<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt">Hi :) Perhaps this link? <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Signpost/Answers#help-gettingstarted">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Signpost/Answers#help-gettingstarted</a> 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. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Glossary">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Glossary</a> 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 <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu">https://launchpad.net/ubuntu</a> and use their Answers section to ask questions. There is an unofficial but widely used and well respected forum at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.ubuntuforums.com/">http://www.ubuntuforums.com</a> For questions to a wider gnu&linux community it's worth registering at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/">http://www.linuxquestions.org</a> 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 <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DualBoot">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DualBoot</a> 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 <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows</a> 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 <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.libreoffice.org/download/">http://www.libreoffice.org/download/</a> 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 :)<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><hr size="1">From: Manjul Apratim <manjul.apratim@gmail.com> To: ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com Cc: kedrugge@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: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/our-philosophy">http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/our-philosophy</a> 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 <div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Message: 2 Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:51:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Kent Drugge <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:kedrugge@yahoo.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:kedrugge@yahoo.com">kedrugge@yahoo.com</a>> To: <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Subject: Documentation help Message-ID: <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:601141.46718.qm@web113405.mail.gq1.yahoo.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:601141.46718.qm@web113405.mail.gq1.yahoo.com">601141.46718.qm@web113405.mail.gq1.yahoo.com</a>> 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. ------------------------------ -- ubuntu-doc mailing list <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc</a> End of ubuntu-doc Digest, Vol 81, Issue 17 ****************************************** </blockquote></div> -- Manjul Apratim </div></div> </div></body></html>