"FreeBSD, and the other BSDs, are exceptionally stable and
powerful operating systems, but they can be quite different from
Linux. Although they share common principles and ideals, and a huge
amount of software, when it comes down to it, FreeBSD and Linux are
two different beasts. This doesn’t make FreeBSD better or
worse, but it is something to be aware of. Perhaps the most
challenging thing about FreeBSD is the initial installation. While
PC-BSD, another BSD variant, has made a lot of headway in making
BSD easy to use, FreeBSD is still king as far as the BSD’s
go.
"With the recent 8.0 release, it may be time to give FreeBSD a
look. FreeBSD is favoured by many for service management and
hosting, running Web servers and mail servers, etc. But it works as
a fully functional desktop as well. This tip will take a quick walk
through the installation. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending
on whether or not you are familiar with installing FreeBSD, the
installer has not changed significantly over the years. Yes, it is
still text-based.
"To begin, once FreeBSD boots, select your country region, then
select Standard installation. The next section is where you
partition the hard drive. If this disk already has partitions,
you’ll likely want to delete them. Creating a dual-boot
system with FreeBSD and Linux or Windows isn’t impossible,
but beyond the scope of this tip."
