discuss: Manifesto (was Re: small demo page)
Subject:
Re: [discuss] Manifesto (was Re: small demo page)
From:
Stein Gjoen ####@####.####
Date:
6 Oct 2005 10:12:18 -0000
Message-Id: <4344F990.2080402@mail.nyx.net>
David Lawyer wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 13, 2005 at 09:41:03PM +0200, Stein Gjoen wrote:
>
>>David Lawyer suggested an improved Manifesto with a clear mission
>>statement. Has it been put up at the website yet? I would have
>>mailed him directly, had his ISP not banned mine.
>
> What I posted in 2001 was a proposed change to the "Overview" part of
> the Manifesto. I didn't get comments from the mailing list then so I
> simply gave up on it. A European meeting in late 2000 proposed some
> changes, but I told Guylhem that I wanted to have the mailing list go
> over any changes. He agreed but I failed to persistently follow thru.
> So I'm sending my draft out again to you (slightly revised). What do
> you think of it?
I cannot remember exactly when the mission statement discussion
took place but I am fairly sure I was positive to the proposal.
> One of the proposed changes made at the European meeting was:
> We frequently update documentation -- online and downloadable -- in
> order to stay on top of the many changes in the GNU/Linux world.
> Well, one major problem is just the opposite of this statement: we
> unfortunately don't frequently update many documents. To say that we
> do would only result in disrespect for LDP.
A mision statement should also be a goal, not just a statement
of what we already do. Hopefully more activity will bring in
more people so we can make it come true.
> My draft of 2001 is a little on the negative side since I've said that
> some areas are not adequately covered and that much more remains to be
> done. In a sense, this is a plea for help from the reader. Much of
> the draft is just lifted from the existing manifesto.
According to LWN the major distributions are Debian (yes), Fedora (no),
Fedora Legacy (no), Gentoo Linux, Mandriva Linux, Red Hat Enterprise (no),
Slackware Linux (yes), SuSE Linux(yes) and Ubuntu Linux.
We know TLDP is not in the Redhat issues but it is still quite
possible we are still part of the majority.
> Last night I looked at what I had drafted in 2001 for the "Overview"
> part of the Manifesto. I then edited it a little to reflect the
> current situation. My former draft stated that most major
> distributions distribute LDP documents. This may no longer be true so
> I deleted it. Also, I deleted the part about our documents being
> printed in books. It's true that a few of our docs are also printed
> as books but I haven't seen any books recently that contain collections
> of HOWTOs, etc.
>
> David Lawyer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Draft of Overview section of LDP Manifesto
> by David S. Lawyer 2001 with minor changes Oct. 2005
> 1. OVERVIEW
>
> The goal of the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is to create and
> distribute the canonical set of free GNU/Linux documentation. While
> GNU/Linux distributions, desktops, applications and utilities may come
> with their own documentation, LDP documentation fills in the numerous
> gaps.
Should we use the abbreviation LDP or TLDP?
> The hundreds of existing LDP documents present both overviews and
> details of: the GNU/Linux Operating System, System Administration,
> Hardware, Networks, Servers, GUIs, Programming, Language Support, etc.
> In spite of the large number of documents, much more remains to be
> done and some areas are not adequately covered.
This is a little depressing. Could we say that new documents are
continuously added, filling in gaps?
> An additional goal is to collaborate on all of the issues of GNU/Linux
> documentation. We hope to establish a system of documentation that is
> easy to use and search. This includes the integration of all available
> documents.
>
> We freely distribute our documents via the Internet. Some major
> distributions of Linux include them on CDs. If you are interested in
> publishing any of the LDP works, see the section "Publishing LDP
> Documents" below.
>
> The LDP is essentially a loose team of volunteers with a minimal
> central organization. Anyone who would like to help is welcome to join
> in this effort. We feel that working together informally and
> discussing projects on our mailing lists is the best way to go. When
> we disagree on things, we try to reason with each other until we reach
> an informed consensus.
I believe the above is already an improvement over what we have now.
Regards,
Stein Gjoen
