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Ah, well, I can attest to this as a person that went straight into FreeBSD from Windows. I say that it is much better than most of the "Newbie" distribution because you never have to worry about dependencies. Granted its not really geared for newbies, I think ports helps out a lot. It doesnt teach much as far as *nix goes (per Brad's post), but it does have the GNU toolset, which does help with Linux.=20 The way you work with the kernel though is completely different.=20 What really allowed me to use FreeBSD as my first OS System was the fact that I had just gotten out of surgery, and had nothing but free time on my hands. If you can get it online with an irc client, or a web-browser (both available in text mode) you can get the rest up. =20 FreeBSD is fast and efficient, and you might be able to run it without a memory upgrade, but one would still be recommended. I wouldn't say run KDE on it, maybe blackbox, fluxbox, windowmaker, or the default twm. It will definately teach you some things on the process that you wont learn from running a "Newbie" distro. It takes more involvement than logging in and checking your E-Mail. =20 If you choose FreeBSD, feel free to contact me personally with any questions about it(as well as setting up a server to run on your home network). About Cox not being able to detect linux servers, I doubt that seriously. There is no special secret stealth mode (unless you specifically enable it:) under linux that will render it undetectable to portscanning. I dont think that Cox really cares if you run a personal non-profit webserver (I wouldnt really know, I'm on BellSouth). I think Dustin was saying something about me doing a presentation on FreeBSD sometime soon. If this is something that the BRLUG wants, let me know, I would be more than happy to make the trip over to BR and do a presentation. --mat =20 On Sun, 2003-03-23 at 21:08, John Hebert wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Hello, > >=20 > > I have been using Windows for many years and now want to try an open=20 > > source OS. I have an old HP Vectra (I think) in the back with a PII 26= 6=20 > > and 32 (I think, or it might be 24) MB of ram (don't know what type). = I=20 > > recently saw a feature on TechTV about FreeBSD, and am thinking of=20 > > installing that instead of Linux. I have tried running Mandrake, but i= t=20 > > is very slow on the system and often crashes. I also am thinking of=20 > > running a web server (I am on Cox cable internet, but someone said that= =20 > > they can't detect Linux.) I am also considering Vector Linux since it=20 > > is supposed to run on systems with limited resources. Any suggestions=20 > > are greatly needed and appreciated. > >=20 > > Thanks, > >=20 > > Steven P. > >=20 > > Attached is a comparison chart of Linux and FreeBSD that I have found a= t=20 > > TechTV. >=20 > FreeBSD will work well for a server. I recommend that you don't install=20 > XFree86, as a GUI will eat up a lot of resources. I run something very=20 > similar to FreeBSD called OpenBSD on a 486 with 16MB of RAM and use it=20 > as my firewall and Internet gateway and it does the job. >=20 > However, learning a Unix-like operating system such as FreeBSD or Linux=20 > without using a GUI will be a big learning curve. You should really look=20 > into putting more RAM in your box so that you can install a GUI. --=-5j5mX/74dQYfi7PkvhpF Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQA+foRnadbUG229XJoRAuasAJkBzPvRCPr57jRtlaqL55+ETEgyNwCbB3ZO zPSx7dIWb+R+9ktONEnO1hU= =FYf0 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-5j5mX/74dQYfi7PkvhpF--
