FreeBSD docs and howto

[Strog]

FreeBSD has had criticism from some because they were unable to find much help and howtos out on the web. There is a good reason there isn't a lot scattered docs like for Linux. Probably 95%+ of all the docs you need are right on FreeBSD's site.

FreeBSD Handbook
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html
This should be your first stop for any questions on FreeBSD. This is a very thorough doc that covers most of what you are going to need. It is available in print from places like bsdmall.com and others. You can also download all FreeBSD docs from ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/ in many languages and formats.

FreeBSD Docs
http://www.freebsd.org/docs.html
The has links to the Handbook, faqs, articles, newsgroups and much, much more. They also have man pages online for every release of FreeBSD since 1.0, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Ultrix, SunOS, Linux, Darwin, Plan9, XFree86 and more.


O'reilly Network FreeBSD section
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/ct/15
There's a bunch articles describing step by step how to get things done on FreeBSD like setting up IPSEC, Using DVD, Setup Sound, etc. Just a good supplement to the Handbook. They also have Apache, PHP, Perl, Linux, Mac and others sections if you are interested in those areas too. Oh, and they do have books here too. :)

If you still need help or want to make a comment then ask the good people here at Screaming Electron or goto IRC irc.freenode.net #screamingelectron for live discussions.

[elmore]

Great post strog! :D

[KrUsTy!]

Ahhh, the FreeBSD Handbook. If only everything in life had a handbook like FreeBSD....

I've been using FreeBSD for more then 4 years and I still sometimes refer to the handbook. Its is THE PLACE to start if you are new to FreeBSD and just a great reference period. I still find answers to questions and problems that I have even after all these years. I often use to it remind myself how FreeBSD does some things, because I move between FreeBSD and OpenBSD so often... (I run some of my boxes with Free and some with Open...)

Execellent post Strog!

{K}

[schotty]

I have yet to find documentation as well written and easily accessible as the BSD community.

[Strog]

Don't forget, they keep it up to date with the current release so there's always new stuff in there for you. You can still get good stuff out the handbook even if you've used FreeBSD for years. It has updated info for 5.0-RELEASE now.

I love how they talk about changes since the older releases e.g. ("this has been available since 2.2.7"). It's easy to see how it has progressed and matured over the years. I've never seen a document so thoroughly maintained over that many years and still seem so fresh and up to date.