On Sun, 2003-11-02 at 08:57, Raj Mathur wrote:

> I've read the document, and I rather liked it.  However, one minor
> issue: by publishing the document in PDF only, you are preventing 99%
> of us from adding to the document, incorporating it into a broader
> work, modifying it, using specific parts of it, etc.  Wouldn't it be
> possible to publish it in some edit-friendly format and release it
> under the FDL or similar license?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> - -- Raju


thought you'd never ask! 
first: the format is not important, since verbatim allows anyone to keep
it in any media. was trying to create an html to dump on a website, all
out of OpenOffice, but somehow the results were less than satisfying. am
working on it.

second: this is version 0.1 which is in the verbatim license. the
future's open.

so why verbatim so far? based on my personal experiences, especially
over the past 10 months. have been interacting with people deeply
entrenched into windoze and their world of proprietory software, who
have some feeble curiosity about linux. a few others are keen to
migrate, but feel overwhelmed and disoriented. have been personally
handing out cds of knoppix, redhat, mandrake, and more importantly, even
the documentation cds, archives of the tldp, exhaustive list of urls,
suggested books (even allowing people to borrow or refer to my
collection of books). the results have usually been limited.

thus my insight: people migrating start with no clue and orientation,
and then find themselves suddenly walloped by a gigantic information
overload which is thoroughly disorienting.

hence the need for a simple, 3-page document. target: non-techies in a
hurry. it finally grew into a 5-page document, but that is due to its
design and layout, the generous use of white space.

should it be fdl, it could become part of the same information overload.
heck, how do i ensure the original aims of 1) simplicity, 2) brevity, 3)
clarity, 4) context focus ?

meanwhile, any fdl document could refer to this, link to this, that's no
problem.

there are hazaar fdl-ed documents and vaults out there packed to the
brim with all issues related to linux. very few cater to the need for a
simple, short, concise roadmap with pothole warnings. this document
fulfils that niche.

if people have changes to suggest, they could send in their suggestions,
i could create version 0.2

if enough people convince me that the above aims can be met with an fdl,
will gladly change the license. am quite flexible and open to ideas.

if someone else would like to maintain the document with the original
aims, under any free documentation or copyleft license, am open to that
too.

the document is inspired by the linux community, for the linux
community, so that more may join this tribe.

:-)
LL



_______________________________________________
ilugd mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd

Reply via email to