On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 02:39:29PM -0400, xucaen@access-4-free.com said > > It is a shame that at times debian-user can be so inhospitable to > debain users. I think it is unfair to have a question answered with > "try google" or some other variation of RTFM. Am I to understand that > instead of using the debian-user list that I should use a search > engine? It's not an "instead", it's an "as well". Google is an amazing tool, and you can often find a solution to your problem far quicker than it would take for someone here to reply. Also, RTFM and STFW are attempts to distribute some of the load. This is an extremely high-traffic list, answering every question with a short essay is a waste of everyone's time if there is already a solution out there. Take the "Dynamic MMAP out of room" problem with apt. That (at least used to) come up once a week, but just punching the error message into google gives you hundreds of pages detailing the solution. Of course, just saying "RTFM" and "SFTW" when there's no FM or W hits to read is not OK, either. > I was under the impression that the debian-user list was a forum for > debian users. I always search the debain-user archives before asking a > question and if I don't find an answer then I ask my question. > Generally I do not do google searches unless I am seaking global > information such as "is my hardware supported under linux". But I know > that debain does things differently than the way other distros do > things, (otherwise there would be no need for .deb packages, right?) > so in most cases I figure the problem has something to do with a > debain specific driver or setting. I am rather new to linux in general > and have ever only used Debian so I am not familiar with what is just > specific to debian and what is global across all linux distros. That's fair enough, but there are other Debian support forums out there, indexed by google. Also, probably > 50% of the questions asked on the list are *not* Debian-specific...Also, I tend to find google to search list archives themselves better than lists.debian.org does. > I suppose I could have asked "is my issue at hand something that is > supported differently in debian than other distros or do all distros > support it the same?" but that is even more annoying than asking the > question outright. Very true. > However I will in the future assume that any problem I have is the > same in all distros That's a silly attitude to take. Even if you can't find a Debian-specific solution to a Debian-specific problem with google, you can often find background info about the system you're having trouble with that helps you figure things out yourself. If nothing else, you can slap anyone who "STFW"'s you ;-) -- Rob Weir <rweir@ertius.org> | mlspam@ertius.org | Do I look like I want a CC? Words of the day: Merlin Mena Semtex colonel Ruby Ridge unclassified diwn
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