Re "RTFM": Unix "man" really is an acquired skill. Those of us who
have been using man and apropos for way too long may forget how
hard it was at first to figure out what to search for and how to
find man pages.
My boyfriend recently (well, six months ago) took up Linux as a
hobby (having no previous Unix experience), and one of the first
things I tried to teach him was HOW to RTFM -- how to use apropos,
types of things to look for, some specific man pages that had
information he'd find helpful but which aren't easy to find if you
don't already know about them. That got him started, and by now
he's reading kernel books and telling me how the Linux filesystem
compares with 4.3BSD and compiling Minix kernels to drive old
slow laptops. I've created a monster (and I love it. :-)
"Give a man (or woman) a command, and you feed him for a day;
teach a man how to RTFM and you feed him for a lifetime."
Re not speaking up: I'm with all the other people who say "I'll
wait and see if someone else answers first, since my answer might
be wrong." It's not so much a fear of being flamed (most of the
lists I'm on aren't that rude, and the one that is, I don't care
too much about because getting flamed is just an unfortunate part
of the culture and happens to everybody), more a fear of looking
stupid or nontechnical (having people think that about you and not
say it, or worse, say it to each other behind your back).
It might even make sense for women to be more likely to have this
sort of insecurity than men; after all, with a woman it's more
likely that other people will jump to a conclusion that she's
stupid or nontechnical, whether or not it's warranted.
So women might have to be more careful about what we post
in some circles, if we want to be taken seriously.
--
...Akkana http://www.shallowsky.com
(new to linuxchix, hi everyone!)
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