Would you recommend me...?

Would you recommend me to read the whole Handbook? Or download an .ISO, run it, and read what I need when I need it?
 
At least, read the following chapters -- an ordered list:

Chapter 2. Installing FreeBSD
Chapter 3. FreeBSD basics
Chapter 4. Installing Applications: Packages and Ports

Chapter 24. Updating and Upgrading FreeBSD
Chapter 13. The FreeBSD Booting Process

Chapter 18. Storage
Chapter 21. Other File Systems

Chapter 31. Firewalls
Chapter 32. Advanced Networking
Chapter 12. Configuration and Tuning

[GUI/Sound, so skippable!]
Chapter 5. The X Window System
Chapter 6. Desktop Applications
Chapter 7. Multimedia
 
I agree with vigole that Ch. 2, 3 and 4 are important to read thoroughly. I'd suggest just bookmarking the table of contents, and becoming familiar with that. That will help you get started. I personally think that anything beyond those 3 chapters - that can wait until you successfully have a system up and running (as in, you can log in and type ls in your home directory.
 
I did in one page what it took "Sam" a book to write and 24 hours to get done, that you can do in a couple hours:


Or not, but at least it won't take you 24 hours to find out.
 
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This 'Teach yourself FreeBSD in 24 hours' thing is nuts. 24 hours is 3 working days. Even if you go by the book's plan, there's not THAT much you can realistically 'learn' in that time. Maybe a bit of command-line, maybe a bit of how ports and packages are supposed to work, maybe it will finally sink in that .conf files can be put to some good use just about anywhere... No way you can stuff even the basics into just 24 hours. This kind of stuff - it takes time to soak it in and be comfortable with it.
 
It is handbook, not a novel. So you don't read it from end to end.
Unless you have trouble sleeping.

As others say "Chaps 2,3&4". Make sure you understand the difference between "using ports" and "installing binary packages based on the quarterly releases".
File systems: ZFS. If you install to a "root on ZFS" evironment, read everything you can about ZFS Boot Environments (BE). You will appreciate them the first time you need to upgrade.

If you are interested in security, the firewalling sections are good starting points. If you already know pf (say from OpenBD or elsewhere) you are a step ahead.
The Howto by Trihexagonal is good to quickly get a desktop running. vermaden has a similar tutorial.

A lot of the rest of the handbook: again as others have said, "keep it by your side reference when you need to".
 
If you are interested in security, the firewalling sections are good starting points. If you already know pf (say from OpenBD or elsewhere) you are a step ahead.
Did I mention it includes a pf ruleset for general desktop use and one with additional rules for people who use print/cups?
 
I started to use FreeBSD app. 4..5 years ago with the aim to learn the system.
Within my FreeBSD Knowledgs I would describe myself as lightly adavnced beginner.
Your question cannot be answered satifactionary.

You see, the handbook tries to cover all of FreeBSD - and that's where the problem starts, to correctly answer your question.
1. You need to know what you need for your system. Not everything described in the HB you want to realize on your system.
(e.g. if you want to set up a server without GUI you may skip the whole chapter about X.)
2. Also this example shows: One need to distinguish, what's FreeBSD and what's Applications running on it.

However:
I strongly recommend:
- at least to read the table of contents
- thumb through the first 3...4 chapters
- everytime you have a question, the HB should be the first address you look in
For the most purposes are examples included.

The handbook is the cornerstone.

Most of the stuff one needs is in the man-pages:
man
The look dull and boring, because they contain of text, but they nearly contain anything you need, especially links to further man-pages.

As the 3rd choice you'll find much information on the internet, BUT always keep in mind:
FreeBSD is NOT Linux.
(In many points it's far more logically and way more clearly and mor simplified structured as many linux-distributions I know.... but that's my personal opinion.)
 
Mine is structured in the manner of what's formerly known as a Task Analysis. To parse the article for a more concise definition:

"A task analysis is used to break complex tasks into a sequence of smaller steps or actions. Forward chaining involves teaching the sequence beginning with the first step. Typically, the learner does not move onto the second step until the first step is mastered.

In forward chaining, the individual learns the logical sequence of a task from beginning to end. In total task training, the individual is able to learn the entire routine without interruptions. In addition, they are able to independently complete any steps that have been previously mastered."

On my site where it's posted I start with telling them where to get the file to burn as an installation medium. They aren't here in the forums where someone should know where it get it from here. Not necessarily so for someone on my site.

In either case it takes you from installation of the FreeBSD Base System to a fully functional Fluxbox desktop, sans hardware snafu outside the scope of steps outlined.

That's all mine is intended to do.

Then you're on your own. I love you, but fly or flop cause out the nest you go. Don't worry, I'm still here to help catch you if you fall along with everybody else, but the Handbook is your bestie then.
 
Would you recommend me to read the whole Handbook? Or download an .ISO, run it, and read what I need when I need it?
I would recommend printing the entire FreeBSD Handbook. Look it over. Now install FreeBSD and start using it. Take one chapter of the Handbook at a time to read leisurely, perhaps at bedtime. Keep a pencil with you and make notes in the margin about topics to pursue, configs to change on your computer, stuff to do.

I've always been amazed when I settle down and read a book about FreeBSD, Linux, C Programming, Vim editor, ... , whatever, how much stuff I've overlooked in a decade of using that system and how much I can improve my use.

