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From: chilton@MCS.COM (Christopher Hilton)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Documentation project (was Re: Slight flame from Linux user)
Date: 7 Jun 1995 10:34:12 -0500
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organi[sz]ation
Lines: 56
Message-ID: <3r4gtk$91e@Mars.mcs.com>
References: <3ql3gd$je2@bell.maths.tcd.ie> <3r20g7$q4q@canyon.sr.hp.com> <3r29g0$q4q@canyon.sr.hp.com> <3r327q$isu@pandora.sdsu.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mars.mcs.com
In article <3r327q$isu@pandora.sdsu.edu>,
Larry Riedel <larryr@saturn.sdsu.edu> wrote:
>Darryl Okahata (darrylo@sr.hp.com) wrote:
>> I'd like to point out that there are a number of
>> books on Linux out there, and very few (none?) on FreeBSD. I live
>> somewhat in the boonies (~60 mi. N. of San Francisco), and a (big)
>> bookstore here has at least a half-dozen books on Linux. I couldn't
>> find a single one on FreeBSD.
>
>I'm no Linux expert, but it sounds kind of scary to me that there would
>need to be books specifically about it when there are hundreds, if not
>thousands of books about Unix, which is what FreeBSD is. After using
>SunOS 4.x, I had no problem with installing and administrating FreeBSD
>2.x because it was not very different - I don't see why it would need
>to have its own book. What is it about Linux that requires a separate
>book? Why would a system be created that is sort of like Unix, but
>only sort of, such that the existing base of Unix documentation would
>be inadequate?
>
>
>Larry
Linux and FreeBSD are pretty well covered by the existing Unix
documentation available at your local trade book store. The Linux
folks forget either out of ignorance or maliciously that there isn't
as much of a need for specific documentation for FreeBSD because of
the wealth of good books on BSD Unix out there and the the closeness
of FreeBSD to the 4.4 Lite BSD distribution. The name "Linux" in the
title is a bit more friendly to people who walk into a bookstore
knowing that they want to set up Linux who aren't aware that Linux is
really a varient of Unix so books about Unix are equally
applicable. By example most of the people that I know that are running
Linux have a decent collection of the O'Reilly books which apply
equally well if not better to FreeBSD than they do Linux.
This is not meant to imply that the documentation out there is
all that is needed. It can always be improved because both systems are
relatively opaque to the casual observer and being able to install
either well (not successfully but well) require that the installer
learn something that he can only get from good documentation.
It would be a good thing to get FreeBSD and Linux's documentation to
the level where someone need not know much more about the system than
how to install DOS could do it. In the end all this will do is create
more Unix users from the vast pool of MS-DOS users out there now.
C.
--
Christopher Sean Hilton E-mail: chilton@mcs.com
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