El 14/04/2010 11:44, Peter N. M. Hansteen escribis:
Zachary Uram<net...@gmail.com> writes:
As a long time Linux user I will soon try out OpenBSD, I have been
reading the list emails and contacted 1 OpenBSD top person who was
very rude. There is some of the "RTFM" or "get lost" attitude in
Linux, but if a questioner seems sincere there is usually a certain
level of friendliness in Linux community towards them. Just what I
have briefly observed the OpenBSD community is more abrupt and less
interested in helping newbies, they prefer one find the answer solely
on their own if possible. I must say I detect a certain attitude that
smacks of superiority and even condescension at times. Is this a fair
assessment of 6the OpenBSD culture?
Funny you should ask. http://www.openbsd.org/papers/opencon06-culture.pdf
is one developer's take on the culture of the project (a nice talk as
I remember it).
But then again, what usually comes as a surprise to people who are
used to Linux (or in fact most other systems) is that you're rarely
left to "find the answer solely on your own" because here
documentation actually exists and is generally quite usable. So
essentially answers consisting of 'RTFM' or man page references are a
lot more useful in an OpenBSD context than a newcomer might think.
While you're still preparing to try out the system, you could usefully
browse the web site. It contains a FAQ that has what most people
would expect from a user manual, very much worth reading in full a few
times because that actually helps newcomers a lot (and occasionally us
greybacks), and the actual man pages are there too, searchable via a
web interface.
Once you've installed the system,
$ apropos keyword
will actually yield useful results.
Then again, we've seen time and again that people who expect OpenBSD
users to be thoroughly unpleasant have found ways to get their
expecations fulfilled too. It's even possible some have a special
knack for just that. ;P
you could use more words but not explaint it better.
maybe the reason for the OpenBSD community to be so RTFM in the way of
mail-list, forum, etc it's that the developers really put much effort
wrtitting man-pages so they contain all the questions before you can ask
it, aside that developers are people and they can be more or less
'friendly' in person (i've never meet anyone yet).
eventually you will notice that asking something like "can I do X thing
on OpenBSD" and getting an answer like "man program" it's enought to
make your own solution.
I had myself a really hard time trying to explain things to
linux-newbies even telling them to read the man-pages before asking
again, never had a reply on OpenBSD stuff.
