From: ewtroan@ewt.raleigh.ibm.com (Erik Troan) Subject: Re: Let's Try To Make It Easy!! Date: Fri, 7 May 1993 11:37:46 GMT
In article <6a053B4w165w@odaiko.cts.com>, jfrost@odaiko.cts.com (SYSTEM
0PERATOR) writes:
|> This may have been brought up before, but here's a thought on making
|> the Linux package nice and easy for people to get up and running.
|>
|> I am new to unix, and even newer to Linux. I'm sure I'm not alone.
|> What would be most helpful is a file that would be installed into the
|> root directory which is basically a step-by-step guide to some of the
|> most important things you need to do to get linux configured for your
|> system. Now, I know there is a FAQ, but this doesn't always provide
|> adequate answers.
|>
|> An example might be (in regard to the recent "my elm domain is wrong"
|> series of posts... boy, did I get lots of "Same here" mail!):
|> ...
|> ...
|> Step 121: Create a file in the /usr/local/elm directory called
|> "domain". Place in this file your domain name (for jfrost's system at
|> odaiko.cts.com, this would include the line "cts.com").
|> ...
|> ...
|>
|> This kind of thing. It would be useful for people like me, who really
|> would like to have a working copy of unix so that they can do useful
|> unixy type things and run unix specific programs. Yes, there are a lot
|> of books around that describe unix. However, they describe unix from a
|> *user's point of view*, not from a SysAdmin point of view.
|>
|> For example, I know how to tell unix to print something, but I have no
|> idea how to configure the printer daemon, or what command I need to
|> enter to start the darned thing! We all need to start somewhere!
|>
|> How about it? Does someone have the time to do this? Does someone
|> have a server that has a database kind of function where someone with a
|> problem could send email and say "get /linux/problems/elm" and it would
|> send a batch of stuff related to elm??
|>
If something like this happened, I'd like to make it available via WAIS from
sunsite. I'm currently trying to get the FAQs and the LSM (Linux Software
Map) available for WAIS searching, and when everything works there will
be a public setup on sunsite for people to use to search it. This seems
like a natural extension to those efforts if someone is willing to work
on it.
If anybody is interested, please e-mail me at ewt@sunsite.unc.edu so we can
talk about making it available on sunsite.
With electronic submissions, I don't think maintaining this would be that
difficult or time-consuming, and the coordinator doesn't need to be linux
expert by any means.
Erik
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam: I looked into
the soul of the boy sitting next to me. -- Woody Allen
Erik Troan = ewt@sunsite.unc.edu, ewtroan@vnet.ibm.com