Zachary Uram <net...@gmail.com> writes: > As a long time Linux user I will soon try out OpenBSD, I have been > reading the list emails and contacted 1 OpenBSD top person who was > very rude. There is some of the "RTFM" or "get lost" attitude in > Linux, but if a questioner seems sincere there is usually a certain > level of friendliness in Linux community towards them. Just what I > have briefly observed the OpenBSD community is more abrupt and less > interested in helping newbies, they prefer one find the answer solely > on their own if possible. I must say I detect a certain attitude that > smacks of superiority and even condescension at times. Is this a fair > assessment of 6the OpenBSD culture?
Funny you should ask. http://www.openbsd.org/papers/opencon06-culture.pdf is one developer's take on the culture of the project (a nice talk as I remember it). But then again, what usually comes as a surprise to people who are used to Linux (or in fact most other systems) is that you're rarely left to "find the answer solely on your own" because here documentation actually exists and is generally quite usable. So essentially answers consisting of 'RTFM' or man page references are a lot more useful in an OpenBSD context than a newcomer might think. While you're still preparing to try out the system, you could usefully browse the web site. It contains a FAQ that has what most people would expect from a user manual, very much worth reading in full a few times because that actually helps newcomers a lot (and occasionally us greybacks), and the actual man pages are there too, searchable via a web interface. Once you've installed the system, $ apropos keyword will actually yield useful results. Then again, we've seen time and again that people who expect OpenBSD users to be thoroughly unpleasant have found ways to get their expecations fulfilled too. It's even possible some have a special knack for just that. ;P -- Peter N. M. Hansteen, member of the first RFC 1149 implementation team http://bsdly.blogspot.com/ http://www.bsdly.net/ http://www.nuug.no/ "Remember to set the evil bit on all malicious network traffic" delilah spamd[29949]: 85.152.224.147: disconnected after 42673 seconds.
