Cheap FreeBSD 4.0 (Software) (Unix, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98) Price

For a power user's product, FreeBSD installs remarkably easily on practically any IBM-compatible personal computer; the distributor claims it will even install and run on a 386SX. We had no trouble installing the operating system on a homemade Pentium II clone, and chose a workstation configuration from a menu of predefined setup schemes. Aside from the graphical workstation setup, the menu included options for network servers, software-development workstations, and a variety of other machine roles. (We later chose to configure the K Desktop Environment--KDE--on top of the X server.) The only problem we had was in getting FreeBSD to recognize the mouse, but this was resolved after a little experimentation. Installation is far from simple, but it's not nearly as bad as you may have heard.

This package ships with a slew of goodies in addition to the kernel itself. On the four CD-ROM discs, you'll find support for lots of hardware (including RAID arrays, ISDN devices, and many network and video cards), all the standard network services, and more than 2,500 software packages.

In addition to its numerous technical attractions, FreeBSD may be used free of charge by a business or individual. Buy this disk and use it to install FreeBSD on your whole fleet of machines--you'll still be in compliance with the license. Though it's not as user-friendly as Microsoft Windows or even the top-selling Linux distributions (Red Hat Linux and Caldera OpenLinux do more handholding), FreeBSD makes up for its sometimes terse demeanor with near-absolute reliability and a community of experts on the Internet. Set up FreeBSD, put it to work, and don't expect it to cause any trouble. --David Wall