Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 18:17:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Gail Pickett <gmpicket@icx.net> To: Doug Young <dougy@gargoyle.apana.org.au> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG, m l mack <mlmack@speakeasy.org> Subject: Re: newbies Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004171801040.16556-100000@poseidon.com> In-Reply-To: <01ce01bfa8b7$65f7e690$847e03cb@ROADRUNNER>
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I have been living with and learning FreeBSD for six months now, and I am indebted to the FreeBSD mailing list archives for the wealth of information and usable answers provided within. I am still trying to get my machine completely set up; I guess this is an on going process that never ends. Overall the handbook, tutorials and manpages are excellent. I would like to see more examples included with the manpages. Many manpages, the first time I look at them, are like reading greek; an example or two of the most commonly used variations of a command would save lots of time and errors. The manpages also seem to forget the obvious sometimes. I started playing with crontab recently. To edit a user's crontab, you have to use invoke the command # crontab -u username -e and do this as root. The manpage doesn't mention this anywhere; I got this info from the mailing list archives. I spent four days setting up userland ppp. Mostly because my machine's BIOS was incorrectly setting the speed for the serial port that the modem uses. The instructions were great, but they covered some hundred pages (I cheated and printed them out with the MS Windows machine at work) - ppp manpage, pendantic ppp primer, example ppp.conf file, etc. I have given up on my printer. I have noticed that over the six months of not being able to print that my piles of paper cluttering my home have just about disappeared. I have decided to go 'paperless' at home, with the exception of my weekly grocery list. So some good has come out of not being able to learn how to setup something for my FreeBSD machine. :) Back to troubleshooting crontab and my disapearing mail... On Tue, 18 Apr 2000, Doug Young wrote: > Hear hear !!!!!!!!!!!! > > All those experts out there please take notice > > Someone new to a subject doesn't need to know about all the bells & > whistles, provision of information suitable for an expert will only confuse > them further. > I believe that documentation should be prepared by the most junior person > available and not some geek with 458 years experience .... at least then it > will probably contain ALL the necessary steps. > > The basics of unix are for the most part extremely simple ... its only the > documentation that makes it complicated. I've been working on an entry level > install / configure text for members of our non-profit internet access > group, and in its basic text form this reduces the information needed to > some 7 pages of A4. > I'm now putting together a picturebook format so that its even more explicit > :) > The document is intended to allow a total newbie with no prior experience of > unix / linux / etc to install FreeBSD & configure it as a gateway, with > sendmail, cuciopop, ppp, apache all working with no aggro in only an hour or > two. > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "m l mack" <mlmack@speakeasy.org> > To: <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> > Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 7:34 AM > Subject: newbies > > > > Dear Sirs, > > > > As one who doesn't know Unix from Eunuchs, I beg you to consider this > > teaching technique. Once, instruction books started out by walking you > > through a number of everyday tasks you were going to have to master. It > > wasn't until you got the basics down, that theory and structure were > > introduced. These days theory always comes first which often leaves the > > truly ignorant more lost than they were to begin with. If someone came out > > with an old fashioned manual, I might be able to learn this. Please help > me > > get away from Windows. > > > > m l mack > > > > > > > > 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 > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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