Re: Documentation and Usability was Re: EXT3 at install..no more?
Mac McCaskie wrote:
I will have to ditto Monique's frustration.
Frustration over Joseph Guida MD's trolling? Excellent, that's how the
majority that have responded to this post feel as well! =)
I am a debian noobie. However, I started working with IBM PC's in '83
and later graduated to XT's on the job. The first windows I installed
was 2.0 (a runtime version for a tape backup program). Over the years
I've seen Novell perfect it's security and gradually fade into the
background, DOS disappear, and Windows mature into the juggenaut we
all love to hate.
If you want Debian to eventually follow DOS, then neglect new users
and ignore documentation. Keep knowledge to yourselves and allow only
club members to know the secret incantations.
Woah, doesn't seem like you're agreeing with Monique after all...mmkay.
<Rant>
WTF? Anyone that can *read* can learn the "secret incantations".
Documentation in its current state may not "spoonfeed" anyone, and it
could indeed be better. You seem to forget, as did the original poster,
that Debian is a volunteer effort; it is not run by a large corporation
like Redhat.
Personally, as a Linux user since 1997, documentation in general for
Linux is *far* better than what it was back then. Yet, I managed to set
up Slackware on my box (after quite a bit of RTFM) all those years ago.
I can only imagine what you'd be saying back then, if you're complaining
about a so-called "secret society" here in 2004...
OR, you can work to reduce the frustration and steep learning curve
many noobies, including myself and Monique, face when we begin to work
on our new Debian box.
Monique was complaining about trolling...try to follow the thread, it's
Joseph Guida MD that you agree with. (Not to be totally mean, but if one
has been working with computers since '83, I would have thought that the
art of following a mailing list thread would have been mastered by now
(and google).).
</Rant>
Here's a few links that might help you out, even though you weren't
*really* asking for help:
Quoting HOWTO <-- Read this first =P
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanb/documents/quotingguide.html
Google
http://www.google.com
Google NewsGroups search
http://groups.google.com
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Debian Documentation
http://www.debian.org/doc/
The Linux Documentation Project
http://www.tldp.org/
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