I think this is a pretty good explanation for why RTFM is such a common refrain.
Well, yeah, technically I did say the same thing. But because of the 'F' RTFM
is kind of rude.
And there are situations when I say the same
I don't want to put off any newbie. I don't see neither myself, nor this community as a bunch of snotty arrogant a.... but am interested in growing the game.
There may be other operating systems for "come back when you are a real hacker, unworthy one." Neither I see with FreeBSD this is the case, nor I want that to be (If you don't want to be free to others, stay closed [source]!)
I remember my own first steps I had ~thirty years ago with Linux, and the experience I had with some of those guys in some of their forums those days shaped my attitude about Linux to kind of 'FU!' - and it still lingers on.
If this can be avoided by some more kindly chosen words, at least I try.
Get into Unix[like] primarily means learn to help yourself, which primarily means two things:
Know where to start. And learn to find documentation, and learn how to read it. That's exactly what the very first chapters of any book about Unix[like] I ever looked into are all about: Where to get documentation. Unfortunately those chapters seldom explain how to read. Which of course is almost impossible to explain usefully, since everybody has her or his own style, so need to find out for themselves.
But FreeBSD comes with a lot of additional documentation. "Only" covering selected, the most needed tasks, at least for the start. So not covering everything, but therefore explaining more:
The
FreeBSD HB, the
FAQs, the
Wiki, and this forums (Well this forums covers almost everything, but threads getting almost always lost in off-topic details very quickly.
This forums are a real goldmine. But you also need to learn how to dig them.
Tip: Use
duckduckgo.com instead of the forums' intern search: "FreeBSD [.....]" almost always produces a suitable link to this forums as first shot, which most of the times is all you were looking for.)
Plus there are a lot of books, also recommended in this forums. Exemplary examples I picked up here are:
Kochan, Wood,
Shell Programming in Unix, Linux and OS X, Addison Wesly (Very easy to read, and to comprehend; very good to quickly get in.)
Robbins, Beebe,
Classic Shell Scripting, O'Reilly (a bit more ambitious, therefor more complex things are teached.)
Those are not just for shell scripting, only, but very good to get into any unix[like] at all (in general usage of the system; not covering technical details for setting something up, or configure anything, of course.)
But the main and core documentation are and stay the
manpages
While any book can only cover selected topics, the timeless fundamentals, be more general, or being outdated quickly. The manpages are the only way to have a complete, and up-to-date documentation of everything, if they are maintained parallel to the software, because they are part of it.
But they are very brief, not explaining much, needed to be learned how to read, and use them. (I think I recall I saw some How-To "Read Manpages" here in the forums...
)
So, bottom line:
I try to give anybody a good start into FreeBSD: Feel her or him welcome, and give some hint, where to start.
But I will not repeat again (and again) what's already written in the official documentation.
This will not help in the long term anyway.
I fully feel with a newbie being overchallenged by the immense amount of documentation there is, the tasks need to be done, and furthermore all the things that
can be done - especially when some one comes from the tiny and "everything is already prechewed for you on the silver platter" Windows universe - it's already hard to find where to start (FAQs (5...10 minutes), then
The Handbook 
.)
If somebody is not willing to go this road - which is pretty okay - then FreeBSD is not the correct choice.
Then I may also say a RTFM:"Buddy, reconsider! Then decide: Do it. Do it now. Do it another time. Or don't do it all. It's all okay. But nobody is going this way for you, because nobody can but you, and only you."
