*BSD News Article 99488


Return to BSD News archive

Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.Hawaii.Edu!news.caldera.com!enews.sgi.com!newshub1.home.com!news.home.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!torn!nott!statcan.ca!jeays
From: jeays@statcan.ca (Mike Jeays)
Subject: Re: Some questions about FreeBSD
Message-ID: <ED6qwE.9Fv@statcan.ca>
Organization: Statistics Canada
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
References: <33C3E848.BBF308F8@sover.net>
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 02:57:49 GMT
Lines: 65
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:44294

Derek (destey@sover.net) wrote:
: Currently, I am a win95 user. I am also a student. I am thinking of
: installing FreeBSD onto my computer. I have a few questions:

: Will it interfere with win95?
: How does it deal with existing msdos/win95 partitions?
: Can I uninstall it?
: Is a book on unix worth buying?
: Is there any way this can mess up my computer?
: What about linux?

: Any help would be much appreciated. :)
: -- 
: !Notice!: In a few days/weeks I will be putting in a filter that deletes
: all messages that do not have "Re:" or "Attn:" in the subject line.
: Sorry for the inconvenience, but it is necessary to combat spammers.

:      +-------------------------------------------+
:      |Derek					 |
:      |web: http://www.sover.net/~restey/         |
:      +-------------------------------------------+
:  ____       _____   ______     _____     _    _    _
: |  _ \     |   __)  |  _  \   |   __)   | |  / /  | |
: | | \ \    |  |_    | |_)  |  |  |_     | | / /   | |
: | |  \ \   |   _)   |    _/   |   _)    | |/ /    | |
: | |  / /   |  |     | |\ \    |  |      |   (     | |
: | |_/ /    |  |__   | | \ \   |  |__    | |\ \     _  
: |____/     |_____)  |_|  \_\  |_____)   |_| \_\   (_)

Yes, you can set up FreeBSD as a dual-boot system.  I have
been running one for over a year - and find I hardly ever
use Win95 any more.  It includes all the software to set up
the dual boot.  You need to install it AFTER Win95; it can be
done the other way around, but is a bit trickier.

You can mount the Win95 partition, provided it is NOT compressed,
within FreeBSD.  I have done this successfully, but there are
some configurations where it doesn't work - if you get messages
about 'cluster error' or some such, unmount the DOS partition
before you attempt to write on it.

Yes, you can uninstall it.

One good book of very many is "Unix Secrets", by James Armstrong.
It is a great introduction, and goes into lots of detail.

Yes, you certainly can mess up your Win95 setup if you try!  But
it is not likely if you are careful.  I have in fact had FreeBSD
crash and burn when I had some faulty memory, but the Win95
partition was unharmed.

FreeBSD is much more stable.  You can run it for weeks if the
hardware is reliable.

I haven't tried Linux myself.  I won't get into the differences,
as it is one of the best ways to start a 'holy war'.  Both
are excellent operating systems.

Good luck if you try it - I have been extremely satisfied.  It
has made home computing much more interesting, after using
Microsoft products at work all day.  Get the CD-ROM if you
can - it has more software on it than you can explore in
years, and licenses for equivalent commercial products would
cost thousands of dollars.  It comes with a complete C/C++
compiler to start with - of very high quality.