There are many sources of information about FreeBSD; some are included with this distribution, while others are available on-line or in print versions.
A number of other files provide more specific information about this snapshot distribution. These files are provided in various formats. Most distributions will include both ASCII text (.TXT) and HTML (.HTM) renditions. Some distributions may also include other formats such as PostScript (.PS) or Portable Document Format (.PDF).
README.TXT: This file, which gives some general information about FreeBSD as well as some cursory notes about obtaining a distribution.
RELNOTES.TXT: The release notes, showing what's new and different in FreeBSD 6.4-STABLE compared to the previous release (FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE).
HARDWARE.TXT: The hardware compatibility list, showing devices with which FreeBSD has been tested and is known to work.
INSTALL.TXT: Installation instructions for installing FreeBSD from its distribution media.
ERRATA.TXT: Release errata. Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in this file, which is principally applicable to releases (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult this file before installing a release of FreeBSD, as it contains the latest information on problems which have been found and fixed since the release was created.
Note: Several of these documents (in particular, RELNOTES.TXT, HARDWARE.TXT, and INSTALL.TXT) contain information that is specific to a particular hardware architecture. For example, the alpha release notes contain information not applicable to the i386™, and vice versa. The architecture for which each document applies will be listed in that document's title.
On platforms that support sysinstall(8) (currently alpha, i386, ia64, pc98, and SPARC64®), these documents are generally available via the Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the sysinstall(8) utility.
Note: It is extremely important to read the errata for any given release before installing it, to learn about any “late-breaking news” or post-release problems. The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be consulted as the “current errata” for this release. These other copies of the errata are located at http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/ (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this location).
As with almost all UNIX® like operating systems, FreeBSD comes with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the man(1) command or through the hypertext manual pages gateway on the FreeBSD Web site. In general, the manual pages provide information on the different commands and APIs available to the FreeBSD user.
In some cases, manual pages are written to give information on particular topics. Notable examples of such manual pages are tuning(7) (a guide to performance tuning), security(7) (an introduction to FreeBSD security), and style(9) (a style guide to kernel coding).
Two highly-useful collections of FreeBSD-related information, maintained by the FreeBSD Project, are the FreeBSD Handbook and FreeBSD FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions document). On-line versions of the Handbook and FAQ are always available from the FreeBSD Documentation page or its mirrors. If you install the doc distribution set, you can use a Web browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.
A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by the FreeBSD Project, cover more-specialized, FreeBSD-related topics. This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use of the mailing lists, to dual-booting FreeBSD with other operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the FreeBSD Documentation Page or in the doc distribution set.
A listing of other books and documents about FreeBSD can be found in the bibliography of the FreeBSD Handbook. Because of FreeBSD's strong UNIX heritage, many other articles and books written for UNIX systems are applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the bibliography.
This file, and other release-related documents, can be downloaded from http://www.FreeBSD.org/snapshots/.
For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
All users of FreeBSD 6-STABLE should subscribe to the <stable@FreeBSD.org> mailing list.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.