Michael,
Thank you for your positive response to my "Attracting newbies" post,
which really started the fork from "Booting Debian/testing fails". The
original post from Terrence Brannon generated 59 responses including
mine; whereas there have been so far 96 responses since my post. If
nothing else, the numbers indicate the interest in the issues raised in
the posts.
Many of the posts contain good ideas, and I changed some of the ideas I
expressed in my post as a result. For example, I used "brain dead user"
(BDU) at first to refer to myself, but further in my text I used it to
refer to others with a Linux competence level more or less comparable to
mine. Someone suggested the terms novice, advanced beginner, etc.,
which are better, being non-pejorative.
After almost four years using Linux, I still consider myself a novice.
I have yet been able to answer any question posted by others to the
Debian user list.
I would like, in time, to contribute to the project which appears to be
emerging from all these posts. (Does it have a name with suitable
acronym yet? If not, how about LOIN -- Linux Orientation Initiative for
Novices?) In view of my own experience, the best role for me would be
as a tester of various documents drafted by others more knowledgeable
about the subject.
I notice that several people are researching what already exists or had
existed by way of documentation for novices. This step is an important
one, so that we do not reinvent the wheel. Equally important however is
to arrive at a consensus on what exactly we are trying to achieve, and a
profile of the person or persons to whom our efforts should be aiming at.
Finally, I really appreciate your offer to help me specifically.
Henceforth I will send to you copies of my panic posts to the list. The
first one I expect to post today, called "Etch X-server failure".
Regards,
Ken Heard
Toronto, Canada
Michael Pobega wrote:
> Ken Heard wrote:
>> If GNU-Linux is going to make any serious inroads in the BDU market
>> (BDU=brain dead user) which Microsoft dominates faute de mieux, there
>> has to be documentation which the average BDU can understand. In the
>> distros about which I have had personal experience (Red Hat 8 --
>> before RH abandoned the BDUs -- Debian Sarge and now Etch) such
>> documentation seems to be an afterthought. [...]
>>
>> Ken Heard
>> Toronto, Canada
>>
> Very good writing Ken, I enjoyed reading it. I agree with you that to
> appeal to the BDU market the Debian community will have to band together
> and create easy to follow documentation, but the question is do we
> really want it?
>
> I know that bringing BDU people to Linux is an awesome idea, but the
> influx of BDUs would bring a "stupidity" to Debian, one that is often
> associated with distros like Ubuntu (Note: I have nothing against Ubuntu
> personally, it's just commonly known that most people frown upon Ubuntu
> users). In my experience Debian requires you know nothing about Linux to
> install it, but rather just how a computer works. As much as I'd love to
> have my mother use Debian over Windows, I'd rather give her a Fedora or
> Ubuntu disc before I'd ever give her a Debian installer.
>
> Although, I am interested in helping to bring more people to Debian. I
> know that everyone is a BDU at one time, down to both you and me. If you
> need any help e-mail me at this address with anything you need done.
>
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