From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 31 11:14:11 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9DD8437B401 for ; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 11:14:11 -0800 (PST) Received: from thor.acuson.com (thor.acuson.com [157.226.71.79]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9ABE43FA3 for ; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 11:14:10 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from DavidJohnson@Siemens.com) Received: from mvaexch02.acuson.com (mvaexch02.acuson.com [157.226.230.209]) by thor.acuson.com (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 (built Feb 21 2002)) with ESMTP id <0HCM0018NO2Q9Y@thor.acuson.com> for freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 11:13:38 -0800 (PST) Received: by mvaexch02.acuson.com with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) id ; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 11:04:32 -0800 Received: from dhcp-46-117.acuson.com ([157.226.46.117]) by mvaexch01.acuson.com with SMTP (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service Version 5.5.2653.13) id GNSX16AR; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 11:06:04 -0800 Content-return: allowed Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 11:13:40 -0800 From: Johnson David In-reply-to: <0HCJ00245JHP9E@net.WAU.NL> To: FST777@phreaker.net, freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Message-id: <200303311113.40126.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> Organization: Siemens Medical Systems MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-disposition: inline User-Agent: KMail/1.5 References: <0HCJ00245JHP9E@net.WAU.NL> Subject: Re: OT Humble Pie (was hardw words) X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 19:14:12 -0000 On Saturday 29 March 2003 07:35 pm, Frans-Jan v. Steenbeek wrote: > Sometimes I even find the manuals too complicated. > Open-Source-fighters should write all their text (especially their > manuals) in understandable english for the "other part" of the > community. That's what came up in my mind while reading this. If there is jargon in the documentation, it should be removed. But reducing its verbiage to the lowest common denominator is excessive. In the US (and maybe even in other English speaking nations), there has been a movement to "dumb down" communication so that we do not offend those who might have failed the second and third grade. We even have newspapers written to that level. The sarcastic responses you have seen here are merely visceral reactions to against a perceived goal to dumb down the FreeBSD documentation to the level of "USA Today". David