From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 10 14:03:14 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 32230106566B for ; Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:03:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jerrymc@gizmo.acns.msu.edu) Received: from gizmo.acns.msu.edu (gizmo.acns.msu.edu [35.8.1.43]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D01798FC20 for ; Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:03:13 +0000 (UTC) Received: from gizmo.acns.msu.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by gizmo.acns.msu.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id n7AE0SdL021636 for ; Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:00:28 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jerrymc@gizmo.acns.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by gizmo.acns.msu.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6/Submit) id n7AE0S84021635 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:00:28 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jerrymc) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:00:28 -0400 From: Jerry McAllister To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20090810140028.GA21576@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: <20090806120011.8528A106567E@hub.freebsd.org> <182370.92452.qm@web65511.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> <20090808164600.GA11570@kokopelli.hydra> <20090808195518.7eb8e5ee.freebsd@edvax.de> <20090809135230.GA21588@kokopelli.hydra> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20090809135230.GA21588@kokopelli.hydra> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.2i Subject: Re: FreeBSD for the common man(or woman) (was: > upgrade 7.2 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:03:14 -0000 On Sun, Aug 09, 2009 at 07:52:31AM -0600, Chad Perrin wrote: > On Sat, Aug 08, 2009 at 07:55:18PM +0200, Polytropon wrote: > > On Sat, 8 Aug 2009 10:46:00 -0600, Chad Perrin wrote: > > > Yeah, I hate that stuff. The GNU project is kind of like the Microsoft > > > of the open source community, that way. > > > > Be happy that there at least is an info manual. In many cases, there > > is NO local documentation, neither in man or info format. The usual > > cases of documentation, often found in different Linusi, but as well > > in some "modern software" on FreeBSD, are: > > - bury the documentation in an arbitrary web location > > - use a Wiki for documentation > > - let the users write the documentation > > - don't document anything. > > An info page is almost as bad as nothing, as far as I'm concerned. The > GNU project has this bizarre idea that everybody in the world should use > everything it produces and *nothing else*, no matter how painful it all > is to use -- and assumes everybody should be using emacs, so obviously > the baroque emacs-inspired interface to info pages is "ideal". > > Debian actually tended to be pretty good at manpage coverage of software > and files on the system, but FreeBSD still manages to do at least > slightly better most of the time -- and, for some reason, few of the > other Linux distributions took advantage of the manpages produced by the > Debian project. The thing I notice is that the FreeBSD man pages are most often relevant for Linux too with only occasional exceptions for less common arguments and features. So, you run whatever Lunix and keep a FreeBSD handy for the documentation. Of course, that begs the question of why even have the Linux at all then, but that isn't the topic of the post. ////jerry