documentation scope (Re: why o why [off topic])
Karsten Wade
kwade at redhat.com
Thu Apr 21 18:24:30 UTC 2005
On Thu, 2005-04-21 at 15:50 +0100, Stuart Ellis wrote:
> FWIW, I think that the general view has been that we cover software that
> is either in Core or Extras, so a document on installing a third-party
> product (Oracle/Mono/Whatever) may be out of scope, but I don't know if
> that is a hard-and-fast rule. I think the best thing to do is open a
> separate thread requesting clarification/discussion if this is still a
> live issue.
+1
AFAIK, Enterprise Linux documentation only covers the free stuff. There
are a very few non-free bits in RHEL. To document them would imply we
support them. Regardless, this is not a moot[1] point, and it's off-
topic.
Just like the Fedora Project, we cover only free software. Our first
priority is to software that is in Core or Extras. Stand-alone docs
that cover software not in Core or Extras is fine. Docs covering a
subject area that has several choices will cover the choices in Core or
Extra primarily. Choices that are outside of the project are noted as
not being "supported by Fedora".
I know there are people in the community who use non-free software on
Fedora. Our reason for not documenting this usage is related to why
developers won't support a system running a tainted kernel. We send our
readers into a risky situation. The risk is they are using unsupported
pieces that will make it hard or impossible to get help in fixing
anything that is broken. Not a pretty situation for a production
system.
- Karsten
[1]
The term "moot point" is often misused, I think many of us got it from a
Jesse Jackson skit on SNL many years ago. A moot point is one that is
open for debate and could be disproved. It is not a point that is no
longer worth discussing.
--
Karsten Wade, RHCE * Sr. Tech Writer * http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
gpg fingerprint: 2680 DBFD D968 3141 0115 5F1B D992 0E06 AD0E 0C41
Red Hat SELinux Guide
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/selinux-guide/
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