Re: [school-discuss] Re: Re: SuSE docs (was: Re: Re: Politeness and maturity)

[Brad Bendily <bendily@xxxxxxxxx>]

> If you go to http://www.novell.com/documentation , SuSE's reduced to a
> "category".
Again, SuSE is one of Novell's products. Just like every other product
they have.
They have other products that are used and are more popular that SuSE, but
they're all listed in the "category" section.
 
> > I've used the www.novell.com/documentation plenty times before and
> > they're usually almost helpful. At least pointing me in the right
> > direction with the problem I have. Also, just a note, the support docs
> > (most of them, at least the ones I looked at) are wiki based, when
> > you're going through the html view. So if you have a fix or suggestion
> > you can make it.
> 
> Could you post specific URLs?

So, I just thought about something. You can download SuSE free of
charge from the FTP
tree. But with that you don't get any documentation, however if you
purchase the Boxed version you'll get several books which are the
documentation. I've never purchased SuSE, so i'm not exactly sure what
the books consist of.

Still, I looked on the documentation website and you are correct that
for SuSE all they
have is two pdf files. Perhaps they will leave it at that, or they may
add more docs later.

Here is an example of the wiki based docs to which I was refering:
http://www.novell.com/documentation/nld/userguide_kde/data/chap.gnomenew.html

> benefit:  you're Google-juicing the useful stuff.  
I don't beleive I've Google-juiced anything. ;)

> That said:  most of the docs I found (on Novell's site, at any rate)
> were PDF docs.  Suitable for printing, but lousy for online reading.
> E.g.:
> 
>     http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse92/treetitl.html?nonav=true

> > > Novell are strongly encouraged to provide direct doc support links off
> > > their SuSE domain (suse.com, suse.de, etc.) pages.  Streamlining their
> > > corporate site wouldn't hurt either.
> >
> > Another support resource you can use is the support forums. Point your
> > news reader to support-fourms.novell.com and you can get FREE help
> > with any of their products.
> 
> Y'know....
> 
> Not to get 'snickety or anything -- or maybe I do -- but I hate
> form-based web support.  It's clunky to read, it's clunky to write.
> Particularly if it's got registration.  I'd rather RTFM, join a mailing
> list, or hit Usenet.  The Web is great for accessing content, but it's
> not a particularly good way of generating it or searching through
> list-type stuff.  E.g.:  if I find a mailing list archive, first thing
> I'll look for is an mbox download which lets me put the whole thing on
> my own box where I can sort, thread, and filter the content to my
> liking, with my own toolset.  Online forums are passable at best, but
> horribly inconsistant as a rule, and really lack for good processing
> tools.

I agree, the web-based forums are terrible and difficult to navigate.

However, if you're using windows you can use:
http://xnews.newsguy.com/

or if KDE you can use Knode for reading the news forum. These are the two
programs I use. They make digesting the news forums much easier.
 
> > Also, have you looked at the SuSE mailing list? There is another FREE
> > resource you can use to get your questions answered.
> >
> > http://lists.suse.com/
> 
> No.  I have hit the IRC support channel.  Despite what I wrote above,
> lists are something I generally need an incentive to join -- my mail
> feed is ginormous as it is.  If I knew I was working with SuSE
> significantly over a period of time, yes, I'd join.

So, you complain about the one FREE resource and say you want another
then you complain about the other FREE resource?  sheesh!

> SuSE most decidedly *are* being paid, and are paying, to produce docs.
See my earlier  note about obtaining the Box set.
 
I'd have to agree with you. The mailing list pumps out about 200 messages
a day. It's very difficult to keep up with. I just let them go to a
separate folder
then I can browse through it when I want. 
-- 
Have Mercy & Say Yeah