user-opinion poll?! [was: Would this be useful?]

[Roman Neuhauser]

# oceanare at pacific.net.sg / 2004-04-21 11:53:35 +0800:
> platanthera wrote:
> >On Tuesday 20 April 2004 09:35, Marc Fonvieille wrote:
> >>Did you really read
> >>http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install.html ?
> >
> >it would be really hard to create a better installation guide .-)
>
> It depends on the angle of view.
> 
> Imagine you are a Windows user and want to try FreeBSD. All you get is
> that handbook. It just looks greek to them.
> 
> This is the point where their route to FreeBSD ends.

    I don't have to imagine being a Windows user as I *was* one,
    and I wanted to try FreeBSD (4.0 at that time). All I got was that
    handbook. Unix just looked all greek to me.

    That was the point where my route to FreeBSD began.

    Or did you mean a *dumb* Windows user?

    Yes, I'm fed up with the "them poor Windows users" FUD.

    If you're looking for things to document (better/more), how about
    the VM system (e. g. the fourth line in top, or process states as
    shown in ps/top?

    I actually saw a Samba/AD integration tutorial aimed at Windows
    users. It went like this:

    type vi /etc/samba/smb.conf and hit enter
    type j three times, then O, then ...

    Needles to say, the result was that I couldn't tell what changes
    are should do without following it to the letter, which was slow
    as hell, and was prone to error in case the file I was editing
    was different from the one they were assuming.

    Every (other) piece of technical documentation I've seen assumed
    some prior knowledge, and brains, in the reader. Of course, the
    level is a matter of discussion, and Matt Dillon is probably not
    the best target audience of a hypothetical "How NFS works" Handbook
    chapter, but don't aim the documentation at "dummies".

-- 
FreeBSD 4.9-RELEASE-p2
10:46AM up 1:17, 5 users, load averages: 0.02, 0.02, 0.00