newcomers

[Paul Howarth]

Tim wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-08-13 at 09:23 +0300, Heikki Pesonen wrote:
>> According to my opinion Fedora Core should have a list for newbies and
>> an other list for the folk sending questions here. I am very keen on
>> Linux (it's one of my recent hobbies), but while scanning through the
>> letters only some 5% are on the level I can understand while reading
>> through. So please, is there somewhere a post list for Fedora Newbies
>> as for ex. Mandriva has? 
> 
> I haven't seen anything like that, but then I've not been looking for
> one.  The trouble with helping beginners is where to start.  You could
> presume nothing, or something, about their experience.  Linux compounds
> this more by people having to start from scratch.  i.e. With new Windows
> victims they don't usually have to figure out how to install the OS,
> they've (usually) had more of the hard work done for them.
> 
> My first foray into Linux was from one of those small books about the
> size of the Readers Digest with install discs, that are commonly sold in
> newsagents.  I'd recommend one of them as a good starting point.  The
> first one or two that I read had quite a few "getting started" guides
> with useful details that questions about similar things would usually
> get you a RTFM command response on a mailing list or newsgroup.

Another issue with having a list especially for newbies is that the list 
is going to be populated almost entirely by newbies (obviously). Which 
raises the issue: who will be answering the questions?

I'm firmly of the opinion that having a "comprehensive" list is actually 
better for newbies as they're likely to get better quality answers, and 
will learn other things by reading the list in general, even if they 
don't understand most of it at first.

Paul.