Hello Mike, Thanks for writing and expressing your opinion. In fact, I think you brought an interesting topic that is also of my concern. When the freedos-user list was created, it was indeed created as a list for those users that need not have knowledge about the internals of FreeDOS itself in order to use it. So far, the facts that I have experienced are:
(a) Much of the traffic has switched from freedos-devel to freedos-user. In some cases it is a correct movement, as we could seldomly see that inexperienced users asked simple FreeDOS ussage question in a list that was supposed to be to discuss internalities of FreeDOS development. (b) At times, the replies are quite technical or advanced (or "geek"), far more than the original question. At times I have tried in the past to move those to the freedos-devel, but that proved to be helpless. (c) In most times, a simple question produced a complex/geek answer, but was appropriate to the geekness level that the person who asked expected. (d) At times, a simple question produced a complex/geek answer, that the person who asked did not understand, but didn't dare/bother to ask for more help. In the understanding that there should be a chance for both types of users, I propose the following two options: just let me know what you think, and I'll run the administrative stuff: (1) Create a new mailing list called "freedos-advanced" aimed to the advanced users, and leave this one for the basic users. (2) Create a new mailing list called "freedos-basic" aimed to the basic users, and leave this one for the advanced users. In both cases, I should advise that, (a) in the basic users list, technicalities should be left appart as much as possible, in the understanding that the user there must not necessarily be an IT-PC-super-expert. (b) if a user expects a more detailed answer on certain topic, (s)he should turn to the advanced list and ask there. The traffic should not change, as it's just more a question of knowing the degree of detail that the user needs. And freedos-devel is not changed/affected in any way. Cheers, Aitor 2009/6/21 Mike Webb <weeble7...@gmail.com>: >> > From: Pat Villani <p...@monmouth.com> >> > Subject: [Freedos-user] Some simple list rules >> > Date: Saturday, June 20, 2009, 8:46 AM >> > >> > 1. Please remember that this is a users mailing list. >> > Many of these folks are non technical and may not under- >> > stand the ramifications of what they are asking for. > > Pat, as a person who's been following this list for some time, I'm not > sure that the purpose you've mentioned is being adhered to all that > well. I have been a power user since the days when DOS was cool, and a > lot of the posts still go over my head like a roof. Discussions of > compiling, listings of scripts (config.sys settings?) that are far > more complicated than I've ever used and many more things give me the > impression that this is much more of a Freedos-Geeks list than a > Freedos-User list. > > I just went to the Freedos site, the Wiki and the How-To pages and am > still about as baffled as to how to make Freedos work for me as I have > been all along. > > The impression I have (despite the statement that Freedos can pretty > much run any software designed for MS-DOS) is that the kind of system > I used as a 100% DOS user would not work, but requires a lot more > stuff in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Let me give as an example a > basic CONFIG/AUTOEXEC setup for MS-DOS (5.x and higher); > > CONFIG.SYS: > device=HIMEM.SYS > device=EMM386.EXE > files=40 > buffers=40 > devicehigh=NANSI.SYS > > AUTOEXEC.BAT: > @echo off > cls > prompt $p$g > path=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\BAT;C:\UTIL > lh SMARTDRV.EXE 2048 > cls > c: > cd \ > ver > > (I've probably forgotten something; it's been quite awhile since I've > written these files from scratch; or tinkered with them at all, for > that matter.) > > I found nothing in the HOWTOs on the order of "Freedos for Dummies" or > "Freedos for experienced MS-DOS Users." I honestly don't know what I > could reasonably expect to do in a Freedos environment, using this > configuration that would work just fine in an MS-DOS environment. If > there are samples of basic CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files lurking > around, I can't readily find them. And if I can't find them, people > with even less knowledge aren't going to, either. > > I wish I could offer to pitch in on the kinds of things that I see are > needed, but it's beyond my reach at this time. Plus, considering all > the gobbledygook I read here, I'm not even sure where I'd begin. > > All I can say is that for Freedos' sake, whatever effort some of y'all > can make to set out a "welcome mat" that explains the differences > between MS-DOS and FreeDOS, particularly as far as configuration goes > and how to resolve issues involving common programs that don't quite > run "as-is" under Freedos would be very much appreciated, I believe. > > Thanks for "listening". > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Are you an open source citizen? Join us for the Open Source Bridge conference! > Portland, OR, June 17-19. Two days of sessions, one day of unconference: $250. > Need another reason to go? 24-hour hacker lounge. Register today! > http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;215844324;13503038;v?http://opensourcebridge.org > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
