From owner-freebsd-newbies Fri Jun 2 7: 3:52 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mail2.panix.com (mail2.panix.com [166.84.0.213]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 417EF37B5D0 for ; Fri, 2 Jun 2000 07:03:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tomg@mailhost.nrnet.org) Received: from mailhost.nrnet.org (mailhost.nrnet.org [166.84.192.39]) by mail2.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD82E15764; Fri, 2 Jun 2000 10:03:18 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localhost (tomg@localhost) by mailhost.nrnet.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id KAA03860; Fri, 2 Jun 2000 10:06:37 -0400 Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 10:06:37 -0400 (EDT) From: Thomas Good To: David Johnson Cc: John B P Melesky , freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Some food for thought...plagiarizing D. Johnson! In-Reply-To: <3936DE1E.A6D1D4FE@acuson.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Thu, 1 Jun 2000, David Johnson wrote an excellent arg for some long overdue docs: Bravo David. Suppose we edit a bit...I submit that our opus need not be overly verbose. In fact we could cut to the chase by grabbing your arguments and gussying them up a bit. >>> Open Letter to Tim O'Reilly From the FreeBSD Newbies When a FreeBSD novice scans the impressive list of available O'Reilly titles on the subject of Unix, s/he finds a sprinkling of (arguably) generic offerings: "Learning the Unix Operating System", "Unix In A Nutshell" and "Unix Power Tools". In addition, specific implementations are also well represented as the following titles would indicate: "SCO Unix in a Nutshell", "Unix in a Nutshell System V Edition", "Linux in a Nutshell" and "Running Linux" - amongst many others. Linux appears particularly well represented with various titles focusing on specific distributions. "Learning Debian --- GNU/Linux" and "Learning Redhat Linux" illustrate this point. These titles are great for novices not quite ready for "Running Linux" or "Learning the BASH Shell". And yet, there appears to be one unix implementation without *a single volume* devoted to it: FreeBSD. In fact, the only O'Reilly titles devoted to any BSD derived system are now out of print. We are given to understand that ORA has some concerns about publishing redundant books (although Linux appears to be exempted from this concern.) It is felt that a "Running FreeBSD" could fill the hole without being redundant. If we examine "Running Linux", it is focuses heavily on Linux and not on generic Unix. Perhaps focusing on installation, adminstration, the differences between BSD and other Unices, and a selection of applications would make for an FBSD title with broad appeal. Topics could include the BSD partitioning scheme and file system, sysinstall, BSD specific utilites, ports, porting, etc. Attention could be paid to BSD networking as it has played such a prominent role in the overall development of Unix networking. In conclusion, we, the FreeBSD Newbies, urge O'Reilly and Associates to take up the issue of supporting a major force in the Open Source movement. Even should a FreeBSD volume not be a big seller - and this seems unlikely given the absence of BSD related titles on the bookshelves of shopping malls - it seems appropriate for ORA to support this important project. It would be unfortunate for a SAMS title (e.g., 'Teach Yourself FreeBSD in 21 Days') to precede a more authoritative O'Reilly effort. -------------------------------------------------------------------- SVCMC - Center for Behavioral Health -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas Good tomg@ { admin | q8 } .nrnet.org IS Coordinator / DBA Phone: 718-354-5528 Fax: 718-354-5056 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Powered by: PostgreSQL s l a c k w a r e FreeBSD: RDBMS |---------- linux The Power To Serve -------------------------------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message