On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 03:25:04 +0200 Micha Feigin <michf@post.tau.ac.il> wrote: > On Sat, Jan 17, 2004 at 01:22:58PM -0700, Monique Y. Herman wrote: > > On 2004-01-17, Mac McCaskie penned: > > > I think my point would be closer to not allowing a package > > > on-board without adaqate instruction on what it was and how to use > > > it. > > > > > > Where is the value of providing a widget to a customer without > > > giving them a clue as to what the widget is or what to do with it. > > > > > > > So according to Mac McCaskie if a program writer doesn't bother to > write the documentation then it shouldn't be packaged until the > maintainer sits down to write the documentation. > That approach would keep quite a few programs from being packaged. > On the other hand if you don't find the documentation supplied with > the package enough, you can always google for it to find more > information(I do that quite a bit). > Considering the fact that the package maintainers volunteer to package > the programs makes me thankful to them for saving me the work. I am > always happier if they add documentation where it hasn't existed > before, but I see it as an extra, not a requirement. There's one more point I'm surprised nobody's mentioned yet. The documentation for the "other" operating system. I've tried to use it's online help before (Win98 days). And it even claims to be interactive help - they give you a couple descriptions and you click the one that fits your problem the closest. I never gained a single bit of information from that help! They assume that the problem is not with the software but with the user. So when you have software or hardware problems, you either have to fork out *more* money to buy *real* documentation, or you can spend even more money (in time, if not real cash) waiting for the next minimum wage tech support person to be available to walk you through the 15 million things you've already tried to *maybe* actually solve your problem or tell you to send your hardware to them for replacement. I love the support I've found in Linux more than any other tech support I've ever seen. In fact, the Windows communities seem to be mirroring the Linux tech support model more and more. Not the companies, but the users - just look at places like experts-exchange.com and places like it. That's not to say I've always had my problem solved for me or that I haven't had to study documentation for hours on end, but I still wish all things in life had user support as good as what I've found in Linux. :-) Jacob ----- GnuPG Key: 1024D/16377135 Free Software: the Software by the People, of the People and for the People. http://www.linux.org
Attachment:
pgpZanaahE1CI.pgp
Description: PGP signature