Re: Documentation and Usability
On Sat, Jan 17, 2004 at 12:10:38PM -0600, Mac McCaskie wrote:
> ... your solutions are (1) to tell (not ask) the noobie to do fix
> it (the same one that doesn't know enough about how to use the
> system)
To HELP fix it, by submitting bug reports explaining what
documentation is missing or incorrect or hard to understand.
I'm sure writing would also be appreciated, but no one declared it
mandatory.
> and (2) blame the stupid noobie for is ignorance by not working
> hard enough.
No one but you said that.
> -A major installation package was broken in the stable release, and
> discovered via this list and other sources that the problem was known
> with no intention to fix it.
I'd love to know the details.
> -Found packages with no available documentation
Surprises no one. Is it okay? No. Did anyone deny it? No.
File a bug report.
> -Found man pages that did not match executable supplied help.
File a bug report.
> -Discovered the "best support organization" is impatient with frustrated
> noobies.
No, only with you. We were all new once.
BTW, "noobies" irritates basically everyone over 30. Why go out of
our way to annoy the experts by using affected meaningless
misspelling?
I've complained about Debian documentation more than once. On the
other hand, I have also filed many bug reports, and I didn't use wild
conspiracy theories as my basis.
If you want the benefits of Debian without the rough edges of an
all-volunteer no-management project, consider Xandros or Libranet.
Not free, but much more hand-holding.
--
Carl Fink carl@fink.to
Jabootu's Minister of Proofreading
http://www.jabootu.com
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