Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 08:12:37 +1000 From: "Doug Young" <dougy@gargoyle.apana.org.au> To: "GH" <grasshacker@linkfast.net> Cc: <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: new books, changing my pt. of view Message-ID: <054901bffd97$f19d4c50$847e03cb@ROADRUNNER> References: <DBB3921EFE2AD211A81500A0C9B5FE760579452C@msg04.scana.com> <06a801bffc9d$73c1a9c0$1600010a@pmr.com> <014e01bffcb8$7d46fed0$847e03cb@ROADRUNNER> <20000802215841.A36147@mithrandr.moria.org> <01a201bffcc0$9f2c6370$847e03cb@ROADRUNNER> <2000080222
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G'day GH > Well, I will do my best to help you find what information you need. > > What do you need to find? I explained the origin of the Pedantic FreeBSD in previous message. I intend to expand on it so its relevant to newbies generally, and covers a wider range of issues. What I'd like to achieve is something conceptually like the Handbook or Complete FreeBSD, with plenty of pics / diagrams / screenshots / whatever / etc (as in the present Pedantic FreeBSD) , but without all the missing bits of information. Another way to put it is to re-write the Handbook with the assumption that the reader has NO prior knowledge of unix. To do this I've been using my own experience in implementing FreeBSD systems in "real world" situations, trying to figure stuff out by collecting info from wherever I can get it. I've found the existing Manual etc of only limited use due to all the gaps, and also the fact that its so fragmented. There is a heap of good info in the mailing list, but its like "a needle in a haystack" finding stuff there when one is under time constraints. Now to answer your question, its fairly obvious that if there is to be some more explicit documentation it will need to be written almost exclusively by a relative newbie (so ALL the info is regarded important), and if its to cover a lot of issues it will need contributions from a bunch of people (I have no interest personally in KDE / Gnome / ghostscript / etc, and also I don't have unlimited time). Another issue where input would be useful is warnings of problem hardware / software. (Eg SiS videocards are almost always trouble, the mgetty package is broken & info on compiling from source is too complicated to be usable by newbies, etc etc) There are also countless shortcuts around the place that virtually never rate a mention by the experts. An example is the excellent "ppp_script.sh" thingy that sets up user-ppp in seconds with none of the aggro. There must be hundreds of comparable things that which would make life less frustrating for newbies, but the ONLY way to learn of their existence is from newbies, since the experts don't appear to be interested in stuff like that. > gh > grasshacker@linkfast.net > > > > > > > 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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