This book is a friendly, task-oriented introduction to FreeBSD, a free, open-source, industrial strength operating system that runs on a personal computer (the same computer that runs Microsoft Windows) for users new to both FreeBSD and UNIX. FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your Personal Computer includes:

• installation CD-ROM for the full system plus many software applications
• space requirements, screen shots, and detailed instructions for installing FreeBSD
• step-by-step instructions on configuring and running FreeBSD, connecting to the Internet, setting up an internal network, and setting up sound, X Window (the graphical user interface), and printing.

Based on the UNIX developed at the University of California at Berkeley, FreeBSD is a major competitor to Linux for running Internet servers, the computers that handle elec-tronic mail for many users, provide files for download, and serve web pages. With this book and the included installation CD-ROM, individual users can install FreeBSD and run a system that goes beyond Microsoft Windows in capability, stability, and flexibility, provides full source code, and makes available thousands of ready-to-install third-party software programs (most of them free) including electronic mail, desktop applications, Netscape, programming languages, graphics, and web servers and other Internet applications.