Documentation help

Fri Jun 17 10:08:58 UTC 2011

Hi :)
Perhaps this link?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Signpost/Answers#help-gettingstarted

Often documentation would be far toooo long if terms were constantly 
re-explained each time they were mentioned.  Hopefully pages 'should' make 
technical words and processes mentioned "clickable" so that they either take you 
to a page that explains in depth or at least takes you to the right place in the 
glossary.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Glossary

The community documentation needs people to update pages when they spot better 
ways of arranging things to make them easier to understand for new people.  
Sadly most people are scared of doing that until they reach a certain high level 
of competence with Ubuntu itself by which time they are already power users and 
not the noobs they were a few short weeks previously.  Also Ubuntu and all the 
programs inside it get updated and upgraded so fast that a long technical 
process is now able to be done in a few clicks.  Documentation doesn't always 
keep up, especially with name-changes (eg Intrepid 8.10 to Natty) but just 
treating the documentation as a guide rather than an absolute truth means that 
you can usually use very old documentation to achieve the result you are looking 
for.  

Anyone using Ubuntu is well advised to register at Launchpad
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu
and use their Answers section to ask questions.  There is an unofficial but  
widely used and well  respected forum at 

http://www.ubuntuforums.com
For questions to a wider gnu&linux community it's worth registering at 
http://www.linuxquestions.org
LQ does have a section for Ubuntu but it's main advantage is for issues about 
wireless, or networking, or printers or anything that might be an issue for 
other gnu&linux distros.  Having said that the best man for sound is usually in 
the Answers section at Launchpad and he is rather good with wireless too.  

Sometimes i ask the same question in 2 forums at the same time and give links 
from both threads to the same thread in the other forum.  Then whichever gets me 
a good result first i mark as Solved and copy the url of the answer to the other 
thread.  Forums tend to have a searchable database of solved questions so this 
tactic helps
1.  me by gettting a good result faster 
2.  anyone with the same problem in the future by spreading the knowledge

When you first start using Ubuntu, or any other unix-based Operating System, it 
is wise to do a test-install on an old throw-away machine.  Perhaps one that has 
been relegated to a cupboard or thrown onto a skip.  This gives you the 
opportunity of trying various different ways of installing Ubuntu and there are 
MANY.  On normal machines at work i prefer doing a proper dual-boot install
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DualBoot
People then continue using Windows and continue to complain about "how slow the 
machine is" so i boot into Ubuntu, show them how fast the machine is when using 
Ubuntu and then they go back to using Windows.  

Migration can be a slow process.  This guide  might help a bit
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows
The idea is to get people switching apps first so that they get used to using 
the OpenSource ones that are used in Ubuntu before making the switch.  Most 
people already use Firefox according to independent surveys (ones not funded by 
MS).  LibreOffice is much faster and lighter than OpenOffice, try their 3.3.3 
release
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/
Thunderbird or Evolution instead of MS Outloook / Outlook Express.  Pidgin or 
Empathy for Instant Messenger and so on.  Once people are used to those they are 
probably more comfortable about booting into the Ubuntu side of the dual-boot 
machines.  

If you have a LOT of old machines that are unusably slow and have been dumped in 
a basement (or something) then you might be able to set them up in a room as a 
new computer room or language lab.  With Ubuntu replacing the Windows on them 
they might even be faster than much newer machines running Windows.  If there is 
an after school computer club then it would make sense to get some of them 
involved in doing the installs.  If there is not a computer club then there is 
probably a bunch of kids that would greatly appreciate it if one did start-up.  
Kids with slight aspergers or troubles socialising with other kids might have a 
gift at dealing with computers.  You are going to need some of the kids keen on 
the new system rather than fighting it as you roll it out.  

Sometimes local businesses can be encouraged to donate old machines that they 
would otherwise throw away if they are confident that you can wipe their 
hard-drives (or destroy the drives and buy replacements).  And especially if the 
computer club can get a website organised giving thanks and links to those 
busineses.  There are a lot of linux tools to do exactly that.  So you could get 
a room or 2 with Ubuntu-only machines and gradually roll-out dual-boots 
elsewhere.  

Just a few thoughts!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

________________________________
From: Manjul Apratim <manjul.apratim at gmail.com>
To: ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
Cc: kedrugge at yahoo.com
Sent: Thu, 16 June, 2011 17:29:41
Subject: Re: Documentation help

Hi Kent,

I, and I am sure all others on the team, understand your plight. Indeed, 
traditionally GNU/Linux has been an indulgence for the geek, but Ubuntu is the 
first and biggest flavor that has sought to bring it to the masses, by invoking 
design goals from the end-user's perspective as opposed to the programmer's 
perspective alone. The preamble is included here:

http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/our-philosophy

and that vision is very much now a reality, and by no means should you form the 
impression that you need to be a full-fledged programmer to dive into Ubuntu. 
The documentation has issues, and there is an effort underway to fix it from 
scratch, of which I am part, and it shall be fixed so, one step at a time. If 
you indeed go to Ubuntu.com and click on 'Support', and go to the 'Official 
Documentation', that contains a link to the 'Community Contributed 
Documentation', which is where you shall want to eventually be going for all 
your needs. The fact that this is convoluted to reach at the moment is an issue, 
and the centralization of the documentation is also being pushed for. So, to 
break free of the serfdom of Microsoft as many others including myself have in 
the past, I would urge you to proceed with your experiences with Ubuntu while 
reading the manual and ask for help on the Ubuntu forums, where people will 
certainly aid you with whatever troubles you run into. 

Manjul

>Message: 2
>Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:51:51 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Kent Drugge <kedrugge at yahoo.com>
>To: ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
>Subject: Documentation help
>Message-ID: <601141.46718.qm at web113405.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>To all,
>
>My name is Kent, I work at a school district.  We've been looking to save costs 
>like many schools these days.  Microsoft has always  been a pain in the rear.  I 
>have a history of Unix in the past and we've thought of moving to Linux / Ubuntu 
>as some other schools have done it.  My issue comes from reading the 
>documentation about Ubuntu. It seems no matter what topic I try to learn about 
>as a new user, it is very difficult because its written by people who know 
>everything about Linux/Ubuntu. Page after page is filled with acronyms of 
>services and apps who knows what.  Maybe I'm under the wrong impression. Maybe 
>you don't want people who know nothing about Ubuntu, to become users.  Tonight 
>I'm trying to read a server installation guide and its not for beginners.  When 
>you go to Ubuntu.com there is no "Beginners start here"  If anyone ever intends 
>to have the Linux world become a leader in Operating Systems, they're going to 
>have to get out of Program mode
> instructing and into 8th grade teaching level for the rest of the world to 
>become users.  I think Linux is great, it seems like Ubuntu might be great, but, 
>right now, instruction is only geared toward the very well educated programmer.
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
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>End of ubuntu-doc Digest, Vol 81, Issue 17
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>

-- 
Manjul Apratim
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