Gueven Bay wrote:
Hi dear LFS devs,
I am one of the - I think - many silent readers of LFS-dev.
Normally I only read to gain insight how you develop (or better: write)
the book but now I want to write some words here.
I can understand that some of you are "not amused" of beginners
who want to dive deep (into Linux) in their first day by using LFS.
I know you do that what you do because it is a hobby for you and
maybe some uses this "own distro" for some productive work.
But you have to understand that in these days many out there see
a chance in using Linux. Maybe they have no work at this time and
searching for a workplace. Maybe they just want to make their skillset
broader. Maybe they have a product and it should run on/with Linux now.
So they come to LFS. Why? Because everywhere in forums or MLs
you can read that to learn the mechanics of distributions you
should make your own with this magical tome "LFS".
So they come and annoy you. But this is also a chance. And this is
what I want to say:
Unfortunately the open-source projects -at least many of them-
have not a "university" where new users can study this project. Some
forums or some MLs/IRC channels only for guiding new users
through the "product" of the project.
This "university" for LFS would some (virtual) place where new users
get to know every step through the book. They can ask questions about
every step in it. Then there should be also some place where new
but in someway advanced users can work through the writing and
developing the book.
The run on Linux and on many other Open Source projects are
fortunate. And in my opinion THE source of knowledge about
distributions - a central product in the Open Source scene - is
LFS.
Take the chance and "make" your own LFS devs by showing
new users the ins and outs about this book. The ways how to
write new sections about packages not handled in it and so on.
And they get later the work of teaching new devs.
I think with this way: You can make the book more and more a
right technical text for hackers-so that you don´t have to
write hundreds of pages of explanations- and because of the "university"
there would be a place where new hackers are "born".
I think that this would make this (already) great project more
famous than you can imagine ;-)
Ahh, there is maybe a question in your head now: What is the
diff between our lfs-users and this "university". Now, all
these *-users - not only here but also in other projects - are
run by developers of this project who read/post at the side of
their development task and some other new or advanced users
of this project. But the "university" would be run by a developer
who makes his whole task the teaching of new possible developers.
Regards
Gueven Bay
__________________________________________________________________________
Any intersting mail - but I don't see it as a valid point.
If you are learning about engines - you don't dive in and take a ferrari
engine to bits first
If you are learning to cook, you don't cook a 5 course first class meal
as your first attempt
If you are Learning to fly - you don't go up in a 747 first
If you want to learn linux - you don't start with LFS - LFS does not
teach you linux - it explains how to put a working system together.
In all of my examples above,
If you went to Ferrari and said "I know nothing about engines but I'm
trying to put a ferrari engine together"
If you went to Gordon Ramsey and said "I've never cooked but want to
cook a 5 star meal"
If you went to Boeing and said "I've never flown a plain but fancy
trying a 747 out"
You would get told "sorry - this isn't the right approache try $X $Y $Z
then when your read come back and we'll sort you out"
this isn't true in LFS - we teach people how ot use ls, cp, touch, and
even cover problems with peoples own distros, eg: fixing the gcc4 in Fedora.
Do you think its fair that the people who work with LFS should have to
deal and support with this level of ability every day ?
think about it before suggesting LFS as an excellent project to "lean
linux" from.
Matt
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