Re: re changing from vista

[Matthew Seaman]

peter wrote:

Dear sirs



but i cannot understand which system to use

i am not sure if freebsd will work with my hardware and software

please can you help me i am totally confused i want to change from windows vista

FreeBSD (or any Unix/Linux for that matter) is very different to Windows, and 
it can be a daunting task to get up to speed with it.

FreeBSD in my humble opinion is the best-of-breed Unix out there for server-class applications. Which is cool if you're one of those hairy Unix types that can wrangle the command line, and configure a dozen instances of Apache before breakfast, but maybe not if you are an ordinary mortal that just wants to surf the web, listen to a few tunes, send e-mail, chat on IRC, maybe edit the odd document. While the properties of FreeBSD that make it an excellent Server OS also make it an excellent foundation for a Desktop OS, it doesn't come with the layer of middle-ware that smooths over the user experience[*]. Of course, such software is readily available, but -- catch 22 -- you don't have the sort of Window/Icons/MousePointer environment immediately available to let you easily install the desired WIMP environment. I suggest going to http://www.pcbsd.org/ and grabbing an ISO of PC-BSD. This is an integrated user environment based on FreeBSD, but with much more the sort of graphical interface you'ld be used to as a Windows user. It also has quantities of useful help and advice for people wanting to make that first step away from Windows, plus help with working out if all of your hardware is supported under the OS.

        Cheers,

        Matthew



--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
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Windows software will not in general work under Free- or PC-BSD. There are emulation environments that you can install, and these are sufficient to run a lot of software including a number of popular games, but there is no guarantee that any particular application will work. There are Open Source alternatives to the majority of popular Windows Apps (Firefox instead of IE, Thunderbird instead of OutLook, OpenOffice instead of Word+Excel+PowerPoint+etc., Gimp instead of Photoshop, ...) but these are independently developed applications with their own concepts of how things should be done, not slavish copies of the Windows equivalents. The differences can be frustrating at first, but persistence will pay dividends. [*] Yes, all you pedants out there: the software is on the FreeBSD installation media and you can install it at the same time as you install the OS. True. The point is, however, that it won't 'just work' without at least a bit of configuration involving doing some command-line stuff. Plus you have to know /which/ of all those software packages it is you actually want to install -- there's actually two major contenders (KDE, Gnome) and any number of minor contenders to choose from, and any number of choices and optional bits to decide on -- fine if you're familiar with all that, but still a real hurdle for the uninitiated.

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