since.</para> 229 230 </sect2> 231 232</sect1> 233 234<sect1> 235 <title>Further Reading</title> 236 237 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 238 <title>Release Documentation</title> 239 240 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 241 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are provided 242 in various formats. Most distributions will include both ASCII 243 text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 244 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions may 245 also include other formats such as PostScript 246 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 247 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 248 249 <itemizedlist> 250 <listitem> 251 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 252 gives some general information about &os; as well as some 253 cursory notes about obtaining a distribution.</para> 254 </listitem> 255 <listitem> 256 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release notes, 257 showing what's new and different in &os; &release.current; 258 compared to &os; &release.prev;.</para> 259 </listitem> 260 <listitem> 261 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 262 compatability list, showing devices with which &os; has been 263 tested and is known to work.</para> 264 </listitem> 265 <listitem> 266 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 267 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 268 media.</para> 269 </listitem> 270 <listitem> 271 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 272 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in this 273 file, which is principally applicable to releases (as opposed to 274 snapshots). It is important to consult this file before 275 installing a release of &os;, as it contains 276 the latest information on problems which have been found and 277 fixed since the release was created.</para> 278 </listitem> 279 </itemizedlist> 280 281 </para> 282 283 <para>Most information is also available from the 284 Documentation menu during installation.</para> 285 286 </sect2> 287 288 <sect2> 289 290 <title>Books and Articles</title> 291 292 <para>Pointers to more documentation on &os; can be found in the 293 <ulink 294 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html#BIBLIOGRAPHY-FREEBSD">Books 295 & Magazines Specific to FreeBSD</ulink> section of the &os; Handbook. 296 Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, many other articles and books written 297 for UNIX systems are applicable as well. A selection of these documents 298 can be found in the Handbook's <ulink 299 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">Bibliography</ulink>. 300 </para> 301 302 <para>If you're new to &os; then you should also read 303 all of the documentation files listed in <xref linkend="release-docs">, 304 all of which are available from the Documentation menu in the 305 installation program. 306 It may seem 307 like a lot to read, but it's important to at least acquaint yourself with 308 the types of information available, should you run into problems later. Once 309 the system is installed, you can also revisit this menu by running 310 the &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 311 312 <para>On-line 313 versions of the <ulink 314 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 315 (Frequently Asked Questions document) and <ulink 316 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> are always 317 available from the <ulink 318 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 319 page</ulink> or its mirrors. 320 If you install the 321 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a 322 Web browser to read the FAQ and Handbook locally.</para> 323 324 <note> 325 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any given 326 release before installing it, to learn about any 327 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 328 The 329 errata file accompanying each release 330 (most likely right next to this file) is already out of 331 date by definition, but other copies are kept updated on the Internet 332 and should be consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for 333 this release. These 334 other copies of the errata are located at 335 <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> 336 (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 337 location).</para> 338 </note> 339 </sect2> 340</sect1> 341 342<sect1> 343 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 344 345 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 346 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 347 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. 348 For a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 349 <ulink 350 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/">Contributors 351 to FreeBSD</ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its mirrors.</para> 352 353 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users and 354 testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; simply would 355 not have been possible.</para> 356 357</sect1> 358</article> 359