From owner-freebsd-newbies Mon Oct 30 11:30: 6 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from andrsn.stanford.edu (andrsn.Stanford.EDU [171.66.112.163]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 44E2237B4C5 for ; Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:30:03 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (andrsn@localhost.stanford.edu [127.0.0.1]) by andrsn.stanford.edu (8.9.3/8.9.1) with ESMTP id LAA57353; Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:18:15 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:18:15 -0800 (PST) From: Annelise Anderson To: David Johnson Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Newbie packages In-Reply-To: <39FDBE7E.5310B2B9@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 Interesting. I did this for the book I was writing (which got cancelled) in conjunction with the installation chapters--i.e., what packages to install on installation (cvsup and bash and perhaps lynx), on configuration (desktop setup). I reviewed some 37 software categories exclusive of foreign languages; with 3,500+ software applications, there's a lot of stuff. I addressed using ee, pico, and vi separately. I was not certain about all my picks in stuff like sound. Maybe I should post this to my web page for your amusement and comment. Annelise On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, David Johnson wrote: > I've been thinking of ways to help out newbies that don't involve > publishing savvy, programming expertise or marketing skills. Helping out > with the documentation is always a good one. But I'm thinking of one > particular "hole" in the documentation... > > What about a list of appropriate and/or recommended packages to install > for newbies? Many Linux distributions have recommended packages for > beginners, which are selected by default. Instead of making the brand > new user select from two dozen text editors, one is selected by default. > With consumer-oriented operating systems (windows/mac), the packages are > chosen for you far in advance. But in FreeBSD you have thousands of > unfamilar (to the newbie) packages to look over and choose from. All > this choice can be confusing at the novice level. > > So I'm thinking of creating a short article (unofficial) that lists one > or two recommended packages in a variety of categories. I would like to > see a short descriptive paragraph, probably taken from the ports, and a > couple of comments from users. > > So I'm soliciting comments on this idea as a whole, and also your > comments on packages that you have found to be useful for newbies. The > packages I am looking for don't have to be the most powerful, but they > should be appropriate for novices. > > Categories, off the top of my head: text editor, word processor, > spreadsheet, window manager, desktop, browser, mailer, image processing, > image viewing. I also want a list of packages that are difficult for the > novice, but still essential to learn (like vi), and a list of any > "required" packages that aren't installed by default. > > Thanks, > > David > > > 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