When you do come back, you have to realize a few things. First of all, installing and using any linux distro, especially debian, is nothing like installing and using windows. It doesn't matter how much of an expert you are in windows. It won't carry over into debian. This is a major source of frustration for newbies like you, because they expect windows but don't get it.
Second, you cannot learn to use linux the same way you learned to use windows. In windows, if you point and click enough, you will eventually learn how to do virtually everything that is possible in windows. This is actually one redeeming quality of windows-- it is easy to learn. No books are required. The trade-off is that you are quite limited in what you can learn. A linux distro, on the other hand, is much harder to learn but is vastly more configurable. This is by design. We like it this way. You aren't going to learn to use debian by merely experimenting and pointing and clicking. Research and lots of reading will be required, even to do stuff that's trivially easy for you to do on windows. Third, the documentation you seek is out there. The documentation is less organized for debian because debian is not a commercial entity like Redhat. There is little motivation to make debian easier to learn for newbies because no one is making any money from a new adopter of debian. Maybe you'd have a better experience if you bought a shrink-wrapped version of Redhat or Mandrake or whatever. You'd get a nice install manual and some hand-holding. Remember, you get what you pay for. Also consider buying an O'Reilly book. Their "Running Linux" (is that the right title?) book is a huge help for newbies. I still look up stuff in it all the time and I've been fiddling with linux for 5 years now. You need to understand that it is not easy to setup and administer a linux box if you're new to it, which is apparently what you wanted to do. If you want it to be easy, there are other OS's that will make it easier. However, we believe you will get the best experience out of debian, which is why we advocate it. It won't happen overnight, and it will be frustrating at times, but it's not impossible. Finally, complaining that debian is not like windows (which is exactly what you did, even if you don't realize that) isn't going to get you anywhere. The reason we all use debian is because it's *not* like windows. How come no one explains this stuff to newbies before they try a linux distro? -Nelson ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Stokes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <debian-user@lists.debian.org> Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2001 11:08 PM Subject: Re: water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. > >Nice. So, what - you're a martyr now? Give us a break. < > > No, I'm not a martyr. I was just trying to be funny. I shouldn't have > put that part in, since it didn't add to the analogy. > > I'm sorry I started the whole thing. I'm going to unsubscribe from the list > and leave my Linux box idle for a week or so, and maybe come back to it > later. > > For those who were annoyed by me, I apologize. > > -Kevin > > > > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
