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Date:      Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:18:15 -0800 (PST)
From:      Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu>
To:        David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com>
Cc:        freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Newbie packages
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.10010301113340.57199-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu>
In-Reply-To: <39FDBE7E.5310B2B9@acuson.com>

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Interesting. 

I did this for the book I was writing (which got cancelled) in
conjunction with the installation chapters--i.e., what packages to
install on installation (cvsup and bash and perhaps lynx), on
configuration (desktop setup).

I reviewed some 37 software categories exclusive of foreign languages;
with 3,500+ software applications, there's a lot of stuff.  I addressed
using ee, pico, and vi separately.  

I was not certain about all my picks in stuff like sound.  Maybe I
should post this to my web page for your amusement and comment.

	Annelise

On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, David Johnson wrote:

> I've been thinking of ways to help out newbies that don't involve
> publishing savvy, programming expertise or marketing skills. Helping out
> with the documentation is always a good one. But I'm thinking of one
> particular "hole" in the documentation...
> 
> What about a list of appropriate and/or recommended packages to install
> for newbies? Many Linux distributions have recommended packages for
> beginners, which are selected by default. Instead of making the brand
> new user select from two dozen text editors, one is selected by default.
> With consumer-oriented operating systems (windows/mac), the packages are
> chosen for you far in advance. But in FreeBSD you have thousands of
> unfamilar (to the newbie) packages to look over and choose from. All
> this choice can be confusing at the novice level.
> 
> So I'm thinking of creating a short article (unofficial) that lists one
> or two recommended packages in a variety of categories. I would like to
> see a short descriptive paragraph, probably taken from the ports, and a
> couple of comments from users.
> 
> So I'm soliciting comments on this idea as a whole, and also your
> comments on packages that you have found to be useful for newbies. The
> packages I am looking for don't have to be the most powerful, but they
> should be appropriate for novices.
> 
> Categories, off the top of my head: text editor, word processor,
> spreadsheet, window manager, desktop, browser, mailer, image processing,
> image viewing. I also want a list of packages that are difficult for the
> novice, but still essential to learn (like vi), and a list of any
> "required" packages that aren't installed by default.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> David
> 
> 
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