7 Days Challenge
We're currently investigating the possibility of creating a high level guide that introduces a user to FreeBSD. This guide would be split into two sections: Level 1 and Level 2.
Level 1 would be designed to challenge the user to install and try FreeBSD over a seven day period. It's designed to walk the user through all processes and guide them on how-to implement common solutions (such as a desktop environment.) This work would also be designed to come before the Handbook, which would remain a technical manual/reference.
Level 2 would take everything learned in Level 1 and start adding additional layers of knowledge on top of it to further improve the user's capabilities with FreeBSD. Level 2 would be focused on developing a FreeBSD workstation or server environment for hosting serious workloads.
The 7DC will be based around a few core concepts:
- Getting user onboard with FreeBSD quickly
- Helping the user to understand basic concepts like the file system layout and core system utilities
- Walking users through common FreeBSD use cases, such as desktop environments
- Maintaining an installation after the fact to keep it secure and stable
- Using FreeBSD as a development or production environment for software development and more
- Putting FreeBSD on the front line as a production platform for hosting enterprise grade solutions
- Allowing for the continued use of modern technologies and concepts to manage FreeBSD installations
- And more...
FreeBSD is an excellent platform to build out a production server environment. It also makes for a great desktop environment. Whatever the use case is we want people to understand FreeBSD well enough (and quickly enough) to achieve their goals with as little friction as possible.
The 7DC will have people running on FreeBSD within the seven days.
Level 1
The idea we're currently developing revolves around the concept of a seven day challenge:
Each day individually would constitute between one and two hours of work. By the end of the seven day challenge the user should have a functioning desktop environment they can begin to manage and grow to their liking.
Level 2
After the initial seven days are done, the user can then take on more goal orientated challenges. These challenges aren't confined to a specific set of days but instead take the Level 1 knowledge to another level by building out production grade services on a FreeBSD platform, such as:
Essentially the idea behind this set of challenges is to:
- Demonstrate that modern workloads can be hosted on FreeBSD with ease
- Demonstrate that modern tools can be used to implement and manage FreeBSD, just like other options
- And ultimately: allowing administrators and engineers to quickly solve real-world production problems
It's our hope that the Level 2 set of challenges will get people up and running with FreeBSD in the development and server spaces with as little friction as possible.