Moin, On Thursday 30 September 2010 12:48:32 Frank Sundermeyer wrote: > On Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:27:11 +0200 Javier Llorente wrote: > > Hi, > > (Disclaimer: I am working in the SUSE documentation department and am > the person leading the openSUSE documentation project in our department) > > I am not reading opensuse-marketing (doing that now ;-)), but henne > pointed me to this thread, therefore I did not answer earlier... thanks for jumping in here. > > Please move this discussion to opensuse-doc, where you can reach all > people currently writing the openSUSE manuals as well as other people > interested in documentation > > > I was thinking that having an openSUSE Handbook (or handbuch ;) > > well, this may come as a surprise to most of you, but we already have > that - and it's even shipped with each openSUSE version. The problem is > that it is kind of a stealth documentation because it is almost > impossible to find it when you do not know where to find it. > > The fact that most of you having participated in this thread are not > aware of the existing documentation is proof for that. > > The documentation team has fought for a better visibility of the > documentation for years with to avail - it would be good if you would > join us and help us in this matter. Maybe you should share "your" feature request with the folks here: https://features.opensuse.org/306404
And from now on on opensuse-doc ;-) Best M > > Installing them by default (HTML and PDF) would be a good start. Having > a documentation pattern would be a nice addition. Having a desktop icon > providing access to the manuals as well as a menu entry in the main > menu would make people aware of the documentation. Putting some work > into the KDE and GNOME help centres to make them do what they are > supposed to do would be another milestone ;-). > > Here is where you can find the official openSUSE documentation: > > Web: > http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Official_documentation > > System: > Packages: > HTML: > * opensuse-manuals_en > PDF: > * opensuse-apparmor-quick_en-pdf (openSUSE AppArmor Quick Start) > * opensuse-apps_en-pdf (openSUSE Application Guide) > * opensuse-gnomequick_en-pdf (openSUSE GNOME Quickstart > * opensuse-gnomeuser_en-pdf (openSUSE GNOME User Guide > * opensuse-installquick_en-pdf (openSUSE Installation Quick Start) > * opensuse-kdequick_en-pdf (openSUSE KDE Quickstart) > * opensuse-kdeuser_en-pdf (openSUSE KDE User Guide) > * opensuse-reference_en-pdf (openSUSE Reference) > * opensuse-security_en-pdf (openSUSE Security Guide) > > OK, having had my rant here is my answer to Javier's initial mail and > to other comments/proposals: > > See > > > in > > pdf format ready to be downloaded, printed and even ready to be sent > > to a publishing company is a good idea. > > We currently provide color PDFs, HTML, and ePUB. We can also provide a > ready-to-print PDF, neatly formatted ASCII, and MediaWiki text > (basic functionality, stylesheets could need some work). > > The openSUSE documentation is created in XML (a subset of DocBook), > because this is the only format that gives us the flexibility to > produce almost every output format we currently need or will need in > the future (we only recently dded ePUB). > > All openSUSE manuals are licensed under the GFDL. > > > ****************************** > > The openSUSE Handbook > > ****************************** > > Introduction > > - What's the openSUSE project? > > - What's openSUSE? > > Currently not covered in our manuals, but since the text is already > available in the wiki, adding it should be fairly easy. > > > Installing openSUSE > > - Different types of install methods > > Covered to some extend in the reference guide, if there is need this > could be extended. The default installation path is also described as a > step-by-step guide with screenshots in the Installation Quick Start. > > > - AutoYaST > > Currently not part of the openSUSE manuals, but documentation exists > for SLE and could be added. So far this hasn't been asked for. > > > Installing applications > > - Using 1-click > > - Using YaST > > - Using zypper > > All covered in the reference and Start-Up Guides > > > Desktop environments > > - An introduction to DEs (KDE, GNOME, XFCE, LXDE). > > * Gnome Quick Start > * Gnome Manual > * KDE Quick Start > * KDE Manual > * Application Guide > > XFCE and LXDE currently not available, this would need help from the > community. In case of XFCE I would vote against writing our own manuals > because the documentation provided by XFCE itself is very good. Maybe a > quickstart (I probably could do it myself since I am an XFCE user). > > I do not know what's the status of the LXDE documentation, though. > > > - Enabling proprietary drivers (ATI, NVIDIA) > > this seems to change with every release and always implies last minute > changes - this is definitely a topic for the wiki, since a manual would > probably already be outdated on release date > > > - Multimedia > > Covered in the KDE, Gnome and Application Guides > > > - Printing > > Covered in the Start-Up and (all the gory details) the Reference Guide > > > - Games > > Currently not covered. To be honest, I do not see the need to document > them (it would probably just be copying the existing documentation) > > > System administration > > - Introduction to the command line > > - Networking > > - Security > > - Storage > > - Virtualization > > - Keeping openSUSE up-to-date > > - Upgrading openSUSE > > Everything is covered except Virtualization and Storage. Both topics > are covered in SLES, so documentation is available in principle. So > far, Product Management hasn't seen a need to include them with > openSUSE. > > > Servers > > - Apache and lighttpd > > Apache is covered in detail, lightttpd not. IMHO it is sufficient to > document one of the two. > > > - MySQL and PostgreSQL > > - Postfix > > - BIND > > - Samba > > All not covered. The reason for this is: Very good books each > with several hundred pages exist on the market. We will not be able to > cover those topics to the same extend as the books do. What we could do > is to provide a basic introduction and that would not fit these complex > topics. > > > - CUPS > > Covered in the Reference Guide > > > etc > > We also have a security Guide. > > > Other openSUSE Technologies > > - Build Service > > - KIWI > > Both projects are under heavy development and are constantly changing. > Documentation has to be written and maintained by the projects > themselves, otherwise you will just produce outdated manuals that will > help nobody. ;-) > > > - SUSE Studio > > We have just finished writing a Studio guide (released under GFDL). It > will be published under www.novell.com/documentation any day soon. > > > Drawbacks: > > We would need to update some of its contents for each openSUSE > > release. It needs more than two people to make it happen ;-) > > It's more than that. the complete manual needs to be _reviewed_ and some > of it's content has to be updated. The updated parts need to be > proofread (content-wise and language-wise). > The biggest challenge is, that all this has to be finished two weeks > before release date. otherwise the manuals will not make it into the > distribution. If the manuals are going to be translated (currently some > guides are translated into German), they have to be ready 5 weeks > before release date... . > > > On the other hand, I think that the handbook would make openSUSE more > > "visible" and a bit more "ready to use." > > > > Comments and suggestions are welcome! :-) > > Use what is already there and help to improve it ;-). > > Three years ago we (the Nuremberg documentation team) launched a > project called Lessons for Lizards. The idea was to have a cookbook > style manual covering all sorts of topics that don't make the official > manuals. We provided the complete infrastructure (SVN, mailinglist, > build environment, support, etc.) and a skeleton book that already > included a few articles and a structure. The project was announced on > different channels including a speech of mine at FOSDEM. > > We had a _single_ contributor (thanks a lot Alexey!) from the > community and so the project slowly died... . (although it could be > revived very quickly). -- Michael Löffler, Product Management SUSE LINUX Products GmbH - Nürnberg - AG Nürnberg - HRB 16746 - GF: Markus Rex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscr...@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+h...@opensuse.org
