Creating an Admin Handbook

[Ken Smith]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2004 at 10:03:54AM +0000, Murray Stokely wrote:
> I think the time has come to split up the Handbook.  It has grown
> unchecked for far too long and it has been several years since we last
> moved chapters out of the Handbook (and into the Developers Handbook
> in that case).
> 
> The Handbook is currently organized as 5 distinct DocBook <parts> :
> 
> * Getting Started
> * Common Tasks
> * System Administration
> * Network Communication
> * Appendices
> 
> I would like to split the Handbook into a User Handbook and an
> Administrator Handbook.  The first two <parts> would belong to the
> user handbook, the second two <parts> would belong to the
> administrator handbook, and the appendices would be shared with both.

I'm not against doing a split-up at all, and am definitely in favor
of the general theme of the split - user docs versus admin docs.

My only thought is that if time/energy is available perhaps a closer look
at what goes where might be good.  My general outlook on life is that
"User Docs" == "Stuff that doesn't require root", "Admin Docs" == "Stuff
that does require root (or the installation CD)".

At first glance if I'm understanding the current split proposal things
like "Installing FreeBSD", "Installing Applications", and "Configuring the
FreeBSD Kernel" will wind up in the "Users' Docs".  Given FreeBSD's history
of being skewed somewhat towards developer type folks this isn't a fatal
problem and I wouldn't object loudly if we do split it that way.  But
from a non-developer point of view it's possible those sorts of things
should go in the Admin guide.

Just my $0.01 (it's not worth $0.02... :-).

-- 
						Ken Smith
- From there to here, from here to      |       kensmith at cse.buffalo.edu
  there, funny things are everywhere.   |
                      - Theodore Geisel |