On Tuesday 12 July 2005 08:13 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > What does this mean, please? Anything to worry about? > > > > Thank you. > > > > Benjamin > > I don't have an answer for the question that you're asking in this > post to the list. I would like, nevertheless, to offer you a bit > of advice. I promise you that I don't mean this as any kind of a > slam; if I did, I wouldn't take the time to write this, since the > main reason I don't participate here as much as I used to is because > of being so bloody busy. > > You are making a lot of posts asking simple questions. Not simple > as in "the answer is easy to figure out", but rather simple as in > "the question can be posed fairly simply." For the most part, they're > not difficult questions to articulate, even if the answering of those > questions may be challenging. It's generally considered basic courtesy > towards the other people on the list that you make at least *some* > effort to figure these questions out on your own before asking. > Maybe you have done this; but your posts don't show it, because you > don't indicate in your posts what you've tried and failed (e.g. > "I tried a Google search on this, but all I got was _____, which > didn't seem helpful. Am I missing something here?" or "I looked at > the .bin file, and it looks like some kind of a script, but I don't > understand it; would I find the installation directory in there?") > > If you make an effort to figure things out on your own first, you > learn more; if you then indicate to others that you've done so, you > communicate to them that it's worth them dropping what they're doing > and taking the time to help you out. In contrast, if you don't do > these things, you can come across as someone who sees other people's > time and effort less valuable than their own, since the process above > is how other people figured these things out. People want to help; > but because there are so many that need help, people will frequently > ignore some requests for help (or give curt, less-helpful answers) in > favor of those from people who are clearly trying to help themselves. > > Over the years here, this guide gets recommended a lot: > > http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html > > It's worth your time taking a look at it, I promise. > > Cheers, > > -c Dear Cmetzler:
I appreciate your comments and will certainly take them to heart. As for this specific question about the kernel, I admit that I did not research the matter in Google. But in most cases the first place I go to is Google. For example, I asked a question about my zip drive. Before posting the question, I searched in Google and found a number of posts on the subject. But none was helpful. Same for most of my posts. I could just preface many of them with remark "I looked in Google but couldn't find anything helpful". I have on occasion done this, and will do so more often in the future. I am not new to Linux, but I am new to Debian. I want to make sure that I am following the right procedure. I read everything on the Debian home page before making my decision as to which version to install, etc. I found the explanations good but not good enough. They are still written from the point of view of the engineer, the programmer. What a new, prospective Debian user wants to know is what are the practical consequences of installing stable vs. testing vs. unstable, etc. etc. I am very grateful to the people on the list who responded. Without their help, I could not have figured out what really goes on, the complications involving installation of non-Sarge applications, let alone non-Debian applications, etc. Bottom line is that I appreciate the help and will also try to help other newbies when I can. I did promise that I would ask for help on one issue or two at a time, and I am doing this to the best of my ability. I felt and perhaps wrongly that the message about the Kernel Configurator was important for Debian developers and that is why I mentioned it. But clearly I went too far. It was not urgent and did not affect my system. I am very pleased with Debian. Everything works fine. I am just trying to fine-tune a few things that I am not clear about. My interest is in using Debian, and I am grateful to the Debian organization for producing such an outstanding Linux distro. Thank you. Benjamin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
