discuss: Looking for guidance/suggestions for possible large documentation project
Subject:
Re: Looking for guidance/suggestions for possible large
documentation project
From:
Justin Yackoski ####@####.####
Date:
17 Nov 2001 04:04:11 -0000
Message-Id: <1005969852.32452.0.camel@skiingyac.dhs.org>
On Fri, 2001-11-16 at 18:45, David Lawyer wrote:
> If you write a HOWTO covering only one distribution you are basically
> doing free volunteer work for that distribution. It makes the
> distribution better so that they can make more money on it. I think
> it's OK to do this for the Debian distribution since it's the only
> major distribution that's free and done by volunteers. So I would
> suggest to try to do a HOWTO that will cover more than just Mandrake.
>
This is partly in response to both of your comments, since they are
related. I would not mind doing it for the Debian distro as opposed to
Mandrake. I suppose that makes a little more sense, although I don't
know I totally agree that I would be volunteering for Mandrake. I don't
think that someone who writes a book on say Microsoft Access, or on how
the Mac OS is volunteering for the respective company, they are
primarily intended to turn a profit by selling the book, although
helping another company is an indirect result (but in the case of
Mandrake or some other distro's company, not necessarily free work).
Perhaps a set of documents which listed all possible quirks and ways of
configuring things would be best (and perhaps not that difficult since
some are based on others...).
I would prefer not to just add distro-specific information current
howtos, unless it was in a much broader scope than what I think John
suggested. The need which I perceive (and myself had and to some extent
still have) fits in between an intro to linux and its concepts, n
install guide, and a guide on administering a specific server. I don't
think it should be either of those though, they already exist. In
talking to many windows users who are somewhat interested in linux, or
new linux users, a significant hurdle is collecting information from all
across the internet to solve many common problems or change
configurations to meet their needs. I don't want to primarily give
pointers to other information, I am thinking something that provides a
guide on common configuration changes which must be made, or common
problems that one comes across using linux on their PC or server. Maybe
I'm not being clear about my idea. It occurs to me that countless
people must search google every day looking for a solution to the same
problem which has been solved months or years ago, or is clearly
documented in some obscure place. There must be some better way to
bring that information out into the open. Basic configuration is not
usually a problem, and things with extremely complex configurations
(apache or sendmail/postfix) have volumes written about them. Its the
problems that everyone encounters once in a while that really take up
time and cause headaches.
Do any of your guys know what I mean? I agree that what I've suggested
doesn't completely sound right, and kinda seems like I'm either
reinventing documentation that already exists, or that I'm chaising my
tail, but I know from experience that this is a major problem, at least
from my experience. I don't know if anyone have ever searched through
microsoft's help database and felt like nothing is really there of any
substance, and I just find it hard to believe that the linux & open
source community can't do anything better when it comes to
troubleshooting or common problems. Hopefully this clears up what I'm
thinking about. I really appreciate your comments. I don't want to do
this unless there is a real need, and I want it to fill the need as well
as possible.
Justin
