Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 14:12:00 -0800 From: "David Shanes" <dshanes@personalogic.com> To: "Sue Blake" <sue@welearn.com.au>, "Brandon Lockhart" <brandon@engulf.com> Cc: <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Slackware vs FreeBSD, aswell as my opinion on this list. Message-ID: <027001bd544d$347834f0$1d43a8c0@shanes.personalogic.com>
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You sure type fast..... You got all of that in between my e-mail checks every 3 minutes! David -----Original Message----- From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: Brandon Lockhart <brandon@engulf.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Date: Friday, March 20, 1998 2:09 PM Subject: Re: Slackware vs FreeBSD, aswell as my opinion on this list. >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 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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