===== (http://lwn.net/Articles/298758/)
User manuals for free software By Jake Edge September 17, 2008 Documentation for free software is generally a problem area, both for users and developers. But developers at least have the code to consult, whereas most users are left poking around through menu items and consulting multiple web pages. The FLOSS Manuals project (http://en.flossmanuals.net/) is using techniques similar to those used in free software development to produce manuals for users. [...] The manuals themselves are available in a variety of formats: HTML, PDF, as well as dead tree. One of the more interesting features is the remix capability. Using an AJAX interface, one can pick and choose from the chapters of existing manuals to create a custom manual that includes only the pieces required for some group of users. Remixers can choose their own cover and title, then export it all as a PDF file. Instead, one can also cut and paste some javascript code into a web page that creates a reader application on the page. In this way, the custom manual will always be up-to-date with the latest changes made to the chapters. [...] ===== (http://lwn.net/Articles/299483/) LPC: Booting Linux in five seconds September 22, 2008 This article was contributed by Don Marti At the Linux Plumbers Conference Thursday, Arjan van de Ven, Linux developer at Intel and author of PowerTOP, and Auke Kok, another Linux developer at Intel's Open Source Technology Center, demonstrated a Linux system booting in five seconds. The hardware was an Asus EEE PC, which has solid-state storage, and the two developers beat the five second mark with two software loads: one modified Fedora and one modified Moblin. They had to hold up the EEE PC for the audience, since the time required to finish booting was less than the time needed for the projector to sync. How did they do it? Arjan said it starts with the right attitude. "It's not about booting faster, it's about booting in 5 seconds." Instead of saving a second here and there, set a time budget for the whole system, and make each step of the boot finish in its allotted time. And no cheating. "Done booting means CPU and disk idle," Arjan said. No fair putting up the desktop while still starting services behind the scenes. (An audience member pointed out that Microsoft does this.) The "done booting" time did not include bringing up the network, but did include starting NetworkManager. A system with a conventional hard disk will have to take longer to start up: Arjan said he has run the same load on a ThinkPad and achieved a 10-second boot time. [...] The combination of Bootchart, readahead, and a five-second target looks likely to set off a friendly boot time contest among Linux people as well. At the conference roundup Friday, speaker Kyle McMartin announced that both Fedora and Ubuntu have fixed some delays in their boot process, and there was much applause. [...] ===== -- Soh Kam Yung my Google Reader Shared links: (http://www.google.com/reader/shared/16851815156817689753) my Google Reader Shared SFAS links: (http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/16851815156817689753/label/sfas) _______________________________________________ Slugnet mailing list [email protected] http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/LugsMailingListFaq http://www.lugs.org.sg/mailman/listinfo/slugnet
