[proposal] Newbie-FAQ or Everything You Always Wanted To Ask About Ubuntu But Were Afraid To Ask

[Lehofer, Meinhard]

Hi ALL,

I like the initiative for a newbie guide, and really suggest a step by 
step and „take the child by the hand“ approach. I can recommend doing a 
„virtual installation“ perhaps creating a virtual newbie (called Bill G. 
;) to ensure a use-centric and problem solving approach. It is very 
motivating, if the guide deals with the actual thing, in this case 
installing and using ubuntu. This method worked very well in workshops 
about the formation of companies or societies.


So the guide should start something like this:


Where to get ubuntu, preparing for Installation

a) Download an brun an CD

b) oder CDs from canonical


Installing Ubuntu

Insert CD

boot from CD

Boot options

using partitions


apt to synaptic translation

When looking you for help, you often find instructions for the 
commandline. That's perfectly sane, because providing „# apt get 
install“-lines is much more efficient than lots of synaptic screenshots. 
But a newbies and windows/mac migrants are certainly better off with an 
visual solution, synaptic. They are used to „a click and see“ gui and 
from my experience most see the commandline as old fashioned, outdated 
and overwhelmingly complex. It is simply not the way they are used to work.



Repositories:

For me, repositories are the place where I get (almost all) programmes. 
we should provide at least a sample sources.list file, perhaps several 
(like Universe enabled or not, lists for the mirrors to speed things up 
(and help canonical's bills), multimedia and other repos).


Repos are also the place from where I get security updates and some 
documentation. I feel Wander's explanation is already to abstract and 
“techie”.


I really like the initiative and am willing to help. I my opinion Ubuntu 
in its present state is NOT newbie ready, compared to Mandrake for 
example. But an easy to understand, step by step guide would be a way to 
get around that bend.




Wander Boessenkool schrieb:

>On Wed, 2004-12-22 at 19:09 -0800, Matt Zimmerman wrote: 
>  
>
>>This is one of a related set of FAQs which should probably be documented.
>>    
>>
>
>I'd be willing to compile such a FAQ, given enough interest from the
>community. I think that such a FAQ should be aimed at the
>new-user/windows-convert who has just begun using Ubuntu and has no or
>almost no prior experience using *nix system.
>
>Topics would range from "What is a repository?" and "How do I setup my
>E-mail?" to more broader topics of "Practicing Safe Computing" and the
>exotic "The Joys Of The Middle Mouse-Button"
>
>But most of all it should be accessible to people who want their systems
>to "Just Work", so techno-mumbo-jumbo, which to most of us reads like
>normal English, should be avoided. Instead plain instructions should be
>given therein to help a user on his/he way. Explaining what a term means
>is encouraged, and enough information should be given to help a person
>who wants to learn the ins-and-outs of *nix, and especialy ubuntu, on
>his/her way.
>
>I've put-up a mockup of such a site on
>http://home.casema.nl/w.boessenkool/newbie-faq/ to give an impression of
>what I mean. (please _don't_ look at the layout/stylesheet. It's
>something I hacked together in a few minutes, and layout wasn't my
>priority)
>BTW: except ofcourse for the glossary-frobnitzen in css, I had them
>lying around and thought they would be nice for a document like this.
>
>If you think this an duplication of efforts, please point me/us to the
>site or document you think should be enough. I personally don't believe
>that ubuntuguide.org is suitable for newbies (although it is a excellent
>site), as it requires that you already have some prior knowledge of what
>it is that you want.
>
>If you like this idea, or if you have a suggestion for a topic or
>question (I would appreciate your input), please let me know. If you
>want to help in writing such a faq, even better.
>
>
>Nice sigmonster...
>  
>