Ububtu Basics

[John Hornbeck]

On Tue, 2004-11-16 at 10:59 -0500, Travis Newman wrote:
> Hello Doc team! I'm not sure who's in charge of taking new 
> requests/ideas, so I'll just post it here. I emailed this proposal to 
> Mako, and he suggested I try to get this integrated with the doc team.
> 
This is always a good place to start with ideas.

> Here's our proposal. shookmon (from the Unofficial Ubuntu Forums) and I 
> have developed an idea for a documentation resource that would be 
> accessible to people who have no computer knowledge at all. This solves 
> the problem that most Linux documentation resources have, in that they 
> assume a certain amount of experience to begin with. This is a rational 
> assumption, since taking the extra time to explain to complete computer 
> novices wouldn't bring in the profit they desire, because it would take 
> up so much more of their time. Here are a few basic principles of our idea:
> 
A doc for people with no computer knowledge is good, but for right now,
how many people are going to get Ubuntu that have "No" computer
knowledge? Good idea though.

> The documentation would start from installation, and cover basic usage 
> at first, followed by more and more advanced topics, but never going TOO 
> advanced.
> 
Good.
> It would be a very literal guide, laden with descriptive screenshots, to 
> eliminate confusion
> 
Good.
> There would be an extensive editing routine to check for clarity, 
> context, content, and useability.
> 
This should be done with all docs, we should never release a "end all"
doc that has not been proofed by many.

> It would NOT include anything out of warty-main and warty-restricted(or 
> hoary-main, hoary-restricted when Hoary goes gold) to eliminate bugs and 
> incompatibilities that may come up.
> 
I like that idea.

> There will be a section for previous Windows users, explaining 
> differences between the two and discussing problems that may occur for 
> those switching. This will also include benefits of using Ubuntu over 
> Windows, and the difference in filesystems.
> 
If you are not going to go to far, than why have things about
filesystems?

> There will always be open discussion for new sections and changes based 
> on the needs of the userbase and you guys, the Ubuntu devs.
> 
> You can find more info here:
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=3991
> 
> What we're asking for is some kind of support from Ubuntu/Canonical. 
> Obviously I'm not asking to be a Canonical employee (though I wouldn't 
> complain. It'd sure be easier to keep up the pace), but we're asking for 
> anything Canonical can provide us. What we would like is webspace 
> really, because that's kinda expensive, and any other resources 
> Canonical sees fit to provide, whether it be monitary contribution, 
> pre-existing documentation, higher access, anything you can provide.
> 
We(or I) can offer alittle webspace for developing the doc if you plan
on it being a offline doc.  If it will be online than why not work on it
through the wiki?

> If you can't provide anything at this point, I completely understand. 
> We're very committed to following through on this project, unless 
> Canonical would rather we not, for some reason, and we will find a way 
> to do it otherwise if you can't help out. I just decided that I'd lose 
> nothing by seeing if Canonical could help out in any way.
> 
We will help where we can.  Not very many of the doc team(if any) are
employed by Canonical.  There are a few maintainers but unpaid
maintainers.

> Thanks for your consideration on this project! I look forward to hearing 
> back from you about it.
> 
> Regards,
> Travis Newman
> 
Please check http://ubuntulinux.org/wiki/LearningUbuntuOutline This is a
book myself and a few others are working on.  If you would like to
incorporate some of your ideas into it, we may talk about that.  Please
let us know.

John Hornbeck
Ubuntu Documentation Team
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-doc/attachments/20041116/47552f14/attachment.pgp>