FreeBSD Tutorials
Welcome to the FreeBSD Book Project Home Page! Chris Coleman and myself, Mark Mayo, are currently writing a book about FreeBSD. It will hopefully be one of the first complete, "read it from cover to cover" books dedicated to the FreeBSD PC Unix Operating System. There are two goals for the book:
- Assume nothing about the readers' ability or experience in Unix.
We want this book to be useful to the first time, newest "newbie"
on the block. Naturally, the book goes into a great bit of detail, and we think
the relatively experienced Unix user/administrator should find it useful
as well.
- After reading the book, the readers' level of understanding of how FreeBSD, and Unix in general, works should be high enough that they can proceed to accomplish productive, cost effective work with FreeBSD.
We firmly believe FreeBSD can be used in a wide variety of computing environments to make your work more enjoyable, and more profitable. Above all, the book is intended to pass on our enthusiasm for this superb Operating System, and we focus on making the tutorials fun and rewarding.
The intention is to get the book published (if you're a publisher, please mail us!!), and also always have a complete version available on-line for free.
News
Chris is working on the X Window System Install Tutorial. Please give him feedback on how it works and how it can be made better. Mark still needs some prodding to get the PPP stuff done.The new URL: http://www.vmunix.com/fbsd-book/. If you're coming here from another URL, this is the real one, and this time we promise we won't be changing it anymore! :-)
The Goods
The book is being written as we speak, and is proceeding at a rapid pace! Here is the draft version of what we have done so far:A Comprehensive Guide to FreeBSD
Postscript Versions
Here is a complete Postscript copy of the book, rendered to Postscript from the HTML pages on June 29th, 1998. The colour versions expand to about 21MB, while the greyscale files expand to about 14MB. You've been warned! :-)
fbsd-book_usgrey.ps.gz - 650KB, Greyscale, American Letter(8.5x11) paper
fbsd-book_uscolour.ps.gz - 760KB, Color, American Letter paper
fbsd-book_a4grey.ps.gz - 650KB, Greyscale, European A4 paper
fbsd-book_a4colour.ps.gz - 760KB, Color, European A4 paper
We have also broken it down by chapter for your convenience:
Chapter 1 Introduction To FreeBSD(Done)
Chapter 1 Introducción a FreeBSD.(Done)
Chapter 2 How To Install FreeBSD (Current to 2.2.6-RELEASE.)
Chapter 2 Manual de instalación de FreeBSD (Current to 2.2.6-RELEASE.)
Chapter 3 Running FreeBSD Need Suggestions.
Chapter 4 Configuring FreeBSD In Limbo until X is done
Chapter 5 Setting Up Your Network.(Remind Mark to work on it. :-)
Chapter 6 Setting Up The X Window System.(Draft Should be done soon, Need feedback.)
Chapter 7 System Administration.(In Limbo until X is Done.)
Chapter 8 Practical FreeBSD Applications.(Just Getting Started, Need feedback.)
Appendix FreeBSD Index and Appendix(Don't bother)
Reader Feedback
We highly encourage you to take a look at the book, and to give us feedback. We'll take any suggestions -- good or bad! We want to make this book as user friendly as possible, and the best way to accomplish this task is to heavily incorporate reader feedback! So mail us at: fbsd-book@vmunix.com.Some kind readers have had this to say so far:
"Please, put me on the list for when this book comes to print!!! Great work!" --Randy Shepherd"I have looked at the website you suggested [this one], and although I have not read but 2 screenfuls, I can tell that I'm going to be able to follow your directions. Your documentation is far more complete [than the base FreeBSD docs]. May I suggest that your set of directions REPLACE the other documentation that tried to explain [the installation]." --Kurt Pott
