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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<!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 88820 2002-01-02 17:27:58Z bmah $</pubdate> 21 22 <copyright> 23 <year>2000</year> 24 <year>2001</year> 25 <year>2002</year> 26 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 27 </copyright> 28 </articleinfo> 29 30 <abstract> 31 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 32 &release.current;. It includes a roadmap to the other release 33 documentation files, as well as some pointers on obtaining &os; and 34 contacting the &os; development team.</para> 35 </abstract> 36 37 <sect1> 38 <title>Introduction</title> 39 40 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 41 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 42 43 <sect2> 44 <title>About &os;</title> 45 46 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 47 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 48 hardware and Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers. Versions 49 for the IA64, PowerPC, and Sparc64 architectures are currently under 50 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 51 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 52 from software development to games to Internet Service 53 Provision.</para> 54 55 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 56 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 57 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 58 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 59 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 60 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 61 all works.</para> 62 63 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 64 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 65 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX 66 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 67 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 68 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 69 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 70 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 71 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 72 commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also available as 73 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 74 installed from the installation program.</para> 75 </sect2> 76 77 <sect2> 78 <title>Target Audience</title> 79 80<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 81 82 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 83 and various other users who want to get involved with the 84 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 85 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 86 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 87 work-in-progress.</para> 88 89 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type are 90 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 91 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 92 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 93 94 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 95 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 96 (such as &release.prev;) are frequently more appropriate. 97 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 98 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 99 100]]> 101 102<![ %release.type.release; [ 103 104 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 105 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 106 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 107 dependability.</para> 108 109]]> 110 111 </sect2> 112 </sect1> 113 114 <sect1> 115 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 116 117 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 118 focuses on those ways that are primarily of use for obtaining a 119 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 120 installation.</para> 121 122 <sect2> 123 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 124 125 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 126 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 127 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 128 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 129 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 130 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 131 Collection.</para> 132 133 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 134 project are listed in the <ulink 135 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 136 FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 137 </sect2> 138 139 <sect2> 140 <title>FTP</title> 141 142 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 143 optional packages from <ulink 144 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 145 &os; release site, or any of its 146 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 147 148 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 149 <ulink 150 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 151 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 152 url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 153 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 154 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 155 156 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 157 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 158 becoming an official mirror site.</para> 159 160 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 161 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 162 needed for the install process itself. Some mirrors also 163 contain some of the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 164 a &os; release.</para> 165 166 </sect2> 167 </sect1> 168 169 <sect1 id="contacting"> 170 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 171 172 <sect2> 173 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 174 175 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 176 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 177 178 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 179 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 180 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 181 affect the way you use and maintain the system. 182 183 <para>Additionally, being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 184 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help 185 — there are already far more desired enhancements than 186 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 187 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 188 the &a.hackers;.</para> 189 190 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 191 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic and if you 192 have slow or expensive mail access and are only interested in 193 keeping up with significant &os; events, you may find it 194 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 195 196 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 197 wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo; and include the 198 keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself somewhere 199 in the body of the message. This will give you more 200 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 201 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 202 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 203 obtained either through majordomo or the <ulink 204 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 205 lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 206 207 <important> 208 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 209 asking to be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address 210 instead.</para> 211 </important> 212 </sect2> 213 214 <sect2> 215 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 216 217 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 218 always valued — please do not hesitate to report any 219 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 220 course even more welcome.</para> 221 222 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 223 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 224 command or use the Web form at <ulink 225 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>. 226 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 227 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 228 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 229 possible. <ulink 230 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 231 of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 232 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 233 have encountered.</para> 234 235 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 236 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 237 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 238 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 239 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 240 241 <para>In any case, before submitting a PR, please try to 242 determine whether the problem might have already been fixed 243 since.</para> 244 </sect2> 245 </sect1> 246 247 <sect1> 248 <title>Further Reading</title> 249 250 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 251 <title>Release Documentation</title> 252 253 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 254 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 255 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 256 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 257 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 258 may also include other formats such as PostScript 259 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 260 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 261 262 <itemizedlist> 263 <listitem> 264 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 265 gives some general information about &os; as well as 266 some cursory notes about obtaining a 267 distribution.</para> 268 </listitem> 269 270 <listitem> 271 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 272 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 273 &release.current; compared to &os; 274 &release.prev;.</para> 275 </listitem> 276 277 <listitem> 278 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 279 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 280 been tested and is known to work.</para> 281 </listitem> 282 283 <listitem> 284 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 285 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 286 media.</para> 287 </listitem> 288 289 <listitem> 290 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 291 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 292 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 293 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 294 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 295 contains the latest information on problems which have 296 been found and fixed since the release was 297 created.</para> 298 </listitem> 299 </itemizedlist> 300 </para> 301 302 <para>Most of this information is also available from the 303 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 304 installed, you can revisit this menu by running the 305 &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 306 307 <note> 308 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 309 given release before installing it, to learn about any 310 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 311 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 312 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 313 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 314 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 315 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 316 <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> (as 317 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 318 location).</para> 319 </note> 320 </sect2> 321 322 <sect2> 323 <title>Books and Articles</title> 324 325 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 326 maintained by the &os; Project, 327 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 328 Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 329 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> 330 and <ulink 331 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</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 Handbook and FAQ locally.</para> 337 338 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 339 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 340 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 341 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 342 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 343 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 344 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 345 distribution set.</para> 346 347 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 348 found in the <ulink 349 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 350 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, 351 many other articles and books written for UNIX systems are 352 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 353 bibliography.</para> 354 </sect2> 355 </sect1> 356 357 <sect1> 358 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 359 360 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 361 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 362 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 363 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 364 <ulink 365 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/">Contributors 366 to FreeBSD</ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 367 mirrors.</para> 368 369 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 370 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 371 simply would not have been possible.</para> 372 </sect1> 373</article> 374 375<!-- 376 Local Variables: 377 mode: sgml 378 sgml-indent-data: t 379 sgml-omittag: nil 380 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 381 End: 382--> 383