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Re: Documentation and Usability was Re: EXT3 at install..no more?



On Sat, Jan 17, 2004 at 08:46:31AM -0600, Mac McCaskie wrote:
> 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.

IMO one of the strengths of Debian is that it is *not* about "keeping
knowledge to yourselves" and "secret incantations". That's how
*closed*-source systems go on.

If I want to modify the behaviour of a Debian system I can find out how to
do it. There's the man pages, /usr/share/doc/*, www.tldp.org, Google, this
list... Relatively trivial changes which are a world of pain, or not
possible at all, in Windoze, are not a problem in Debian.

Sure, you have to think a bit. But a computer/OS/applications form an
extremely complex system and it is not reasonable to expect to use it
without a certain amount of thought - unless you want to sit in a playpen
using plastic hammers with a Windoze logo on the ceiling. And the resources
to aid your thought are freely available. All you have to pay for is your
Internet connection - and you can get along pretty well if you don't even
have that.

> OR, you can work to reduce the frustration and steep learning curve many 
> noobies... face when we begin to work on our new Debian box.

What do you think this list is doing? There are a LOT of people here who
are not part of the Debian project - and certainly don't get paid -
answering strangers' questions to help them get the most out of their Debian
systems.

-- 
Pigeon

Be kind to pigeons
Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x21C61F7F

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