Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 11:39:14 -0600 (CST) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Steve M <slavik944@metconnect.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: FreeBSD vs linux (some venting) Message-ID: <14956.28738.593484.214901@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <12901788@toto.iv>
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Steve M <slavik944@metconnect.com> types: I've fixed the formatting on your mail. Could you please hit newline every 70 characters or so, or configure your mailer to wrap your paragraphs before it sends the email? It makes it a lot easier to read and reply to. > I guess to rephrase my earlier 'condemming' of documentation, what > bothers me is having to have to run from one source to another to > find the answer. The man pages are useful but to the laymen they > are in geek speak. > > Your's is only the second email I've read regarding this and hope > that there are people who are little bit more objective than you > appear to be. Since you asked for another opinion, you get mine. I agree, having to go from one source to another to find information is a major pain. Even worse, you don't always find the information you're looking for. On the other hand, my experience with Windows is that you also have to go from one source to another to find information - and you fail to find the information you're looking for more often than not. I admit that more often than not I'm looking for information that most users don't care about - but at least on Unix-like systems, I can usually find it. On the open source ones, I can always find it if I'm willing to dig deep enough. I have used systems that had nearly complete documentation in one place - usually referred to as "the <color> wall", for its 10s of shelf feet of manuals all with the same color binding. VMS manuals tended to be useful. MVS tended to do things like "Error XXX#### - see error YYY####", "Error YYY### - see error ZZZ####", and finally "Error ZZZ#### - probable user error, correct and resubmit." Oddly enough, source was available for both of those, if only on microfiche. The point being that computer systems documentation all pretty much sucks. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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