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<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN">
%man;
<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN">
%authors;
<!ENTITY % mlists PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Mailing List Entities//EN">
%mlists;
<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN">
%release;
]>
<article>
<articleinfo>
<title>&os; &release.current; README</title>
<corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor>
<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
<copyright>
<year>2000</year>
<year>2001</year>
<holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder>
</copyright>
</articleinfo>
<abstract>
<para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os;
&release.current;. It includes a roadmap to the other release
documentation files, as well as some pointers on obtaining &os; and
contacting the &os; development team.</para>
</abstract>
<sect1>
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the
latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Target Audience</title>
<![ %release.type.snapshot; [
<para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters and
various other users who want to get involved with the ongoing
development of &os;. While the &os; development team tries its
best to ensure that each &release.type; works as
advertised, &release.branch; is very much a work-in-progress.</para>
<para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type are
technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the ongoing
development process of &os; &release.current;
(as discussed on the &a.current;).</para>
<para>For those more interested
in doing business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os;
technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev;) are frequently more
appropriate. Releases undergo a period of testing and quality
assurance checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para>
]]>
<![ %release.type.release; [
<para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It has
undergone a period of testing and quality assurance
checking to ensure the highest reliability and dependability.</para>
]]>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="release-docs">
<title>Release Documentation</title>
<para>A number of other files provide more specific information
about this &release.type; distribution. These files are provided
in various formats. Most distributions will include both ASCII
text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML
(<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions may
also include other formats such as PostScript
(<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format
(<filename>.PDF</filename>).
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which
gives some general information about &os; as well as some
cursory notes about obtaining a distribution.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release notes,
showing what's new and different in &os; &release.current;
compared to &os; &release.prev;.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware
compatability list, showing devices with which &os; has been
tested and is known to work.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation
instructions for installing &os; from its distribution
media.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata.
Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in this
file, which is principally applicable to releases (as opposed to
snapshots). It is important to consult this file before
installing a release of &os;, as it contains
the latest information on problems which have been found and
fixed since the release was created.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>Most information is also available from the
Documentation menu during installation.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>About &os;</title>
<para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD
Lite for Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC
hardware and Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers. Versions for
the IA64 and PowerPC architectures are currently under
development as well. &os; works with a
wide variety of peripherals and configurations and can be
used for everything from software development to games to Internet Service
Provision.</para>
<para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run
such a system, including full source code for the kernel and all
utilities in the base distribution. With the
source distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire
system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for students,
researchers, or users who simply want to see how it all works.</para>
<para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the
<quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it easy
to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX
utilities for &os;. Each
<quote>port</quote> consists of a set of scripts to retrieve,
configure, build, and install a piece of software, with a single
command. Over 5000 ports, from editors to programming
languages to graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and
comprehensive operating environment that extends far beyond what's
provided by many commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also
available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be
quickly installed from the installation program.</para>
<para>Pointers to more documentation on &os; can be found in the
<ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html#BIBLIOGRAPHY-FREEBSD">Books
& Magazines Specific to FreeBSD</ulink> section of the &os; Handbook.
Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, many other articles and books written
for UNIX systems are applicable as well. A selection of these documents
can be found in the Handbook's <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">Bibliography</ulink>.
</para>
<para>If you're new to &os; then you should also read
all of the documentation files listed in <xref linkend="release-docs">,
all of which are available from the Documentation menu in the
installation program.
It may seem
like a lot to read, but it's important to at least acquaint yourself with
the types of information available, should you run into problems later. Once
the system is installed, you can also revisit this menu by running
the &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para>
<para>On-line
versions of the <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink>
(Frequently Asked Questions document) and <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> are always
available from the <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation
page</ulink> or its mirrors.
If you install the
<filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a
Web browser to read the FAQ and Handbook locally.</para>
<note>
<para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any given
release before installing it, to learn about any
<quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems.
The
errata file accompanying each release
(most likely right next to this file) is already out of
date by definition, but other copies are kept updated on the Internet
and should be consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for
this release. These
other copies of the errata are located at
<ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink>
(as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this
location).</para>
</note>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Obtaining &os;</title>
<para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section
focuses on those ways that are primarily of use for obtaining a
complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing
installation.</para>
<sect2>
<title>CDROM and DVD</title>
<para>&os; -RELEASE distributions (for example, 4.3-RELEASE) may
be ordered on CDROM or DVD from several publishers. This is
frequently the most convenient way to obtain &os; for new
installations, as it provides a convenient way to quickly
reinstall the system if necessary. Some distributions include
some of the optional, precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the
&os; Ports Collection.</para>
<para>A list of the CDROM and DVD
publishers known to the project are listed in the <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining
FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>FTP</title>
<para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its
optional packages from <ulink
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which
is the
official &os; release site, or any of its <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para>
<para>Lists of locations that mirror &os;
can be found in the <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP
Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the
<ulink url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages.
Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to
download the distribution is highly recommended.</para>
<para>Additional mirror sites are
always welcome.
Contact <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more
details on becoming an official mirror site.</para>
<para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary
to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files needed
for the install process itself. Some mirrors also contain some of
the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of a &os; release.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="contacting">
<title>Contacting the &os; Project</title>
<sect2>
<title>Email and Mailing Lists</title>
<para>For any questions or general technical support issues, please send
mail to the &a.questions;.</para>
<para>If you're tracking the -current development efforts, you
<emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to keep
abreast of recent developments and changes that may affect the way
you use and maintain the system.
<para>Additionally, being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os;
Project is always happy to
have extra hands willing to help — there are already far more
desired enhancements than there is time to implement them.
To contact the developers on technical matters, or with offers of help, please
send mail to the &a.hackers;.</para>
<para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience
<emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic and if you have
slow or expensive mail access and are only interested in keeping up
with significant &os; events, you may find it preferable to
subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para>
<para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone
wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo;
and include the keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself
somewhere in the body of the message. This will give you more
information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, etc.
There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest
groups not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either
through majordomo or the <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing lists
section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para>
<important>
<para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists asking to
be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address
instead.</para>
</important>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Submitting Problem Reports</title>
<para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are
always valued — please do not hesitate to report any problems you
may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of course even more
welcome.</para>
<para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine with
Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; command or
use the Web form at <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>.
<quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way will be filed and
their progress tracked; the &os; developers will do their best to respond to all
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
available on the &os; Web site; this list is useful to see what
potential problems other users have encountered.</para>
<para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that should
be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using this interface
is highly preferred.
If, for some reason, you are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to
submit a bug report, you can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para>
<para>In any case, before submitting a PR,
please try to determine whether the problem might have already been
fixed since.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Acknowledgments</title>
<para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not
thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked
countless hours to bring about this &release.type;.
For a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see
<ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/">Contributors
to FreeBSD</ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its mirrors.</para>
<para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users and
testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; simply would
not have been possible.</para>
</sect1>
</article>
|