[H-GEN] Re: Unix vs NT [long; both informative and then religious]

[Doug Young]

(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs "Doug Young" <dougy at gargoyle.apana.org.au>)

Oh, one thing that might be interesting/helpful is a "bug log". ie, a
list of problems/inconsistencies/annoyances you encounter, optionally
categorized by where the problem lies (software, documentation, user
mindset) or including notes on what sort of fix would help you out.

It'd be interesting reading at the very least, and considering a number of
people on this list are free software authors/contributors there's even a
chance a number of them will get fixed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After receiving a surprising number of responses from people who have
experienced much of the same difficulty I have encountered with getting the
basic stuff figured out, I'm considering doing  a website specially for
people having trouble with "elementary" stuff like configuring ppp, the
present style of MAN's / HOWTO's etc, as I figure that might be a more
suitable / flflexible / adaptable / usable solution than anything else

Whilst there are obviously many experienced *nix faithful who profess
satisfaction with the style of the MAN's & HOWTO's, and it could well be
that MAN's & HOWTO's do in fact fulfil the needs of this group, it is
equally apparent that there are also many less experienced users who for
whatever reason do not have an immediate need or desire to know all the "ins
& outs" and who would appreciate a somewhat different approach to
dissemination of knowledge that that presently provided.

The concept of a "bug log" is one area that could well be of invaluable
assistance to newbies .. warnings that certain applications that are
frequently troublesome, documentation that is outdated, hardware that
consistently causes problems ... are only a few of the areas in which prior
knowledge could greatly assist in reducing the level of frustration of those
who have more than enough problems coming to grips with the considerable
"differences" that exist between the *nixes and other operating systems, as
well as creating a bit more incentive for the producers of "featuresome"
stuff to either get the thing sorted out or at least provide warnings that
the "whatever" is an alpha product, so use it at your own risk.

It will be interesting to see what sort of responses this draws, as I  hope
to start work shortly in putting something of a newbie resource site
together...
I welcome constructive criticism / interested contributors of documentation,
links etc


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