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Jan Kundrát wrote: |
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> Hi Ted, |
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> you might be interested in a draft of the "Introduction to Linux" stuff |
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> [1] than one of our developers started some time ago. I'm not aware of |
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> anyone working on it ATM, though. |
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> |
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> Any contributions are more than welcome :) |
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> |
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> [1] http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/draft/complete/handbook.xml |
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> |
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> Cheers, |
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> -jkt |
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|
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I've been occasionally contributing to it lately; I'm intending to |
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perhaps do some more with it. Really, a book on Linux in general would |
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be much more comprehensive. Problem is, a general book about Linux |
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fundamentals is not necessarily what Gentoo needs -- users (and |
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developers) need to know specifics about *our* OS. The general Linux |
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concepts they can pick up from just about anywhere. That information has |
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been duplicated ad infinitum; just stroll down to your local bookstore |
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or browse the web. You want to know the specific Gentoo stuff? Our |
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installation handbook and online documentation suffice quite nicely. |
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|
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Newbies would do much better to familiarize themselves with general |
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Linux terms, principles, procedures etc. before taking the plunge into |
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Gentoo -- read outside documentation first; I'm not sure I see the need |
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to include that with our advanced guides. We're not a distro that holds |
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your hand. That being said, I think our documentation is rather |
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satisfactory -- I don't see the need for providing a new to Linux *and* |
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Gentoo book. Unnecessary duplication of information, including an |
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arguable waste of time and effort. |
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|
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That's why I'm still up in the air about Sven's old draft handbook -- |
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there's a very fine line to walk. You can either just write something |
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that is more generic, and has fewer distro-specific |
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commands/suggestions/discussions (in which case what's the point?) or |
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you can show users what they need to know to accomplish tasks "The |
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Gentoo Way". Finding the balance between the two (if there is one), is |
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tough. Especially since I'm not too sure that someone who first needs to |
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know how a computer works (or what it is!) should be trying to figure |
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out Gentoo just yet. ;) -- Hey, I could be wrong; maybe Gentoo would |
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make a great object lesson. |
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|
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All that being said, do take a look at the draft Jan linked; it's |
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already CC-licensed, and our policy thus far (based on precedent) is |
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that we don't host documents here that haven't been guideXMLified and |
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properly licensed without the prior approval of the author(s). |