[ DAY #1 ]
Logged on to ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/ from my desktop computer.  Changed to the pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/4.0-RELEASE/floppies directory.  Downloaded kern.flp and mfsroot.flp in order to create boot disks.  Am running 3.4-RELEASE on my desktop system, so I used dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/rfd0 to create the kern floppy disk (boot from this) and dd if=mfsroot.flp of=/dev/rfd0.  If you are using MSDOS, check out the creating the boot floppies section of the FreeBSD Handbook.

After the boot floppies were created, I booted from them and did a FTP based install using the ThinkPad 701C's internal modem.  At 14.4, the installation forever!  I do not recommend using the internal modem if you are going to do a FTP-based install.  In the past, I have also used a 33.6k PCMCIA card to do a FTP install.  Another method to consider is buying a slew of floppies (Price Club/Costco sells bulk floppies cheap) and using a much faster connection to download the binaries required to set up a minimal system.  While floppy-based install is very time consuming, you always have the set handy.  If you happen to acquire another machine without a CD-ROM, they come in handy.  Not being an expert at networking, I did not try a plip (over the printer port) install; apparently this method works well, and is much faster if you have a desktop computer with a CD-ROM.

Hardware details about the 701C and other ThinkPad's can be found on IBM's web site.

[ DAY #2 ]
Installation took the better part of the evening, and much of the next day.  I started to install the linux_base-6.1.tgz before I realized that it was roughly 18 MB.  I cancelled this part of the installation by pressing ESC.  I downloaded the linux_base-6.1.tgz on my desktop system using the gftp package.  Previously, I thought I would download it under Windows and do a multi-volume zip.  However, after Windows dropped carrier and ditched the ftp session, I booted my FreeBSD partition.  [I have a Windows-based HP 710C printer that I needed to print on and thus the Windows...don't usually use it anymore] gftp is a nice GUI-based ftp client.  I usually just use command-line ftp, but I wanted to try something different.

Next, I tarred the linux_base-6.1.tgz package so that it spanned 13 floppies: tar Mcvf /dev/rfd0 linux_base-6.1.tgz.  Then it was unpacking time!  To unpack the tarred multi-volume package: tar Mxvf /dev/rfd0 <-- note the change after the M, c to x.  (c is for compress, x is for extract).

I spent a bunch of time looking at various Window Managers for Xfree86.  My initial reaction was that Blackbox would be perfect, because it is small, requires few libraries, and is generally, a slick looking Window Manager.  However, I chose to go with Icewm, purely out of curiosity, and an interest in developing themes for Icewm.