Re: Doc Needed: The Debian Way (Remember the FAQ :-)
On Thu, 1999-11-18 at 11:14:07 +0100, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 November 1999, at 15 h 57, the keyboard of Mark Small
> <mark@satlantic.com> wrote:
>
> > something that Debian really needs to have is a short doc about the
> > "debian way" of doing things. What I'm thinking of is a short summary
> > of the features that make debian different (better?)
>
> It is a very good idea but I suggest to change it a bit: the most important is
> not a propaganda text (we are the best) but a guide (not a HOWTO, we already
> have man pages) of the "Debian Way". Most mistakes I see on Debian machines
> are made by people who come from RedHat or Solaris or just read any random
> "Linux for lobotomized" book and break things that way.
>
> We need a text explaining:
>
> - everything under /usr/local is yours, leave the rest (except /etc) to dpkg,
> - use apt,
> - /etc/alternatives,
> - recompiling source packages,
> - the BTS,
> - etc
>
> Just explanations of the concepts, and directions to the man pages.
>
> Now, the tough question: who will write and maintain it?
These requests to have some kind of introductory Debian document
keep coming up,
but for some reason they rarely cite the existence of the Debian FAQ.
Maybe I'm unusual, but when I started learning about Debian,
I found it extremely helpful:
well written, well organized, and well formated,
albeit not as complete as might be hoped for.
And at the time (early 1999, with slink frozen) it was about as
up-to-date as could be hoped for.
But for some reason it doesn't seem to get a whole lot of attention.
Would updating, expanding, and perhaps "improving" it be an easier solution
than starting a new document?
I worry about the practicality of maintaining many documents.
Keith
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