Hi! To begin with, I know there is a dedicated sub-forum for this, but I'm not able to create a new thread there, and I'm not able to find anything in the threads already there to suit my needs either.
This being said, I'm currently using Mac OS X Leopard, which is a great operating system, but I've always wanted to learn how to use UNIX-based operating system, without a GUI. I've chosen to study FreeBSD as this name comes the most often on the computer science boards/blogs I read.
What I'd like to be able to do is, mainly, programming (C/C++, Python, as well as Web Development, and, in the future, Java), but it would be nice to also be able to listen to music, browse the web (Lynx?), and... well... I'd like to know as much as possible about UNIX, so at some point, it would be nice to understand/have an opinion on all those kernel and such advanced discussions out there. I can't tell for sure, I'm too young (14), but I'm not pursuing a career as a system administrator, so I don't think I would need the specifics of it.
I'd also like to be be able to use my Mac's Terminal in order to do things which cannot be done through the GUI, or can be done better through the CLI. I've already got my foot wet with vim and I write all my C/C++/Python code with it.
I was thinking of downloading FreeBSD, and get
The FreeBSD Handbook. I've downloaded the book, but I don't know what I should download from the FTP server. I've had a look over the documentation, and I think I should download
7.2-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso.gz from
here. My Mac is a last generation MBP, so I have to download the ISO for the i386 architecture, right? And the image I pointed out to is the one which has to be burned on one DVD, right?
As for the part of UNIX for OS X, I found
this book. Is it going to help me after using the OS and the handbook?
And what else would you recommend me to do/read/study?
Thanks a lot in advance!