On 26-Jul-99 William Meyer wrote:
>
>> I don't know if this would be the kind of thing that belongs in the
>> installation guide... not that it's a bad idea, but I think the
> installation
>> guide is for Mandrake-specific stuff applicable to most users. Having an
> ATAPI
>> CDR drive is a specific hardware situation that only applies to a few
> users, and
>> there is already plenty of documentation on the subject elsewhere (like at
>> cdrecord's homepage). :)
>
> I disagree. The installation guide needs to be for Linux, not only for
> Mandrake-specific issues. That's one of the problems with Linux
> distributions at this point: too much knowledge is assumed in the docs. And
> that's why the HOWTOs don't work well, either, because they also make too
> many assumptions.
>
> In theory, the HOWTOs are a great resource, but the anarchical nature of the
> OS is such that they tend to suffer from innattention. The kernel is healthy
> because there is Linus and a core of developers who take charge of the
> essential issues. There really is a need for one or more people to
> coordinate the issue of HOWTOs, push custodians to make needed updates, and
> enlist new custodians where those now in place do not keep things current.
>
> Any Linux distro will succeed or fail on the ability of a new user to
> install it and get it running with a minimum of pain. Newsgroups help, and
> so do mail lists, but the first place we logically turn is to the
> documentation we received in the distro.
>
> William Meyer
I agree with most of your views, but there's only so much you can fit in one
book. A couple points to keep in mind:
Using an ATAPI CDR drive in SCSI emulation is a subject that is not applicable
to all (or even most) users. Furthermore, even for someone who does have such
a drive, knowing how to use it in SCSI emulation is not required for installing
Linux and getting their system up and running. ATAPI CDR drives read CD's just
fine with default IDE drivers; SCSI emulation is only needed for burning CDR's,
with cdrecord. Thus a user with an ATAPI CDR drive does not need information
about using SCSI emulation straight from their installation guide; it's
something they can look up later in the large wealth of documentation written
specifically on the subject of burning CDR's.
The Mandrake Installation Guide is just that: an installation guide. It is
meant to cover installation and subjects related to helping a user get their
system up and running. It is not a user guide. It would be nice if it could
be, but it's not really possible, or at least not plausible. I don't know how
large the current Mandrake Installation Guide is right now, but I have the
RedHat 5.2 Installation Guide, and it is nearly 400 pages long. It's a very
thick book, despite not having much beyond installing and getting the system
initially set up. To try to fit documentation on every subject as non-critical
and specific-to-certain-hardware as the subject of SCSI emulation, into an
installation guide, would be impossible--it would require thousands of
pages. There's no way you could pack it into one book.
Speaking of user guides though, there are several freely available guides as
part of the Linux Documentation Project at http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/.
There's an Installation and Getting Started guide, User Guide, System
Administrator's Guide, and several more, along with the HOWTO's, mini-HOWTO's,
and FAQs, all conveniently accessible from one sight.
With all that said, I certainly wouldn't complain if a little section on SCSI
emulation popped up in the Mandrake Installation Guide; but I doubt it will,
for the reasons I just explained.
-Tom
