Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 21:32:19 +1000 From: jonathan michaels <jon@caamora.com.au> To: junkmale@xtra.co.nz, Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Another Installation Guide [was: FreeBSD Advocacy] Message-ID: <19990405213219.A4455@caamora.com.au> In-Reply-To: <19990405071708.EHEJ5596385.mta1-rme@wocker>; from Dan Langille on Mon, Apr 05, 1999 at 07:16:32PM %2B1200 References: <37053C70.A99BEB29@uswest.net>; <19990405164928.40818@welearn.com.au> <19990405071708.EHEJ5596385.mta1-rme@wocker>
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On Mon, Apr 05, 1999 at 07:16:32PM +1200, Dan Langille wrote: > On 5 Apr 99, at 16:49, Sue Blake wrote: > > > Having decided to proceed, you've got a big choice to make. > > Do you want this to be an independent effort, or a FreeBSD project? > > There are pros and cons with each, but you can't have it both ways. > > This is something I may have missed before. Everyone seems to agree an IG > is needed. We now seem only to be debating the form: should it be part of > the Handbook or not. every cdrom (freebsd from walnut creek) comes with a installation 'guide' a booklet made from teh textfile authered by jordan k hubard. from what i can understand of teh depth of this documentation sub project is a very good effort. from this we go to teh efforts by greg lehey, a compilation of information .. so well written and some well why bother ? together with teh so what less than relevent manpages tacked on, it is a heavy awkward to use installation guide. on we go to a project by teh team at vmunix.com (sorry chris et al if i got this wrong, well any way the people behind teh daemonnews.org). on this site is teh genisis of a good book, also an installation guide. we have a pletora of 'installation guides', i would be so bold as to suggest that we don't need anotger 'installation guide', what we are in sore need off is good, well written and authered with a bit od sobriety some (many and relevent) linux style how-to's. already thier is a cache at freebsd,org in teh tutorials section and a few being added in s steady stream ... this stream will never be a torrent, mores the pity, but it is a growing stream and that is heartenig. > Does this mean that if the IG is not part of the Handbook, then it's not a > FreeBSD Project? [this isn't directed necessarily at you Sue] these tutorialettes, how-toettes can stand alone and be very seamlessly incorporated into 'teh handbook' project, or whatevr other flavour project you have on your hands. going back to one of teh better installation guide 'skeletons' "the complete freebsd", i've read it and read it both as a 'book to read' and as a source of information required to do a job, if it is a simple job and requires no real exp,anation or is not terribly complex 'teh complete freebsd is a really good place to turn .. it serves its purpose as a good installation GUIDE. but if one turns to teh complete freebsd as an authorotataive and ore definitive text on freebsd, it leaves a sadness, a sour taste int eh mouth as a direct restut of teh poor writing etyle and teh (at times groos incompleteness of teh few tpoics covered. it is a very good place to start and serves as a very good skeleten that whould, in this readers view be fleshed out more in teh next incarnation. comparisions are odious, so i hope i havent brought these two close enough for this to happen, be 'teh freebsd book', by the team at vmunix.com are doing a better job of work at turning out a differently polished job of work provided by teh complete freebsd. please, these re generalisations based on what i know of these two very seperate, very differently produced texts. i would like to say that as fro installation guides, we have many, possibly more than we need, in truth. but, as for how-to's i doubt we will ever have enough, even for a staid old, stable project like the berkeley unix, reincarnated as a free bsd. in closing, i'm ofering observations based on opinions i hold based on where i've been on teh pat that has gotten me to here, writting this .. to, for, you all. regards jonathan -- =============================================================================== Jonathan Michaels PO Box 144, Rosebery, NSW 1445 Australia ===========================================================<jon@caamora.com.au> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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