Newbie and using Ubuntu

[Brett Kirksey]

On Saturday 02 October 2004 at 19:39-0400, Richard Schinnell wrote:

> I would like to see a list for those of us who know nothing
> (or very little) about Unix and are coming from the windows
> environment.  Answering someone's question with well all you
> have to do is "sudo ad infinitum and Xf11Ceas" type of stuff
> is going to discourage them from moving forward.

I've made this same point in several other posts. Fortunately,
there are a few people on this list who do not assume everyone
trying Ubuntu has a *nix background.

I agree that it would be nice for there to be a newbie list for
Ubuntu. Since Ubuntu is a distribution that is friendly enough
for the inexperienced to try out, shouldn't there be a place for
these inexperienced to ask a question and get an answer they
understand?

I say this because 90% of the answers I get on this list presume
I have certain knowledge about Linux. I end up having to ask the
same question two or three times to finally have it broken down
to the point I get it.

For example, I have been told in some answers to edit the
'inetd.conf', 'fstab', or 'yaboot.conf' file. I had no idea what
those were or where they were or what I was supposed to edit.
So, I had to keep asking. And I am very appreciative to those
who have had the patience and understanding to help me out.

But there are some newbies who will get frustrated and give up.
It would be really cool to have a list where _no_ prior Linux
knowledge is assumed and questions are answered in the most basic
terms. Once a user gets a handle on the basics they can then
begin participating more frequently on the standard Ubuntu
list.

I would love to see Ubuntu become the desktop for the masses, so
I don't want to see people needlessly scared off simply because
someone didn't understand they were very new to Linux.

Thanks,
Brett