On Tue, 20 Nov 2001, Shea A Martin wrote:

> 1.  How hard is it so set up a dhcp client (ie. my isp uses dhcp?).

A dhcp client is installed by default.

I normally just type "dhclient" for it to do its magic. You can have itbe
done automatically at boot time by adding "dhclient=YES" to the end of
your /etc/rc.conf.

> 2.  The school uses v. 1.4.2 on PII's,  and all assignments must be able
> run on the schools machines.  But at the same time it is nice to have
> the latest version.  What is the compatibility like b/n the two versions
> as far as C/C++ systems programming, and shell scripting.  (I oftern
> develop on my linux workstation, but find the portability to be hit and
> miss, ie.  commands output info is diff format for shell scripts, netbsd
> has a slightly different set of libs and c header files.)  Is it fairly
> safe to go with 1.5 or should I go with 1.4?

Go with 1.5.

> 3.  Is there an iso image I can download for install purposes, or it is
> net install only?

Yes. Look at http://www.netbsd.org/Sites/cdroms.html#officialiso

> 4.  For post install prog/app installation,   what is the default
> method?  tar xvzf app.tar.gz; make; make install?  Or is there a fancy
> system like debian's apt-get, or rh's rpm?

The package system -- which can be used two ways:
1) install from a binary package (i.e. "pkg_add netscape")
2) install from pkgsrc tree (i.e. "cd /usr/pkgsrc/THE-CATEGORY; 
   cd THE-SOFTWARE ; make install").

It is pretty useful. Visit http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/software/ .

> 5.  What is default filesystem for 1.5?  Can I choose during install?

"The type ffs is the default." This is the Berkeley Fast File System.

I don't think you can choose during install. You can choose which
filesystem types are for your partitions (fdisk) during install though.

Good luck with NetBSD ...

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://www.reedmedia.net/