Prioritising which document?

[Paul W. Frields]

On Wed, 2005-04-06 at 11:34 +0100, Stuart Ellis wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Apr 2005 10:14:30 +0100 (BST), "Gavin Henry"
> <ghenry at suretecsystems.com> said:
> > Dear all,
> > 
> > I would like to start the ball rolling on which document we should all
> > work together to get completed in order for the Docs Project to be a
> > winner.
> 
> FWIW, the worst-case scenario (for me) is something like this: 
> 
> 1) Interested Windows person gets a copy of Fedora Core from a magazine
> cover disc (mainstream IT mags do put FC on their cover discs, here in
> the UK).
> 
> 2) They know nothing about Linux, and the magazine or other source gives
> them no instructions beyond what we supply on the ISOs - just a URL to
> our main site.
> 
> 3) They can't install this Linux thing, or even screw up their system
> with a failed dual-boot setup, decide that the whole thing's overhyped
> and beyond their abilities, and give up.
> 
> I guess on that basis the key targets for FC4 would be a) quality
> Release Notes on the Website and ISOs b) Website generally c) Install
> Guide.
> 
> 
> Re: Install Guide:
> 
> Link (this build is slightly outdated):
> 
> http://mythic-beasts.com/~hobb/fedora/fedora-install-guide-en/
> 
> The draft Install Guide looks fairly complete because almost all of the
> pieces are complete, but we are blocking on the extremely
> labour-intensive elements, e.g. if you look at the Anaconda partitioning
> screen you'll see buttons for LVM, RAID, multiple partitioning across
> multiple discs... perhaps several tutorial's worth of stuff.
> 
> IMHO the current structure makes it hard for us to get to a complete
> initial release and then develop in stages because it's monolithic.  
> The Enterprise document the ToC is derived from has sibling documents
> that can be linked to, which helps define it's scope - it doesn't have
> to cover everything.
> 
> So I'm inclined to think that the best thing to do is to reshape the
> content as a more limited Guide, and handle "advanced" topics as
> tutorials.
> 
> I'm writing in a hurry, but off the top of my head candidates for topics
> to be handled as tutorials would then be:
> 
> - Network Logins
> - RAID
> - Disk management (LVM, perhaps adding and cloning discs ?)
> - Dual-boot (and co-existing with Windows on the same box ?)
> - Configuring Network Servers
> - Kickstart

These are good points... I have been rewriting the partitioning section
to point to TLDP HOWTO documents, for now, when it comes to topics that
exceed the scope of a slimmer, simpler Installation Guide.  Wherever
possible, I point directly into the HOWTO's relevant section, rather
than "stranding" the reader at the top of the HOWTO with no guidance on
exactly what to read.



-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE                          http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
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