I Need a Mentor

[Keenan Windel]

On Wed, 2007-09-12 at 20:53 -0400, Jonathan Jesse wrote:
> As one of the authors of the Official Ubuntu book, do we need to gear
> this for 
> more beginners in any upcoming releases of the book or is it good at
> the 
> current audience and level? 

I guess it all depends on the scope of the book and its intended
audience. I haven't read your book (though I wouldn't mind having it. Is
it available at Barnes and Noble or for sale online anywhere?). I did
say that a Ubuntu guide for absolute beginners to computers would be a
great ADDITION to existing literature about the system: I personally
wouldn't buy such a book for myself (maybe for a loved one, though!)
about the basics of using an operating system, since I already know how
to get around on one, but many people would buy a book for beginners.
I'd love to assist in writing such a book or online documentation,
because I want to help people who I can help (an advanced book on Ubuntu
would be far beyond my level of expertise at this point).

As for your Official Ubuntu book, I really can't say whether it needs to
be geared more for beginners. That's up to the authors and what you are
trying to accomplish. As a suggestion, you might place in the appendix
or elsewhere something about the basic use of operating systems (using a
mouse, clicking icons, etc.), as this would make it more complete (I'm
assuming it doesn't have anything about basic use here, and I might be
wrong!). But I'm no one to tell authors what to do with their own work,
as that would be quite rude of me: it's really up to the author(s) to
write what he/she/they want to provide their readers, and just who those
readers are matters a lot. If your intended audience happens to be young
people in the West, you might be wasting space telling them how to click
an icon. But for someone outside of this demographic, such information
might be, not just valuable, but absolutely crucial to getting them
started.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject.

As for the documentation available for beginners, I'm still taking a
look at it and I'll get back to the group if I have any ideas or
suggestions. One thing, though: I'm VERY impressed with the quality of
writing that this group puts out. I've seen some good writing on the
internet and some bad: the Ubuntu docs really impress me.  They're
professional and well-written, and that says a lot to potential Ubuntu
users about the quality of the operating system itself.

Keenan