Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 06:05:39 +1000 From: "Doug Young" <dougy@gargoyle.apana.org.au> To: "John Daniel" <john@cell-works.com>, "Sue Blake" <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: "Greg Lehey" <grog@lemis.com>, "Cosmic 665" <the_hermit665@hotmail.com>, <cwalker@computech-ca.com>, <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Good unix books [was: FreeBSD] Message-ID: <000f01bf8a02$d97ba530$847e03cb@ROADRUNNER> References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.10003091241450.12221-100000@cell-works.com>
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I'll second that .... there's no question that the FreeBSD documentation is light years ahead of the near totally unintelligible linux equivalents, and the assistance provided by many mailing list regulars is among the best of its kind anywhere, but unfortunately even the best of the presently available entry level FreeBSD docs (the handbook / Complete FreeBSD) still fall short of what many newbies need .... proof of this is seen the avalanche of "how do I do blah" questions to the various mailing lists. What I see as a partial solution is for newbies to be more involved in the docs list ... possibly then the things can be made sufficiently explicit for those of us looking for a step_by_step rendition of how to configure blah ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Daniel" <john@cell-works.com> To: "Sue Blake" <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: "Greg Lehey" <grog@lemis.com>; "Cosmic 665" <the_hermit665@hotmail.com>; <cwalker@computech-ca.com>; <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Sent: Friday, March 10, 2000 5:17 AM Subject: Re: Good unix books [was: FreeBSD] > I want to do "stuff" and I want a book to show me how to do these things > and why with out drowning me in dry detail. Of course my dry detail is > someone elses vital fact. > > I came to freebsd because i needed it to use it for work. The person who > introduced me to it was/is a "RTFM" guy but more and more I find that > there isn't a manual that a beginner can go to and get stuff done. > > i like freeBSD and I like the people that use it. But it can be > frustating getting the hang of it. for me a computer is not much goood > with out applications and the ability to get work done. Printing,word > proccessing, surfing,emailinh, sharing files with computers on the network > are > essential. But it can be hard to get those basic functions done. For > example, recently I started a 3.3.4 box and started installing ports to > get some functionality. > > I installed X,KDE,Netscape, Gimp and got them to work after a fashion( > more experience configuring them will help ) and I'm working on vnc, > samba, wordperfect ,lpr, xpdf. > > vnc installing the port doesn't install vnc you have to install. it with a > file in one of the sub directories. If it wasn't for James on the newbies > list i would still be struggling trying to figure out why it didn't work.( > Thanks James) > > samba need to get the damons running and configured. > > Wordperfect down loaded. need to figure out how to update the MD5 file so > the match the release I downloaded.So I can get the install to complete. > > xpdf same as wordperfect > > lpr set it up once on another box need to do some reading. > > What i want from a book on unix is how to turn Freebsd once it's installed > into a working whatever. I'd be interested in seeing Sue's book though I > think she'd be better of writing booklets on how to take a basic set up > and turn it into gateway workstation, game station, file server or > whatever so what you get is what you want. Oh and How about something on > figuring out what the heck what went wrong when something doesn't work > that's generally how I learn the most. How about a nice booklet on > scripting so i could figure out out how to break stuff that ain't > fixed....rant ,rant > > RTFM some days I can't even find the manual. > Nuf said. :-) > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- > > "I hope that after I die, people will say of me : " That guy sure owed me > a lot of money." > > -JH > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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