Re: Overwhelmed newbie
On fredag 16 september 2005, 21:09, Antony Gelberg wrote:
> Please reply onlist.
Errr, well, I don't consider this an important topic for the list, and
it is also rather rude to respond to a off-list message on-list. Please
refrain from that in the future.
> It's because if people use stable, there is no reason to get burnt.
Oh, there is plenty of reason. Stable has its issues, as any other
complex software system.
> There is no reason to be overwhelmed by anything if the user is
> willing to learn. I understand that Debian is not geared at newbies,
> but that doesn't mean that newbies can't use it.
Well, speaking as someone who has his parents on Debian, I can attest to
that newbies can use a Debian system fine. I also speak as someone who
did his first Linux install ever with Debian. Been there, done that,
didn't get a lousy teeshirt. However, in my parents' case, it is
because I have made most of the complex, technical choices for them,
and in my case, it was because I was dedicated and had a good friend
and experienced sysadmin by my side throughout the process.
Frankly, I find that to be efficient on Debian, one should read many
hundred pages of documentation. I'm perfectly fine with that, because I
realized from the start that it would pay in increased productivity
once I'm up to speed. However, one must acknowledge that this is an
imposing task for most users.
> Most importantly, this is _debian_-user. If you want to advocate
> other distributions willy-nilly, it's not the place.
That kind of isolationism is something I think you will find very little
support for in the free software community. I think most people will
agree that we want to direct people to what is best for them.
Cheers,
Kjetil
--
Kjetil Kjernsmo
Programmer / Astrophysicist / Ski-orienteer / Orienteer / Mountaineer
kjetil@kjernsmo.net
Homepage: http://www.kjetil.kjernsmo.net/ OpenPGP KeyID: 6A6A0BBC
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