"Kevin Stokes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>and kevin, when the light goes on, and all the fog clears, >imagine how much hair-pulling you'll save the next poor soul if >you document what you learned... hmm?< > >Ahh, but I'm not a Linux or Free-Software devotee. I would guess that the >Linux community doesn't just write software and doc for themselves; They >would want their OS to grow and spread far and wide. As I understand it, >the developers would want more people to use it, even if those people didn't >become disciples of Free Software themselves.
*shrug* I think the motivation of a lot of developers is more to write something useful, fun, and powerful - there's Eric Raymond's thing about "scratching a personal itch". Let's face it, most developers aren't marketers. From my point of view, who cares if the world runs on Linux? I'd like to help make it as good as possible for the people who *do* run it. > Yes, I could write good newbie doc. But I'm extremely busy with my own >stuff, and have spent far to much time on postings about this anyway. See, this sort of thing is *so* frustrating to read. We're all busy; the people who know most about your average piece of software are the busiest of all, and because they're liable to be most in contact with other developers the pressure is on them to write developer-oriented documentation. If only I were paid to do this ... >I realize that my words aren't going to turn the lights on by >themselves. But perhaps over time as more newbies vocalize their >suprise at the lack of any offical information directed at their level, >one of the devotees will decide to reapportion the Linux development >effort a little. Not because they want to help the poor helpless >newbies, but because by reapportioning the group effort, the group >could come closer to accomplishing their goal. Reapportion? I just feel the need to wave a big flag reading "VOLUNTEER" here ... and volunteers work on what they find interesting. If you find documentation interesting, *please* come and work on it, as it's a need being served by all too few people. -- Colin Watson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
