On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 09:35:08 +1300 (NZDT) Derek Smithies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi, > thanks for your comments Chris, I think it explains why with a fair > degree of accuracy. You are right - the list behaviour here is pretty > good. > > Now, I would like to explain why I started this thread. > Given that such flaming events go on, > >You ain't seen nothin' ! If you want some *real* flaming, check out > >'alt.os.linux.mandrake' sometime... > > my suggestion is that newbie's do not join email lists. They (in general) > do not know enough so that they can ask the right question. Since they > don't know enough (that is why they are called newbies) they get flamed. I dispute that, I think people get flamed (on this list anyway) when they are rude or behave inappropriately. We get many newbie questions and as long as they make a reasonable effort to be polite and to modify their behaviour when people point out how things could be done better, they usually have little problems. The one person who really fell from grace recently on this list (and ended up leaving of his own accord) got on poorly with the list NOT because he didn't know how to deal with technical issues, but because when people responded to him to assist with technical or social issues arising from his posts, he simply ignored those responses. > Newbies are better to find a good book/taught how to use google/find an > expert. Books are great, if you get the right one. You can read it on the bus, in the bathroom, at the breakfast table, whatever. Much easier than on screen stuff. However the problem is that people seem to be very averse to going to a bookshop and buying a book on linux. They seem to think that if the OS is free, then they should not have to pay a bean. The other problem is that unless the book matches your on screen experience pretty closely its going to be an exercise in frustration. For example there is a great book by Linux Journal columnist Marcel Gagne called "Kissing the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye - Moving from Windows to Linux" (or something like that). It goes through using Mandrake and KDE as the distro and primary interface. Now this is a useful book and full of great info, but its damn all use to someone who just installed ubuntu which has gnome as its primary interface and completely different config tools. When I was a newbie I gave up trying to mirror a redhat site with ws-ftp so that i could install from my windows hard drive. I went out and bought "Sams teach yourself linux in 24 hours". It had a (single) cd that contained the latest redhat, then about 5.0 IIRC. Because the CD came with the book, my experience matched, and I learned a lot. I paid $50-60. It was well worth it. And for those that really cannot afford a book, the library has plenty of linux books. > > The second reason is that I am hoping that the linux community can clean > up its act, and stop flaming. Yes, I know this is a tall ask, but we have > to stop acting like children. > > > Derek. > =================================================================== > -- Nick Rout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
