From owner-freebsd-newbies Tue Aug 15 14: 1:49 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from freeside.fc.net (freeside.fc.net [207.170.70.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 16D0E37B9F2 for ; Tue, 15 Aug 2000 14:01:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jdunham@freeside.fc.net) Received: (from jdunham@localhost) by freeside.fc.net (8.9.3/8.8.8) id QAA62115; Tue, 15 Aug 2000 16:01:41 -0500 (CDT) From: Jerry Dunham Message-Id: <200008152101.QAA62115@freeside.fc.net> Subject: Re: Suggestions for Documentation In-Reply-To: <39982B63.D3ADCFE9@acuson.com> from David Johnson at "Aug 14, 2000 05:24:51 pm" To: djohnson@acuson.com (David Johnson) Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 16:01:41 -0500 (CDT) Cc: jasonla_@hotmail.com (Jason La), freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL54 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org David Johnson babbled: > Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 17:24:51 +0000 > Jason La wrote: > > > As a newbie, it took a while for me to understand what a "server" was. I > > started out thinking that it was a physical machine. I didn't find any place > > that explained to me what a software server was.. like the X Server... > > SUGGESTION: Please take the time to explain some basic background or > > understanding so you doin't loose us. > > Really basic information like is very useful, but I don't think it > belongs in the FBSD documentation. The FreeBSD docs should be about > FreeBSD and included software. "Server" is a very basic term, and I > don't think the docs need to cover it. A glossary with basic terms like > this defined will more than double the size of the handbook. > > FreeBSD should have complete documentation for newbies to the system, > but at the same time I think it should demand some level of computer > literacy. When I came to FreeBSD I'd been using computers for 30 years (starting with classes on an IBM 1620), but that didn't help me know where to find .xinitrc. I also had no idea what an X server was or that the X client/ server relationship would look backwards to a non-softhead. I think the FreeBSD documentation could stand to cover some of these things, or in this case point to some XFree86 documentation that does (if such exists). -- Jerry Dunham FreeBSD http://www.dunham.org jdunham@fc.net jerry@dunham.org (512)335-0674 (H) E Pluribus Unix To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message