The Marketing Team Throws in One of Its Ideas

[Jenda Vancura]

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Jerome Gotangco wrote:

> I'm not sure what you need exactly, a new doc, or point to existing
> docs but most of the points you raised are already on the CD:
>
>> 1) Hardware requirements
>
>
> the current ubuntu documents contain some if not all the hardware
> requirements. we do not have an existing HCL (we do have
> hwdb.ubuntu.com but needs some love) but generally, what works in
> major distributions should work as well in Ubuntu (although
> sometimes that's not the case). there is a more in-depth
> requirements page at the installation manual inside the CD.
>
>> 2) Installation instructions (including dual-boot)
>
>
> like in reply to 1, installation instructions are at the CD, not
> sure about dual-boot though but can be easily covered.
>
>> 3) What to check out after installation, where to get further
>> help
>
>
> Would the current Desktop and Server Guides suffice? The
> guides/docs from the ubuntu-docs package link to certain online
> resources.
>
>> 4) Anything we might think of to help users (ie. connecting to
>> the internet, although this could be included in the SW, and the
>> booklet should focus on everything one needs to know _before_
>> they boot up their Ubuntu desktop for the first time)
>
>
> Again, I'm not sure what you mean exactly - the guides for Ubuntu
> 6.06 are top-notch and the best release we have so far from the
> documentation team. We've covered 3 audiences already (Desktop
> User, Server Admin, and Software Developer) and since the
> documentation team toolchain allows for online publishing, they are
> available at help.ubuntu.com (currently for 5.10 but will have 6.06
> when it gets released).
>
>> I'd like to ask the Doc Team to provide the Doc, if they're
>> willing and able, and we will then try taking care of the
>> editing. I'd also like to ask Canonical's opinion of this
>> project, and if they'd be willing to support it.
>
>
> The best place to start is go to http://doc.ubuntu.com for the WIP
> docs for 6.06 and http://help.ubuntu.com for the current documents
> for 5.10. In my opinion, we already have those info on stock, what
> needs to be done is to massage those docs and get salient points
> that can be used for marketing.
>
> Best,
>
> Jerome
>
> -- Jerome Gotangco jgotangco at ubuntu.com | jgotangco at gmail.com
> Mobile: +639196555242 GPG: 0xA97B69A0
>
Err...
There's plenty of top-notch documentation everywhere around the
internet, that's for sure... there's quite a bit in the OS itself...
but you're missing the point:
none of that is ANY good to the user who has just recieved his Shipit
batch... (let's suppose he hasn't already downloaded and printed out
tons of material, say he has bought a blank PC and want to install
Ubuntu, or that he has a working PC but no internet connection, or
simply didn't search for guides yet (this will be 80% of the new
users, as they have no clue what problems they might run into, and
what teh user input needed will be)) The booklet needs to contain
EVERYTHING the user needs BEFORE installing. The fact that AFTER (s)he
installs, there's a ton of documentation available won't help him/her
AT ALL when (s)he discovers that the CD won't boot (yes, we need to
include troubleshooting: "make sure you BIOS is set to") or that the
partitioner doesn't load (he has no way of knowing that his/her 64
megs of RAM aren't enough if we don't tell him/her in the booklet). To
that point: we need to say minimum system requirements - not a HCL.

- --Jenda
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