A few specifics:
* search on google (it includes mailing list archives)As others have suggested, this isn't always very helpful for a linux neophyte. At least don't assume that they haven't done this just because their question seems ill-researched. Their search query in google may have been ill-conceived, and the search hits utterly opaque to them.
* see the distribution release notes if something doesn't work
anymore as it used to after upgrading
I've just read the Fedora Core 2 x86 Release Notes. Believe me, there's almost nothing in there that most computer users would understand. Many people, perhaps most, would not get beyond the first few paragraphs.
* if you're looking for an application, search on freshmeat.net and
sourceforge.net
I just went to freshmeat and clicked on the first app link I noticed (for mplayer). There's nothing there that would speak to a non-techy person. It would be utterly bewildering.
In maximum 5 minutes of your time you could find the answer, probably
learning more.
I might just manage all this in 5 minutes. But, having had a lot of contact with non-techy types, please believe me when I say that many of them would not get through that list in 5 hours. It seems simple enough to 'us', but that's because we're largely unaware of the mountain of background knowledge we bring to bear on our computer use and troubleshooting.
If anyone's response is that someone as naive as I describe should be in charge of a computer, or shouldn't try fedora, or shouldn't post to this list, then that's when Renee Lee's apparently oversensitive tone becomes justified in my view. No-one that I know of has any mandate to select the user-base of this list, fedora, or computers in general.
Cheers,
CB.
