From owner-freebsd-newbies Fri Mar 20 14:08:08 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA07537 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 14:08:08 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from phoenix.welearn.com.au (suebla.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.44.81]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA07460 for ; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 14:07:50 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from sue@phoenix.welearn.com.au) Received: (from sue@localhost) by phoenix.welearn.com.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA25670; Sat, 21 Mar 1998 09:07:16 +1100 (EST) Message-ID: <19980321090711.05316@welearn.com.au> Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 09:07:11 +1100 From: Sue Blake To: Brandon Lockhart Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Slackware vs FreeBSD, aswell as my opinion on this list. References: <199803201924.LAA24385@unx1.omnicode.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88e In-Reply-To: ; from Brandon Lockhart on Fri, Mar 20, 1998 at 02:41:36PM -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Fri, Mar 20, 1998 at 02:41:36PM -0500, Brandon Lockhart wrote: > I understand Linux like the back of my hand, but when I > switched over to FreeBSD, I felt like a beginner again. The FreeBSD users > you will find, tend to be the more experienced users. Yea, Linux is fun, > but I feel FreeBSD is more stable. Better sources for support. I like the FreeBSD support better. There's less of it, but you know what kind of people it's coming from. We're lucky to have them all hanging out in freebsd-questions so that there's one place to go for reliable answers. With Linux, I always had to ask six different people and take the average of their responses. My computer didn't always understand these averages, and then it was back to all six of them again. > Now, about my opinion on this list. There would be no FreeBSD chat > between newbies if there where no questions. If everyone believed that we wouldn't be here in the first place. Some of us spend most of our time helping ourselves and want to talk to real peers about it. It's OK to be humble and talk to an expert every now and then, but if every single thing I do with freebsd is done in "help-me-Sir!" mode, I'll get bored pretty quickly. Sure, I need a lot of help, but most of the time I don't. Then I'm interested in what I _can_do_ , what others can do already, and sharing ideas about how to find out more rather than being told how to do everything. Do newbies have any existence, any interests, apart from those times when they are asking someone more experienced for help? Those who do will find likeminded souls here and still have the opportunity to use the regular list when they need support. Those who don't will be much happier restricting themselves to freebsd-questions instead of using both. We don't all have to like the same things. > I think this list should be for FreeBSD newbies in general. Not just for > chat, but questions also. But that is not what it is. Sorry to disappoint. End of story. > I mean, the manual is a good place to find answers, but who write's those > things. If we could understand them we wouldn't need to ask questions. Now that's an excellent topic for this list! Most of us need help to understand the manuals (not just help to use the software) as well as help to write sensible questions for the other list. Some of us can't even find the right manuals or other resources. Once we work out what manuals we're using, what problems we're having with them, and how we can learn from what each other has done with them, we'll be in a very good position to have a say in how the manuals are written. Why? Because the people writing them want to know how they are being used and what improvements can be made. It's a lot of work to get manuals right. One newbie's idea of what makes sense is not enough to give good guidance. And once we newbies find out what we _can_ do with the manuals it'll become clearer what it is that we can't do with them the way they are now. Here's an example. The same day I installed I read up on how to build a new kernel, using the handbook and FAQ together. I followed the instructions, and voila! New kernel! No worries! Nervewracking, but it worked well. Months later I was still trying to figure out how to do simple things like install ports. Does this mean that the kernel rebuilding stuff is very well written for a newbie? I doubt it very much. It was perfectly written for me when I knew nothing. Has anyone else tried following these instructions? Did it work or not? Can you follow it all except for one sentence somewhere? Can another newbie explain how they dealt with that sentence, or point to another document that makes it clear? Throwing these questions around can help everyone, in ways that how-to answers aren't meant to. -- Regards, -*Sue*- find / -name "*.conf" |more To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message