Linux seems to be getting all of the press these days and it should. Hour by hour this upstart OS is gaining momentum and more converts from a growing body of people who would like to be free from the Redmond Juggernaut. But many haven't heard--must less tried--the "other" Unix OS: the BSD's.Arguably one of the easiest of the BSD's to use and probably the most desktop friendly, FreeBSD has all of the stability and security of Linux with the same freedoms that one enjoys with Linux. But the BSD's are not Linux. They are direct decendants of Unix containing all of the power and robustness but at a price you can afford.
The FreeBSD Powerpack gives one all of the ingredients to get a full-blown Unix box up and running on their home computer. It comes with CDs as well as a manual delving into the most pertinent issues a newcomer would have to deal with.
Be forewarned, however. FreeBSD does not have as much hardware support as Linux does. Since Linux has been getting most of the attention, more drivers are made for Linux than are made for FreeBSD. However, with that said, more and more drivers are becoming available for FreeBSD all the time so this fact should not discourage one that much.
Another benefit of FreeBSD is its Linux emulation layer whereby it can run Linux programs at native speeds that are sometimes even faster than on Linux itself. So application support is not an issue. And most Linux apps are easily ported to FreeBSD.
One last difference: where Linux is the name of the kernel only with GNU programs over top of it, FreeBSD is one monolithic program--from the kernel to the outer applications. And FreeBSD enjoys a more mature code base than that of Linux.
Highly recommended for those wanting to get their feet wet with Unix at an affordable price.
Buy it and be free. FreeBSD that is!
