> On Thu, 2005-12-29 at 11:27, Charles Howse wrote: >>> >>> You really have to understand what the shell does to every >>> command line before starting a program before reading other >>> man pages. The concepts of i/o redirection, wildcard filename >>> expansion, and environment variable setting are not repeated >>> in the man pages for every program even though they may be >>> useful or even necessary. Man pages are meant to be a reference, >>> not a tutorial. A tutorial should be a separate volume since >>> you normally only need it once and never want to see it again >>> while you may need the reference for obscure options later. >>> Unfortunately, a tutorial doesn't exist for some programs >>> you might want to use. >> >> Agreed, but apply what you just said to someone who decides to trash Windows >> and start using Fedora for the first time. > > How would it work the other way around? Suppose you were > having your first experience by installing windows and about > 3,000 programs all at once. It doesn't usually happen that > way because you buy the box with windows pre-installed > and can't afford that many add-on programs at once. Whew! I'd hate to know I had to spend that much time installing Windows apps. I think it's great that Linux comes with so many applications! But, since Linux is open-source, not everything works as expected, nor has sufficient documentation. Would you agree? >> I don't want to take the thread off towards open-source vs. 'closed-source', >> but I think you will agree that there is a steep learning curve going from >> Windows to Linux. Probably not so steep if Linux is your first OS. > > Windows and Linux are equally complex. If you are going to > do something that doesn't 'just work' it is going to take > some time. Visit the 'xxx for dummies' section about > windows and it's various apps in any bookstore to see > what it takes to get started. Sometimes an equivalent > exists for Linux, sometimes it doesn't. Since you see > those books everywhere they must sell, but the value seems > questionable. You don't see people carrying them around > for reference. That's why I love my Mac. It 'just works', and it gives me all the great Unix tools. Yep, there's more Windows books in the stores than Linux, but Windows has a bigger share of the market, eh? >> I guess I'm saying that there just has to be better help...onboard and >> online. > > There is, but keep in mind the size of the content using the > windows equivalents section of a large bookstore as a reference. > Quite a bit of that does exist for the Linux versions, but > you seem to be asking someone to have it all memorized and > be able to quote massive sections on demand. It's one thing Actually, I'm thinking the other way round on this. Sometimes, it seems like I'm required to have memorized everything I've ever read on the web and in print. Take for example, the smart-posting page referenced earlier; yeah, I read it...probably 2 years ago. I'm getting old, and can't remember that far back. ;-) > to say "I typed this command and got this error:... - has > that happened to anyone else?" and something else to ask > how to start something that needs a whole tutorial book > to answer. That's fair, but *really*, I don't post until I run out of reference options, or get frustrated after researching for a *long* time. If the tutorial exists, just point me to it. If it doesn't exist, we'll have to punt, eh? > Of course when you ask the question, you may not know the > complexity of the answer... No one can know everything, that's why we ask questions. :-)
