BSD handbook - was Re: debiantutorials.org seeks input and new blood

[Bret Busby <bret@busby.net>]

On Sat, 25 Apr 2009, Michael Pobega wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 01:12:35PM +0300, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > > Check out the FreeBSD handbook at:
> > >  http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/
> > > It is also available as a pdf which is >1000 pages!  It doesn't cover
> > > everything, but it does cover a lot.  They also have other books and
> > > articles at http://www.freebsd.org/docs/books.html.
> >
> > That sounds more like a problem than a solution. I would not try an OS
> > that had a 1000 page manual. I want simple, not comprehensive.
>
> Well, the thing about FBSD is that it's users are pretty much all
> hobbyists, so the length of a manual is a good thing. If Debian had
> documentation of equal or greater length I can only see that as a
> strength, not a weakness.

And, if the handbook's content is valid and well structured (with Table 
of Contents, and index, etc), it would probably be an incentive for me 
(and others) to try FreeBSD (FreeBSD was on a recent Linux Format DVD, 
from memory).

Decent Linux reference books in printed form, tend to be around 
1000-1200 pages.

Some good ones are less, significantly less, but, provided the content 
is useful and helpful, there is no problem with a single volume text 
being around 1000 pages.

I haven't used BSD for about 30 years, now, and a good reference book, 
that is comprehensive, is a good incentive to have another go with it.

I think that the BSD that I last used, was v4.2, running on a VAX 
11/785.

Hmm. I will have to find another free partition, somewhere...

--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams,
  published by Pan Books, 1992

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