Re: A proposal to improve dselect
> From: "Richard Morin" <qnc496@durhamnews.net>
...
> Now really, how much can a complete novice really do with a new Linux
> machine. It takes an investment of time, energy, and interest to
> learn even the simplest of tasks, but once you know them ;-)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
...it still doesn't help because you install a new distribution which
requires learning an entirely different set of customizations, which you
can't figure out because there never was decent documentation to really
learn how things worked with trying every little option yourself!
I'm not complaining about Debian, or its being different--I'm complaining
about the apparent general Unix philosophy of never really providing decent
documentation...well...at least for all the things I happen to run into
(where it's weak on critical details and on orientation to how things
fit together).
(What's my current frustration? I can't edit anything efficently in emacs
because I still haven't been able to find sufficient documentation to set up
my keyboard under X. This isn't a Debian problem (as far as I know).
For example, the X man. page that documents XkbOptions doesn't say what legal
values for the option are. So how on earth can one know what option values
to use?)
> I think it is more important to help complete novices learn a little
> about what is possible with their new O/S and let them investigate
> what _they_ want to. Yeah it may take some time to get a fully
> functional system, but that is how everyone else here did it, right?
That is no excuse (to avoid trying to do better, for anyone who wants Debian
or Linux to be used more widely).
Remember, the users might want do something other than Unix system admini-
stration.
For example, the main reason I just installed Debian was to upgrade my old
Slackware 2.1 system to ELF and a modern kernel, and that was to be able to
get Java tools and learn it. My goal of upgrading was to be able to do cer-
tain other things, not to learn more about Unix/Linux administration.
Yes, it was worth the time it took to learn dselect, because I'll keep using
that as I download, install, and remove things. And, yes, I have learned a
little more about various other things, but the hours I've spend trying to
get X and other problems fixed and out of the way are a different story.
And I still don't know any Java.
Remember, I'm not saying Debian is bad, or free software is bad, just that
whoever wants more non-hackers (that is, not-so-experienced or non-so-
technical users) to use it better keep user needs in mind.
Daniel
--
Daniel S. Barclay Compass Design Automation, Inc.
daniel@compass-da.com Suite 100, 5457 Twin Knolls Rd. Columbia, MD 21045 USA
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