Update the new-users article for modern FreeBSD systems.

[vladlen]

Summary

The original article dates from 1997 and still contained references
to CDROM-based installation media, pkg_add, and other obsolete
practices. Update examples and commands to reflect current usage
on FreeBSD 13–15, including pkg, service management, and modern
filesystem usage, mount flash drive, run freebsd-update.

This article ranked on top positions in web statistics for pages found
with help of search engines.

Obsolete texts are reported also
in https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=293594

[ziaee]

Hey Vladlen! Here's what I've got so far, out of time!

documentation/content/en/articles/new-users/_index.adoc

47

This part is bad for maintenance, e.g. it will look bad in FreeBSD 17 era but the guide will still be correct, probably. thus we never do this.

76

note: @des just fixed this, I think.

93

account is not necessary and may be confusing in modern era where your account on your computer is actually an account with the company that manufactures the software

117–119

don't remove this, this is a good tip

118

158–162

i understand people dont have cdroms, but i think this is a good example that should be updated somehow instead of removed.

160

it would sure be nice to show cd -

165

(or something to contrast with the cat example)

171

do not remove this, unlocking scrollback is one of the most important things on this page

172–173

or something, this one is hard

[vladlen]

documentation/content/en/articles/new-users/_index.adoc

47

I removed this text, but I would like to explain, why I added it.
When translating the articles, I could not find references to their creation date and therefore could not easily distinguish older articles whose information may be outdated or no longer applicable to current FreeBSD versions.
Based on discussions in forums and chats, readers sometimes assume that an article is outdated if there is no clear indication of when it was last updated.
It would be helpful to have an explicit indicator of the last update, both for readers and for maintainers who need an easy way to see how recently an article was reviewed. Perhaps a variable could be added in the header (for example, updated: March 2026).

This is similar to how we read articles or news on the Internet: we usually look at the publication date to get a sense of whether the information is still relevant.

Since our articles do not currently display such information, it would be helpful to have some visible indicator (for example, a version number or the date of the last update).

158–162

I added an example with cd /var/log, as this directory can be interesting to explore.
I had the idea to replace the CDROM example with a USB example (mounting a USB flash drive later in the article), but introducing mount in a section where the user is just learning cd seems a bit too early.

171

Agree.
I removed this text because I had in mind that users today often log in using different methods (for example via SSH). However, I did not actually describe these other login methods in the text, so the change ended up simply removing useful information.
I restored the original example (it is correct and still works) and suggest adding a short footnote noting that other login methods may provide different ways to scroll the output.

[vladlen]

Changed according to notes in the review.

Also new section "References" transformed to footnotes.

New sections "Managing services", "ZFS", "System update",
"Security audit" moved to own parent section "Basic
System Administration"

[vladlen]

documentation/content/en/articles/new-users/_index.adoc

126

I think, it is better to return previous text to follow the oroginal article logic (introduction of vi in section 5 and edit):

But first you need to practice vi(1), the text editor-or use the simpler text editor, ee(1), installed on recent versions of FreeBSD.

[vladlen]

documentation/content/en/articles/new-users/_index.adoc

585

need to mention before, that zroot/home is in the list.

[ziaee]

documentation/content/en/articles/new-users/_index.adoc

47

We do have that at the very bottom in the footer, but it updates the same if there is a comprehensive review, or if someone just sends a drive-by typo fix. I would defer to senior colleagues if we should duplicate it elsewhere.

126

Agree!

158–162

Looks great, I think!

565

hmm, it /may/ be easier to tell them to service sshd enable.

585

i wonder if we should tell them about bectl instead

[vladlen]

notes from review applied to the text.
bectl short exmplanation added as example of ZFS snapshots.
footnotes added to bectl, pkg audit .

[vladlen]

Rebased to main after last change in original article.

[vladlen]

'account' changed to 'user'.
Small fixes in punctuation.