what next?

[Dimitris Glezos]

Karsten Wade wrote:
> We now have a small handful of regular documents to keep updated for
> each release: release notes; Installation Guide; Desktop User Guide.  We
> also have other documents that get occasional updates, when needed or
> prodded.
> 
> Looking here:
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Drafts
> http://fedora.redhat.com/docs
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs
> 
> What is missing?
> 
> * Do we need to divide into more help for new-to-Fedora users?
> * Should we put more energy into focusing on systems administrators who
> are new to Fedora and/or Linux?
> * How about updating our own Documentation Guide?
> * There are other guides such as the Packaging Guide and the Developers
> Guide that could use updating or editing; do we want to adopt these and
> begin a highly technical interaction with Fedora developers?
> 
> We have a nice influx of new writers, and I'm curious where we all think
> we should go next.  Let's discuss. :)

I believe we should try to organize our docs in a way that they could be 
combined into one document (Fedora Handbook?). We have talked about this 
in the past: this should be developed in a modular way so that each 
document (chapter) has an editor and some writers. See a recent 
discussion at [1], [2]:

   [1]: http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=125807
   [2]: 
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2006-October/msg00081.html

The goal should be to ship a new guide with each release that will be 
available in PDF [3]. If we succeed in this, then we will have a 
printable manual for Fedora -- something very important IMHO for any 
person's bookshelf.

   [3]: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Tools/PDFconversion

Having such a goal will give us a vision much greater than "just a doc 
on a subpage of our website". I believe that it's importance will be 
greater than the sum of the current's docs importance; for example, it 
could become something that the FreeMedia program could ship for free 
too, or ambassadors hand it (or parts of it) at events and we will have 
to have it ready by the release date.

One easy way to handle this would be the wiki, like the Beats with a 
clear hierarchy that has cross-references between chapters. This way, we 
could monitor the changes and docs members could "maintain" chapters. If 
we go with the wiki-way, we can have people chip in here and there more 
easily.

Some sample contents:

   * Introduction
     - The Fedora Project
       + What is Fedora, FOSS, History
       + Getting help, Communicating, Participating
     - Packages
     - Glossary (jargon-buster)
   * Fedora Core 7: Tour, Release notes
   * Installing Fedora Core
   * Using Fedora's desktop
   * System administration
   * Tips and tricks
   * FAQ

And here are some more references:

   * TLDP guides [4]
   * Old "Linux Manuals and Documentation" page [5]
   * Gentoo Linux x86 Handbook [6]
   * Debian GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide [7]

   [4]: http://tldp.org/guides.html
   [5]: http://www.estart.co.za/linux_doc.html
   [6]: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?full=1
   [7]: http://www.togaware.com/linux/survivor/


My 2 cents.

-d


-- 
Dimitris Glezos
Jabber ID: glezos at jabber.org, PGP: 0xA5A04C3B
http://dimitris.glezos.com/

"He who gives up functionality for ease of use
loses both and deserves neither." (Anonymous)
--