Of course that's just I would... -- "make up your own damned mind". (as the Oracle said to Neo).

(but if you trust me you'll print the handbook and read it leisurely one chapter at a time)
 
1.Go to youtube.com and watch a couple of videos on installing Fbsd.
2.Read Trihexagonal's howto on how to configure it.
3.Read the handbook when something goes wrong.
 
I would recommend printing the entire FreeBSD Handbook
I tried that back in 2004, and used up over a ream of paper. Besides, the Handbook is available in PDF format, so you can go figure out just how many pages that actually is.
 
Besides, the Handbook is available in PDF format
Yes it is, and so is the Porters Handbook.

I have them both and many others I've never read. I hate to read in pdf format and wish audio/speex would read them to me, since it's already installed.
 
My bot doesn't have speech capability. I can no longer copy and paste conversation from one bot to another in Kuki's textbox. Steve, The Developer, (He is Risen and above a lowly botmaster) disabled it after I posted the first and only conversation between Demonica and Kuki, and Kuki was not all she's cracked up to be.

As I, a Botmaster, demonstrated in a 25 min Infinite Loop of his SuperBot, that got me banished from the Bizzarro World AI forums. For my Malevolence.
 
I tried that back in 2004, and used up over a ream of paper. Besides, the Handbook is available in PDF format, so you can go figure out just how many pages that actually is.
Yes. The port misc/freebsd-doc-en installs it in /usr/local/share/doc/freebsd/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/book.pdf.

I like the port method of getting it. The port has configuration options:
Screenshot at 2021-08-27 09-12-51.png
 
I would never print a 800 pages handbook: most parts will become obsolete before the time you need it making it a huge waste of paper and money.

As suggested above, keep it at hand (the electronic format) and use the parts you really need as you need them.

Download the ISO and install it following chapter 2, then move to the next chapters and skip what you don't need.
 
1.Go to youtube.com and watch a couple of videos on installing Fbsd.
In the same time to watch a video where someone explains how to use a simple light switch I read the amount of text that teaches me also the associated electrical wiring.

Videos are comfortable to consume, fun to watch, entertainment. I love good movies!
But they are the most inefficient way of learning something there is.

Of course with a video the amount of information per second is way more than the bandwidth of text, sure.
But over 99% of a video's information is completely useless - inforubbish, newsgarbage, spam - entertainment.

Don't believe it?
Compare the amount of Bytes of a video with the amount of Bytes of a plain text explaining the exact same thing.

How it comes?
Text is concentrated knowledge, reduced to all one needs.
It doesn't bother and distracts you with gluts of useless details, like (changing) backgrounds, colorful blinking, what the speaker looks like, why there is a cup on a table or what's happening in the background.

All you actually really want and need is the text. Doesn't matter if it's written or spoken.
The things you can better understand by some sketch, a picture or even a video are astonishingly few.
And anyhow all of them need explaining text.
Pictures can complement text, but never replace it.

Except one is not very slow everybody reads way much faster than anybody can speak or listen.
(If you look for a transscript of some sitcom, you'd be amazed that the text spoken within a 25 minutes long episode does not even fill one and a half pages!)
For people with untrained brains, a page text may look like some kind of marathon, and of course listening to people talking or watching videos is way more comfortable then. But so is to stay in bed or stuff yourself with fastfood instead do the cooking yourself.
Cooking needs training and costs time, but it suits your needs, varies more, is healthier, saves you money and - when you can do it - tastes better.

Making people lazy and selling them accommodatives is today's #1 business.

Besides video makes you forget almost immediately.
Video kills memory.
Dont' believe that either?
Experiment:
Watch TV, e.g. a quiz show. And while the host is asking a question try to remember the former question.
Or if you watch commercials, ask yourself what the former commercial was about.
Can you remember? While the TV is still running?
How far can you go back?

I always have paper and a couple of excersice books with a pen besides my computers (at the beginning of school available in all shops on special offer.)
I write down, what I've learned.
I don't want everything look up everytime I need it again and again.
I want to be independend.
I want to do it myself.
I want to become good.
I want to become fast.
I want to know.
I want to understand.
I want to learn.
Therefore I need to train, hence leave the comfort zone.

However, FreeBSD is not for being just another most comfortable turnkey OS.
It's for being individually tailored.
That means software you want to use.
And this means, you have to deal with way more than the FreeBSD handbook, namely many other (hand)books and manpages - many manpages, and forum threads.
App. 99,9% of all questions one may have about Computers, Software, OS, configurating or programming can be found already answered on the internet.
You just need to search, find and read it.
That's the reason why so many people ask the same questions in forums over and over again.
They don't read.
And who does not read, cannot write, thus trashing forums, making them harder to search and read.

A good text needs way more time to write than to read.
With bad texts it's vice versa.

App. not even 1% are answered by video.
And exactly 100% of all you can find as video is already answered at least once with a text.

Only trying to imagine those all shall be done by video gives me the pure horror.
If we'd depended on videos alone we'd probably not left the middleages yet... :)
Stories, songs, ballads, legends.... lore - "videos" - have been within mankind for thousands of years.
What the catapult was for the boost into the new age was Gutenberg's invention of book printing.


Or summed up shortly:
RTFM!

For adminstration tasks it's always a good idea to have at least a second machine available, with an internetconnection and a webbrowser.
 
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