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From: peterb@blindman.lm.com (Peter Berger)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux or FreeBSD
Date: 30 Aug 1995 19:58:06 -0400
Organization: The House
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In-reply-to: tim@maths.tcd.ie's message of 29 Aug 1995 18:56:05 +0100
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In article <41vkbl$bkq@hamilton.maths.tcd.ie> tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy) writes:
>Since the Linux system is free,
>it seems to me pretty obvious that
>the documentation that comes with it is also free.
>
>I looked for, but did not find, corresponding documentation
>at the FreeBSD archive site.
>
>I think FreeBSD documentation could be improved.
>If you think it is fine that is your privilege.
>I've really nothing more to say on the subject.
I think your attitude could be improved.
I've run both Linux and FreeBSD.
The FreeBSD documentation, as has been said at LEAST 5 times now, is
in /usr/share/doc. In other words:
to get the Linux documentation, you need a net connection. Net
connections, for most of us, are NOT free; and in any event there is a
cost in time. With FreeBSD, said documentation is included. And,
since FreeBSD is a standard BSD system, anyone who has used -any- BSD
system, including SunOS, IBM's AOS, DEC's Ultrix, will understand how
to do things and where the documentation is. Linux, with it's
thoroughly weird file hierarchy and non-standard way of building
kernels(*), and multitudinous disparate "distributions," -needs- this
documentation more than *BSD, in the same way that you can drive a
normal car out of the dealership, but you would need to read the
operator's manual if I sold you a car with five pedals, the steering
wheel as two buttons (clearly marked "left" and "right") in the glove
compartment, and the gearshift in the trunk. (When you got into an
accident, of course, I'd tell you "Hey! Why are you complaining? It
was -free-!")
Lastly, many of the Linux Documentation Project's manuals are
inadequate, contain erroneous information, or confuse the reader to a
point that they are worse off than when they started; the best example
of this I can think of offhand is the "Printing" FAQ. Setting up my
postscript printer with FreeBSD took an "apropos printer", a "man
printcap" and 5 minutes.
The Linux documentation project manuals often recommend outdated or
inferior ways of doing things; the News FAQ, for example, concentrates
on UUCP, but for NNTP connections recommends that people run C News.
My respect for Henry Spencer is infinite, but that is a bad
suggestion.
The point is, I'm very happy that you have nice touchy-feely manuals
that you can print out and bind and do whatever with that purport to
hold your hand and explain things to you in a way that might be
thoroughly right or thoroughly wrong. However, the problem here is
not that FreeBSD doesn't have great documentation (it does!), or that
the documentation is hard to find (it isn't!). The problem, my
friend, is that you are going out of your way to -ignore- the
documentation that a) comes with the system, and b) the nice people(**)
here have been telling you about for, if memory serves, the past 5
months or so.
Why don't you try -reading- the answers people are giving to you
instead of ignoring them and complaining that we haven't delivered a
copy of the docs to your house yet?
(*): I'm being good and not mentioning anything about their way of
- -writing- kernels.
(**) No, I'm not one of these nice people. I don't like you.
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--
Pete Berger - Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh.
peterb@blindman.lm.com (for now)
"Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly."
-- Henry Spencer