Re: BE MORE SIMPLE!!!!
On Fri, Jun 11, 1999 at 10:35:52AM -0400, Kristopher Johnson wrote:
> I'm the guy that asked which package had the HOWTOs. I know it seemed like
> a dumb question, but I did try searching on "HOWTO" in both dselect and on
> the Debian web site, and came up with nothing.
again, I kindly advise you don't be too rash to this mailing list. I started
with slackware for 1 year, then redhat for 2 years, and then I moved to
debian. Even though, I still find it is hard to get on with debian. Then
this mailing list answered every single question that I have had.
I just did a quick search on the debian web site with the keyword HOWTO, this
is what I got:
Search Results
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release Quality Package (size)
stable 100% doc-linux-es 1998.08-1 (739.8k)
Linux documents in Spanish.
stable 100% doc-linux-fr 1999.01-1 (3077.4k)
Linux docs in french : HOWTO, MetaFAQ ...
stable 100% doc-linux-it 98.05-1 (560.8k)
Linux documents in Italian.
stable 100% doc-linux-pl 1998.03.29-1 (825.6k)
Linux docs in Polish: HOWTO - ascii version
stable 100% doc-linux-pl-html 1998.03.29-1 (834.8k)
Linux docs in Polish: HOWTO - html version
stable 100% lg-issue12 2-4 (219k)
Issue 12 of the Linux Gazette.
stable 100% xcin 2.3.03-3 (1514.5k)
Chinese input server for Crxvt in X11.
Responses 1-7 of 7 responses shown.
> And I started paging through
> the 2700+ packages shown in dselect, but gave up after an hour or so of
> that. Maybe it would help if the package was named "doc-howto" or something
> useful like that, or if it was installed as part of the "Complete Developer
> Workstation" profile I selected when installing Debian.
>
> I agree that it would be helpful for more questions on this list to be
> answered with instructions on how to find the information. But I see too
> many messages on this list (and throughout the Linux community) saying
> "people are stupid" or "people are lazy" when they ask questions that have
> "obvious" answers.
>
> I think I'm a pretty smart and resourceful guy, and the whole reason I'm
> using Linux is to learn about it. If I was lazy, I would have just asked
> "How do I set up sound on my machine", which is what I really wanted to
> know. But, instead, I looked for the HOWTOs on my machine, couldn't find
> them, searched for them in dselect and on the Debian website, and finally
> decided it would be easier to ask a simple question than to install every
> Debian package hoping to magically wind up with HOWTOs installed.
>
> I know that there are some people who emerge from the womb knowing how to
> configure device drivers and write perl scripts. But the rest of us stupid
> people need some help once in a while, and find it discouraging to be called
> lazy or stupid when we do ask. We're not looking to have anything spoon-fed
> to us--we just need a little guidance when we hit a brick wall.
>
> - Kris
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Gillespie, Jr. [mailto:epgilles@olemiss.edu]
> Sent: Friday, June 11, 1999 3:01 AM
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: BE MORE SIMPLE!!!!
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 10, 1999 at 09:31:54AM +0200,
> Urban Gabor <urban@lhsystems.hu> wrote:
> > no disrespect, but M$ makes you forget thinking. (Cf the subscription! :-)
> > )
> >
> > I would suggest an other install description with step-by-step texts of
> > what to do. And redesinging Debian web site can help a lot.
> >
>
> It is not Wintendo that makes people forget how to think, it is something
> else. This is a problem with people in general, not just in relation to
> computers. No one wants to think, because they're used to having things
> spoon-fed to them. That's what "push" content was all about, people have to
> be kept glued to the TVs, we can't have them going back to reading,
> learning,
> and thinking.
>
> We should not encourage this process. I see so many questions on this list
> that shouldn't be answered. Instead, the user should be told how to use
> man pages, info pages, etc. For example, someone asked if there was a
> package
> containing the Howtos. Instead of telling him the name of the package, he
> should have been told how to grep the Contents file, that way he can find
> things on his own instead of asking the list every time. Remember, catch
> a man a fish and you feed him that day, teach the man to fish, and he'll
> never starve again.
>
> --
> Eric Gillespie, Jr. <*> epg@pobox.com
>
> Don't you try to out-weird me! I get stranger things
> than you free with my breakfast cereal!
> --Zaphod Beeblebrox
>
>
> --
> Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe debian-user-request@lists.debian.org < /dev/null
>
>
--
____________________________________________________________________________
Shao Zhang - Running Debian 2.1 ___ _ _____
Department of Communications / __| |_ __ _ ___ |_ / |_ __ _ _ _ __ _
University of New South Wales \__ \ ' \/ _` / _ \ / /| ' \/ _` | ' \/ _` |
Sydney, Australia |___/_||_\__,_\___/ /___|_||_\__,_|_||_\__, |
Email: shao@cia.com.au |___/
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