Re: water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
ks> http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/LG/issue61/dellomodarme.html
>In short, this HOWTO does not really apply well to
Debian, or even most other Linux distros. <
Yeah, I got it from a website call 'Linuxdoc', so I thought it was
supposed to apply to me. I did a search for 'ssh login remote', hoping to
find a tutorial on what the hell I was supposed to do. The above was the
only thing that came up which was aimed at somebody trying to get ssh to
work for the first time.
>What's needed is for people like _you_ to help write "super newbie"
docs. We can't do it. We're not newbies. We don't know what newbies
need.<
This is a catch-22. Newbies don't care enough about Linux to spend time
writing doc. Instead, their hands are hovering over a MSDOS floppy with
'FDISK' on it, trying to decide if they've had enough!
There is one document which was well written for newbies, and that is the
debian install documentation. There were two or three big holes that I
fell into, but besides that it was great.
>The Windows Help system _sucks_ huge boulders through coffee stirrers.
It totally blows chunks.<
Objectively, you may be right. As I said, I never even started up
Windows Help until I couldn't get my Win95 network to function. However,
if the person looking at the help file is an average home computer user,
then Windows Help gets a score of 3 out of 10, and Linux (HOWTO's + Man
Pages + mail archives) gets a score of .001 out of 10.
Once again, I'm not trying to attack Linux or the people here who are so
helpful, or the writers of current Linux doc. I'm merely trying to point
out what to me is the #1 obvious reason that Linux isn't taking over the
Windows market.
All the expert doc and current man pages are fine, but there is no reason
the Linux community can't provide both. A newbie help system which as
total and complete as the OS itself would make all the difference in the
world. IE, benefit to the Linux marketshare by coming out with a new
version of the kernel and new versions of everything: 1% Benefit to the
Linux marketshare by providing comprehensive in-the-box newbie helpfile:
1000%
>To use RSA (public/private) key authentication, do this:<
I thank you and the others who have helped me, for friendly well-written
explanations. I have saved these messages in my Linux-help mail folder,
but I pity the next poor guy who just wants to login remotely to his newly
installed-linux. I have wasted hours of my time, and probably at least 40
minutes of yours....
-Kevin Stokes
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