Brian: > Documentation dispels ignorance. Dispelling ignorance requires the > co-operation of the user.
To a well educated ms-windows or apfel-widows to try out and see whether they can live with debian, do you propose a couple of years of studying before they even try a live version? When one 1st timer tries to install the system and gets to the linux swap partition question, should they have printed 500 pages, have a second computer with the manuals downloaded, or should they send a mail to the list? It is a users list, not a developers list, not a well versed sys.admin list, but users. Do people who use computers for more than 10 years understand in depth what non-free means, even if they read it in the manual? Would they imagine that for 90% of the aftermarket usb wifi systems there is no free support? With one it took me 3-4 days to get it to work on a stable debian. Then I plugged in a tails-stick and it picked it up right away. Is every answer possible answered in those manuals? Have you read the whole Gimp manual before you used it? Every package in this system has 20 pages of code and 200 pages of documentation that sometimes does not make much sense to a debian-freshman, In other words the majority of debian documentation explain things with debian specific terminology. To recapitulate, the purpose of the list as I understand it is not to answer practical problems with "read the manual". It defeats the purpose. kAt -- "The most violent element in society is ignorance" rEG
