Why I’ve Chosen BSD
Fear not, kindred users of Linux. I have not abandoned the faith!
Recently, I threw down the gauntlet to other computer geeks: if you’re looking to learn something new, try a new operating system. To make sure I’m not a poser, I’m taking up my own challenge. I’ve always felt that it was more important for me to be able to approach any computer on the planet with some level of skill (or at least with a couple of commands to try) than it was for me to pledge exclusive allegiance to one particular platform. I prefer openSUSE Linux, for a number of reasons, but with the exception of picking on Debian (because a friend of mine is a huge fan and I like to be contrary), I don’t really hate any of the other distros or operating systems. Still, I need to broaden my scope.
My workbench needs a dedicated system, and I don’t want to use one of my production laptops anywhere *near* my tools. (”Gee, boss, I’m not sure how I managed to drop my Kawasaki rotary tool on my ThinkPad! Weird!”) I’ve got a couple of older laptops that are basically collecting dust, and aren’t buff enough for Windows or one of the newer Linux distros.
I’ve decided to hit those two challenges with one solution: load an older version of BSD.
My inspiration? In surfing around the ‘net looking for other women using Linux, I came across Dru Lavigne’s “A Year in the Life of a BSD Guru” site, and I’m sucked in.
Lavigne is a long-time BSD administrator, the author of “BSD Hacks” and the FreeBSD Basics column over at O’Reilly, and an active member of SYSTERS. I’m *still* combing through all the information she has on her blog page, because there’s a lot. And being exposed to all that stuff that I knew only a little bit about helped me make the decision to choose PC-BSD. Consider this “The PC-BSD Experiment, Part 0″. Next time I address this topic, I’ll let you know what versions are available for my hardware - which is a few years old - so that should be interesting. (I’ll try to keep the profanity to a minimum.)
Have you ever installed a version of PC-BSD? Drop me a line at ubergeeke@dotfiveone.com and share your experiences!
Related posts:
- 5 Ways to be a Better Computer Geek
- Latest Project: openSUSE 11.0 File/Media Server
- Quick update on the BSD Project
- Linux Pro’s ROSE Gives Verdict On SCALE
- DesktopBSD 1.6: First Roadblock Is An Interrupt Storm
