Bob George wrote:
> So perhaps they ARE complete but you can't/won't spend the time with them?
> It's not like you have to read every page sequentially from start to finish!
> I know from my own RedHat experience that they include a very nice set of
> HTML-based docs, as well as HOWTOs in txt, pdf and postscript formats.
How could they be? for one, you say there are thousands
of pages, and for two, I show how the drdos manual is 1/2
again larger. What came with Redhat 5.2 is an 'Installation
guide', which does what it says, but is not a 'user guide'.
Mandrake does better, both an installation and user guide,
but when you go to the index, there isnt any, just a 'list
of figures' and a glossary. Corel has an index, but no
glossary. DRDOS has all three.

> Well, when you state that something is "impossible" with Linux, I see little
> to misunderstand. Perhaps there's something I've missed.
Maybe I was not clear, but with the above Linux manuals,
it is impossible for a newbie. Redhat, in delicious irony
with 5.2 sent me floppies that would not boot, and a CD
that had 'corrupted RPMs' that took days for me to figure
out which would work and which not, and if I had chosen
one which would not, the whole install crashed sending me
back to square one. Then when I did finally get it to boot,
it told me to register, which I would glady have done to
get all the help you say is there,... but the PPP driver
was one of the RPMs that was corrupted. So I got Mandrake.

> Day, the documentation is far from perfect, ...
That's my whole point Bob. I keep saying but dont see
where you cite me, that Dos had much the same problem in
the days when it was trying to break out of the guru
niche market and provide what ordinary users would need
to know to get something done. but the only way Linux is
going perfect the documentation is by Newbies complaining
of what they dont find that intuitively should be there.

And back then, there were the very same criticisms by the
dos gurus as we have seen here. IT is a difficult balance,
and it will take a while to sort out what Newbies struggle
with most and what to do about that.

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