Redhat.fedora site Not Noobie Friendly!

[Les Mikesell]

On Sat, 2005-03-26 at 11:03, David Curry wrote:

> >>Yes, but there is no imstructions for how it is to be done or at least
> >>telling people that when you go to burn a iso image your software
> >>should have a option of .iso extension .

> >
> >There should at least be a hint that you do not treat the image
> >like a file that is copied to a cd in the usual way.
> >  
> >
> The only problem I see here is for non-English speakers who struggle 
> with understanding material written in English.

OK, I guess most of the Windows users I know in the US have a problem
with English.  Maybe there is a special dialect that they use.

> The web page referenced 
> above has plenty of pointers that people need to download ISO images.  
> There is a page section heading in large bolded text that reads, "Write 
> files to media" which is followed by
> 
> "Note: ISO images are not written to CDs/DVDs the same way as files."
> "If you are already running Fedora Core, refer to CD-Rs and CD-RWs for 
> instructions on using cdrecord to burn ISOs to CD."

This is one of those theory-vs.-practice things.  In theory, you might
expect that to generate a working CD.  In practice it doesn't as easily
determined by the number of failures mentioned on the mailing list
and in my case by windows users asking why their CD's won't install.

> But, in my opinion most English speakers posting 
> such messages are individuals who are prone to try "winging it" and 
> haven't bothered to undertake even the most cursory preparatory research.

Yes, if they weren't this type, they wouldn't be installing Linux for
the first time on their own.  And the exceptional thing about the ones
you've seen is that they managed to get on the mailing list and post
the question.  That's probably a very small percentage of the actual
failures.  You have to write the instructions for the intended
audience.  Commercial companies often hire specialized technical writers
just to deal with the problem that first-time users rarely do what
an experienced developer expects them to do.  And they sometimes revise
their documentation when informed by the support department that
errors from certain misconceptions are happening all the time.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   les at futuresource.com