*BSD News Article 56631


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From: michael@okjunc.junction.net (Michael Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.advocacy,comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD
Date: 12 Dec 1995 05:46:39 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction, Vernon B.C., Canada
Lines: 53
Message-ID: <4aj4vv$vci@felix.junction.net>
References: <49ssit$51@bell.maths.tcd.ie> <49ve3t$of2@taiwan.informatik.uni-rostock.de>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:30019 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:10243 comp.unix.advocacy:12064 comp.unix.misc:20019

In article <49ve3t$of2@taiwan.informatik.uni-rostock.de>,
Lars Koeller <uphya001@odie.physik2.uni-rostock.de> wrote:
>In article <49ssit$51@bell.maths.tcd.ie>, tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy) writes:
>|> root@dyson.iquest.net (John S. Dyson) writes:
>|> 
>|> >Please refer to the FreeBSD documentation
>|> >for supping the -current or -stable trees.
>|> 
>|> Which FreeBSD documentation?
>|> The last time I looked the FreeBSD documentation
>|> was in a terrible shambles.
>|> I wouldn't recomment FreeBSD to anyone who is not familiar with BSD Unix
>|> unless this has been cleaned up.

>       What are you talking about?   Do you really think  not seeing a book
>   with  'FreeBSD How To Do"  on the cover there  are no good documentation
>   available?  What about the  complete 4.4-BSD documentation set (5  books
>   with approx  3900  pages!, Prog.  Ref. Man.,  User's  Ref. Man.,  User's
>   Supplementary  Doc., Prog. Suppl. Doc., and System Managers Man.).

None of that stuff is FreeBSD documentation and most of it is useless to 
FreeBSD newbies. The reason that it is useless is that when somebody 
walks into a bookstore and asks for FreeBSD books and the clerk says 
sorry we don't have any but there is this 4.4BSD stuff and the newbie 
says do you think that would cover FreeBSD 2.1 and the clerk says I dunno,
well, then you have a newbie with no documentation at all and that is 
pretty useless if you ask me. Don't tell me about /usr/share/doc because 
that doesn't count because when a newbie pulls out a FreeBSD 2.1 CD-ROM 
and wonders how to work this thing and there is no book to curl up with 
in front of the fireplace then you have a newbie with *NO* docs.

>   The only UN*X which NEEDS special documentation is LINUX!

Then how come SCO UNIX comes with a full set of manuals that say SCO all
over them and how come I used to work with AT&T 3B2 UNIX it came with a
full set of mauals with AT&T UNIX written all over them and how come just
about every UNIX known to man except BSDI (there's that BSD word again!)
comes with a set of manuals and how come the only way to make your UNIX 
known is "man". Huh? Does BSD stand for Ban Stupid Docs or maybe it 
stands for Viral Disorder Causing Manuals And Other Documentation To 
Disappear Or Camouflage Itself Or Hide Itself In Interesting Places, BSD 
for short?

If such a simple OS as DOS can have 500 different books, guides and 
manuals, then why can't FreeBSD have 4 or 5? Is there a law against it? 
Is it unAmerican? 



-- 
Michael Dillon                                    Voice: +1-604-546-8022
Memra Software Inc.                                 Fax: +1-604-542-4130
http://www.memra.com                             E-mail: michael@memra.com