"for dummies" Re: Linux is not for consumers!
On Thu, 11 Dec 2003, Thanasis Kinias wrote:
> scripsit Paul E Condon:
>
> > Documenting software is like writing a good text book. The author must
> > get in touch with his "inner Dummy" and speak to his needs. Some geeks
> > have this ability, but many do not. The commercial "For Dummies" book
> > style is not particularly good, IMHO. I prefer O'Reilly books.
wonder why no techie book publisher can compete w/ oreilly ..
where that is all they publish ..
> FWIW, while I personally find the `for dummies' computer books insulting
> and a little too smug in their antiintellectualism for my tastes, their
> indubitable success suggests that we could benefit from a `Debian for
> Dummies' or something like it.
its a good series .. well marketed ...
and initially no publisher wanted to print the first book
but IDG needed something to sell more books .. guess what
kept them from going down the tank
- remember the days too when there was only one or two linux
books ???
- nobody wanted to print "freeware/opensource" books
> I would like to have something I could hand to non-geek colleagues which
> would give them the hand-holding they need to realize that they _can_
> learn this, and that if they put in a little effort they will be richly
> rewarded.
everybody has deifferent levels of "what they are willing to do to learn
this" or not ..
- some dont mind spending a few minutes to figure out how to
setup their ip#, gw, dns, ...
- some dont even wanna try
- some dont mind compiling ... some do know how or what it means
and that includes [regular] system admins ...
- and forget it when it doesnt compile
- some dont mind installing precompiled binaries ...
and others are paranoid about precompiled binaries ..
==
== pick your level of "want to learn" vs ease-of-use vs
== need for upgrades and updates ... vs backups of their data
==
c ya
alvin
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