From owner-freebsd-newbies Wed Aug 2 9:21:48 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from pmr.com (pmr.com [216.30.79.131]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 771DE37BBD9 for ; Wed, 2 Aug 2000 09:21:44 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sfagan@pmr.com) Received: from fagan (wiseman.pmr.com [10.1.0.22]) by pmr.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id LAA29101; Wed, 2 Aug 2000 11:21:40 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from sfagan@pmr.com) Message-ID: <06a801bffc9d$73c1a9c0$1600010a@pmr.com> From: "Steve Fagan" To: , "'freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org'" Cc: "'Doug Young'" References: Subject: Re: new books, changing my pt. of view Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 11:19:36 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Check out http://www.mostgraveconcern.com/freebsd One site I like. ----- Original Message ----- From: "SILVER, MICHAEL A" To: "'freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org'" Cc: "'Doug Young'" Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2000 11:10 AM Subject: RE: new books, changing my pt. of view > I couldn't agree more. > > >My point was / is that there's nothing wrong with the reliability of > FreeBSD, > >however its badly lacking in usable "how to get blah working in 5 steps" > >type documentation. If that issue could be properly resolved it would > certainly > >challenge Solaris / SCO etc The manual & Complete FreeBSD still lack a > >heap of the essential details needed to get stuff working quickly .... to > get > >something unfamiliar working one has to read disjointed bits of this & bits > of > >that, attempt to piece the lot together so its halfway intelligible, then > >post heaps of questions to the list and hope someone has been down the > exact > >same road recently and remembers how to solve the issue. That's maybe OK > >for hackers with unlimited resources of time, but its not practical for > businesses > >who just need the thing working yesterday. > > You have hit the nail on the head. I have heard profressional UNIX > programmers complain about this same thing. > > I wonder if this gap could not be filled by a well designed web site. > Basically a 'What is' and 'How to' database. For example, if you wanted to > set up a firewall, search for 'firewall', and a list of the available > packages would be displayed with detailed layman descriptions of each with > advantages and disadvantages, home web sites, and most importantly, step by > step setup instructions and maybe some troubleshooting guidliness pulled > from past messages. This would help 1) in finding the appropriate package > for a given situation, and 2) in setting it up, which is always the hardest > part. The instructions would have to written to the lowest common > denomenator (like me). > > Let me know what you think about this. Perhaps it already exists??? If > not, it may be time for us 'newbies' to step up to the plate. > > ...Michael... > > > > > 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