Does Ubuntu Care About It's Documentation?

[Jonathan Jesse]

On Tuesday 14 March 2006 15:44, Robert Stoffers wrote:
> > On 3/14/06, Jonathan Jesse <jjesse at iserv.net> wrote:
> >> Let's look at how MS does their website.  Thier knowledge base, which I
> >> would argue is probablly the best knowledge base out ther to look for
> >> information is linked off a "support" page where you need to determine
> >> if the support needed is "self support" or "assisted support" and the
> >> link to the knoweldge base is small to find
> >> (http://support.microsoft.com)
>
> Why compare apples to oranges? Look at how other Linux distributions do
> their websites, many of them have a "Documentation" link directly on the
> first page. Ubuntu already has a "Wiki" link, why not just replace it?
>
> To those who say I should contribute instead of complaining I say check
> the credits of the Desktop/FAQ Guides. You will find my name there as
> one of the principal contributors to them, the layout latest version for
> Dapper Drake and much of the initial work was designed my myself also.
>
> This isn't about complaining about the docs, **they are really good**
> (if I do say so myself). I'm complaining that despite the high quality
> documentation that exists, Ubuntu simply does not pimp it as much as it
> should. Users and technical authors alike don't read on-board
> documentation, instead they type ubuntu.com into their web browser and
> when they can't find a "Documentation" link they simply give up and turn
> to ubuntuguide.com or others instead. I've added this clarification to
> my article for the benefit of those who think I'm just trolling the
> documentation team.
>
> Lastly, I'd also like to say I haven't simply "packed up and gone home".
> My time recently has been quite stretched with the birth of my new
> daughter, as much as I'd like to sit down and get cracking on the
> documentation again I simply don't have the time (when I get time on the
> computer is usually whist also looking after my daughter).
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Robert Stoffers
>
>
> --
> Ubuntu - rob1 at ubuntu.com
> Townsville Linux Users Group - http://tlug.dnho.net
> Freenode Support Staff - irc.freenode.net

I guess I just don't see this.  I look at my other statement, help pages are 
either found at support.companyname.com or www.companyname.com/support and we 
have the latter.  www.ubuntu.com/support has documentation as the third link.  
Maybe we need to make the docs that are  shipped more visible locally for the 
user, that way they don't have to visit web pages.  Shouldn't this be a doc 
team problem first? 

Jonathan