From: "Birt, Jeffrey" <birtj@xxxxxxx>
I've found this to be a VERY interesting thread. It's all has to do
with etiquette and on mailing list as in life there are just some plain
rude people. Add to the mix that computer geeks (including myself) tend
to be elitist, *nix aficionados especially so.
i.e.: "...after all I have gone through a severe amount of pain and
mastered *nix; therefore I am far superior to the Windoze drones."
The general "Linux is far superior to anything else, RTFM you freaking
idiot, and BTW Windoze sucks" attitude is a great detriment to Linux. I
think this attitude is the root cause or the problem (my personal
favorite was someone refusing to respond to people who 'top post' in
replies, I personally think the whole top posting idea is
counter-intuitive and akin to trying to carry on a conversation by
repeating everything that was said before and then adding your own 2
cents)
I'm human. I can adapt to other humans peculiarities. So I go with
the flow. (Just do NOT ask me to make a major adaptation so that I
can feed information to a computer. It can bloody well learn MY way.
{^_-})
As a newbie to *nix a few years ago I tried to go through an online *nix
training program the University offered. It was useless as it was far
to fine grained information, (no big picture overview), to be of help
(like the finer points of using VI). There were lots of times I didn't
even know where to look for help (which file, website, man page) and
this list was of great help.
"man" is indeed a handy resource. "info" is king-sized annoying to use.
Another generally good resource nobody has mentioned is found in the
/usr/share/docs directory. Some programs are better than others with
regards to placing useful data there. And another interesting resource
is simply /usr/share/<item> (eg /usr/share/spamassassin). This often
contains configuration files or configuration file examples.
Now, a Linux Newbies document should point these places out to new
Linux users. It should also point out the accumulated tricks and
techniques, like using google to search this list or bugzilla. The
how to ask a question on this group document is a waste if it does
not include these tricks and information sources as PLACES to search.
One might even include tricks about using RPM to figure out which
package contains a file that has you mystified.
If the documentation lacks these pointers and others perhaps it could
be "spiffed up" a little?
Somebody with time or who already has "responsibility" should cull these
postings for some of these hints and wordsmith them into the appropriate
documentation packages.
I can just see a LDP (another fine resource at http://www.tldp.org/)
including a new Linux_Newbies_HOWTO with generic sections as well as
distro specific sections to aim people towards the help resources most
likely to help them get moving and maybe even hit the ground walking.
{^_-}
