Ubuntu: A Beginners Guide

[Benjamin Humphrey]

Hi Richard,

This would be about the tenth time I've had people complaining that
it's an unnecessary project. There seem to be two sides, people who
think it's great, people who think it's not. Strangely, Canonical
employees and general Ubuntu well-doers are fairly mixed from my
perspective - I ran the project past several people before I started
it, including Jono Bacon, and all my responses were positive.

The simple fact is that the documentation out there at the moment,
while it's fantastic, it's not easy to access and blindingly obvious
to a complete Ubuntu newcomer.

If you are an every day user and one of the reasons you are switching
operating systems from Windows to Ubuntu because it is FREE, then
would you go out and pay $35.99USD for a book on how to use it? Not to
mention that for people who live outside the US, if you take in the
currency conversion and shipping, it would cost a lot more than that -
for myself, in New Zealand, it would cost nearly $100. Just to learn
my new operating system - no thanks.

I'm not going to sit here and type out all the justification again in
every email, so instead I'd like to point you in the direction of the
chapter on the main page of the wiki which is written for this very
reason:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual#Justification

Regarding the official status - I have not seen it referred to as
official anywhere - what "places" are you talking about? We have not
mentioned the word official anywhere on our wiki, Launchpad profile,
mailing list or IRC chatroom.

However, I personally would like to see the final product endorsed by
Canonical and included as sample content at least in Lucid. I've tried
talking to several people about this, but you are understandably busy
after the holiday period.

Also - because something didn't work X number of years ago, what makes
you think it's not worth a second shot? With the right amount of
support and the attitude to succeed, then this could be a very
successful project. So far we have had a lot of interest from people
willing to contribute, and I am incredibly pleased with the progress
being made.

We need support from people like you to prevent it from becoming just
another failed project.

Regards,
Benjamin

On 1/5/10, Richard JOHNSON <nixternal at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> Sorry, but maybe I am missing something here. I am not grasping the
> reasoning behind this project with the resources available in both the
> ubuntu-docs package as well as the Official Ubuntu Book, let alone the
> information on help.ubuntu.com and help.ubuntu.com/community. As I look
> through the ToC, it is vaguely similar to that of the Official Ubuntu Book.
>
> The concern I have here is that yet another document/manual/handbook/book
> is being created that contains similar if not the same information that is
> already out there. Is this an attempt to bridge a gap by chance? With all
> of these manuals/handbooks/whatever out there, aren't we making it a bit
> more difficult for users to actually get to the source quickly and easily?
>
> Another thing that confuses me, more so than it concerns me, is that places
> are announcing this as an official manual for Ubuntu. I don't remember
> anything being communicated throughout either the development teams nor the
> documentation team for such a project.
>
> We had a manual for Ubuntu once upon a time, that was both installed by
> default, available for PDF download, or available in print via LuLu. If I
> remember correctly, people complained about it and on the usability front
> we decided that it was time to switch to more of a topic based help setup
> than a manual.
>
> Maybe someone can clear this up for me. Thanks!
>
> --
>  Name|  Richard JOHNSON
> Title|  Developer
>   WWW|  http://www.ubuntu.com
> Email|  nixternal at ubuntu.com
> GnuPG|  3578 0981 A21D D662 2A96  7623 F4C1 838C D8C4 4738
>


-- 
Benjamin Humphrey

Ubuntu Manual Project Leader
Dunedin, New Zealand

http://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual
www.interesting.co.nz
www.benjaminhumphreyphotography.com