Welcome to our FreeBSD Guide!

Congratulations! You are about to undertake an incredible journey on your computer. FreeBSD is, in our opinion, the best and most enjoyable OS available. We could waste a lot of time trying to persuade you that FreeBSD is the best, but we'll summarize our argument in 3 Reasons for installing FreeBSD.

FreeBSD, with its long heritage as the descendant of 4.4BSD-lite, the last in a long line of Berkeley System Distributions of AT&T UNIX by the University of California at Berkeley, can rightfully be called a UNIX-derived Operating System and not a mere UNIX clone like Linux. Note, however, that with 4.4BSD-lite, UC Berkeley removed the remaining proprietary AT&T code from its Operating System, and turned over its future development to the community. There are three main branches of BSD, which in chronological order are NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD, but there are also other branches of BSD development, for example DragonFly BSD. Indeed, Mac OS X is also a BSD-derivative, although not a free one.

Although the number of BSD-derivatives out there might seem like a lot, consider the hundreds of different Linux distros floating around. We won't get into FreeBSD v. Linux discussions here, but I think you can guess which we prefer.

This site is intended as a guide to the installation and basic setup of FreeBSD on any x86 (AMD or Intel) based personal computer, for use as a Client OS. FreeBSD is most well-known as a Server OS, but there is absolutely no reason why you can't or shouldn't run FreeBSD as a Client OS. We do.

This FreeBSD Guide will be broken into sections. There are two ways to navigate our site. The first is to simply go through each page, clicking the "Next" or "Next Section" at the bottom of each page until you have progressed through the entire Installation portion of the Guide (which covers not just installation, but some useful applications as well as basic setup/configuration of your FreeBSD system). This is the recommended way of navigating the first few Sections, which are on installation and basic setup.

You can also navigate our site by browsing our "Table of Contents" and jumping directly to each Section you want from there. This is the recommended way of navigating the later sections, which do not necessarily have to be done in order.

Either way, you will find both our Table of Contents and our Step-by-Step walkthrough on the following page. First, however, we have to get some formalities out of the way. BY CONTINUING ON TO OUR NEXT PAGE, YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE HAVING READ AND MANIFEST YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT.

To anyone who acknowledges that the material contained on this web site is provided "AS IS" without any express or implied warranty: Dan and Kevin Reinholz hereby grant you a non-exclusive license to redistribute and use the material contained within this website ("The Guide"), with or without modification, provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions must retain this copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Any modifications to The Guide must be clearly documented as such. 3. Neither the name of Dan Reinholz nor of Kevin Reinholz ("The Authors") may be used to endorse or promote materials derived from The Guide without specific prior written permission. 4. Any dispute, whether in Strict Liability, Contract, Tort, or otherwise, arising between The Authors and any licensee, must be brought before the Weld County Courthouse, located in Greeley, Colorado, of the Nineteenth (19th) Judicial District of the State of Colorado, which shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any legal dispute on any theory of liability arising out of the use or redistribution of The Guide, and by accepting these terms you hereby waive any objection to personal jurisdiction or venue in the Nineteenth (19th) Judicial District of the State of Colorado. 5. By accepting this agreement, you hereby promise to forbear from your right to sue The Authors under any theory of Tort (including but not limited to negligence and Restatement (Second) of Torts, Section 402A), Contract (including the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, the U.C.C. (which cannot apply here because we are providing The Guide free of charge and are not in the business of selling such materials), or any theory arising out of Copyrights or any other Intellectual Property Rights law. As valuable consideration for your promise to forbear from suing, we provide you, the licensee, with the right to use and redistribute The Guide, free of charge. 6. The common law of the State of Colorado shall be binding upon all parties to this transaction, except where such has been abrogated by statute, or where such conflicts with the federal statutory law of the United States of America.

THE GUIDE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE DISCLAIMED. THE AUTHORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE OPERATION OF FreeBSD AND ANY SOFTWARE DISCUSSED IN THIS GUIDE, WHETHER AS THE RESULT OF FOLLOWING THE GUIDE, OR OTHERWISE, WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE. THE AUTHORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE USE OF THE GUIDE WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY COPYRIGHT, TRADE SECRET, PATENT, OR OTHER PROPRIETARY OR CONTRACTUAL RIGHTS OF ANOTHER PARTY. THE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT IS APPLICABLE TO ANY CLAIM THAT THE GUIDE, OR ANY PORTION THEREOF, INFRINGES ANOTHER'S COPYRIGHT, TRADE SECRET, PATENT, OR OTHER PROPRIETARY OR CONTRACTUAL RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF FreeBSD AND ANY SOFTWARE DISCUSSED IN THIS GUIDE, WHETHER AS THE RESULT OF FOLLOWING THE GUIDE, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

To ACCEPT these terms and continue on to The Guide, click HERE.

If you have a question about mirroring/redistributing our FreeBSD Guide, and/or have a question about the terms of this Agreement, you may contact Dan Reinholz at [reinholz {at} berkeley {dot} edu], or Kevin Reinholz at [reinholz {at} alumni {dot} sandiego {dot} edu]. (The e-mail addresses are written in this form to prevent bots from harvesting them for SPAM servers. For example, the address [john {at} anywhere {dot} com] would translate into john@anywhere.com). Mirroring instructions can be found here. We ask that you please do not contact us with troubleshooting questions. We unfortunately do not have time to address every issue that might arise in your use of FreeBSD and/or any related third-party software.