Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 00:46:44 -0400 From: "Eric Ogren" <eogren@earthlink.net> To: "Brennan W Stehling" <brennan@offwhite.net> Cc: <jon@welearn.com.au>, "Doug Barton" <Doug@gorean.org>, <stable@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: make world failed Message-ID: <041b01bf9df0$c899d5a0$0200000a@dinternet.dyn.ml.org> References: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10004032311590.38593-100000@home.offwhite.net>
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----- Original Message ----- From: Brennan W Stehling <brennan@offwhite.net> To: Eric Ogren <eogren@earthlink.net> Cc: <jon@welearn.com.au>; Doug Barton <Doug@gorean.org>; <stable@FreeBSD.ORG> Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 12:22 AM Subject: Re: make world failed > He is making a good point that the mailing list is a great resource. Many > sites ask that you join a mailing list for support, but typically most > sites offer current information on their sites and the mailing lists > simply augment that information. This is true, but, as is the nature of any open-source project, the "published" documentation tends to lag behind the development; developers don't enjoy writing documentation (it's hard!) and for whatever reason not as many docwriters seem to show up in the open source world. I'm not saying that this is right, but I think that you will find that if you attempt to use Linux, or Net/OpenBSD, you will find the same reliance on mailing lists/web-based discussion boards. > > It is the opposite for the freebsd.org site. The site is a bit behind the > release version while the really useful information is in the mailing list > discussions. > see above. > I personally do not like being on a mailing list for very long because it > ends up like it has today. I get over 200 emails in one day and send out > at least 20 as questions or as replies. It is not very efficient. That's what the mailing list archives are for; http://docs.freebsd.org/mail will allow you to either browse or search through the mailing list archives. Just search for "upgrade" in the past two months, and you'll see the 10 million people who have had trouble upgrading to 4.x via source, and the 10 million "do this" responses. > What if nobody answers your question? What if someone does but you did > not get an answer for two days? This applies to any product, open-source or commercial, IMO. There are some places that have excellent online support sites; numerous FAQs and technical notes, etc. There are also many places whose online support basically consists of "Is your computer on? If yes, call us at 1-800-support". Since FreeBSD is not a commercial project, it cannot afford to hire a room full of customer service people, so you're stuck with us :) > > I prefer to rely on documentation that I can find and read right away and > get the job done. I also like to print out documentation and have it on > hand when I have the box in single user mode. > I fully agree with you; I will always search in the documentation before asking someone else for help (even at work, where asking the engineer sitting across from me would probably be a lot faster). When I still have problems after reading the docs or I can't find anything helpful in the docs, I will usually just try to wing it EXCEPT in situations where I fear that I will cause data corruption (ie our product relies on a database; I usually don't play around with the database tools, because rebuilding my environment is a pain). This is an approach I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn on their own; it's amazing how much you can find out looking through the FBSD Handbook/FAQ and other various *BSD websites, and I think it is much more helpful than asking someone for a step-by-step list, as this list is usually just "Do this. Then do this." Instead of "Do this, because..." > I find that more tangible and helpful, but the reality of the situation is > to wait a couple of months when the documentation has caught up and > various bugs have been worked out. Yup. Hazard of the development system, I guess. Eric To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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