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#1 2008-06-11 16:53:24

bzreed
Member
Registered: 2008-05-15
Posts: 9

any interest in an Arch tutorial?

Hi,

I wrote a tutorial named, "The Perfect Desktop Slackware 12".  I wonder if you all think writing one for Arch is something that would benefit the community.

You can view the tutorial at:
- http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_d … lackware12
- http://tinyurl.com/2mnapf

I started using Arch about one month ago and love it.  I learned how to install and upgrade with "The Beginners Guide".  That is a great living document and because of it I don't know if writing "The Perfect Desktop Arch Linux" would be a bit redundant.

I think the best way to tell is for me to check back in about a week and read any replies to this post before making a decision to move forward. 

If people would like the tutorial to be written I would only ask that some of the community be willing to leave feedback and test the tutorial for accuracy prior to publishing it online.

Thank you for your time.

Brian

Last edited by bzreed (2008-06-11 16:58:35)

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#2 2008-06-11 16:55:28

Vintendo
Member
From: Netherlands
Registered: 2008-04-21
Posts: 375
Website

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

Do you have a link to the Slackware tutorial?

//It looks great. Its good that it has pictures too, so you can get a little familiar with the installer interface.

Last edited by Vintendo (2008-06-11 17:06:03)

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#3 2008-06-11 16:59:05

Barrucadu
Member
From: York, England
Registered: 2008-03-30
Posts: 1,158
Website

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

Go for it, you can never have too much documentation!

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#4 2008-06-11 17:59:17

LTSmash
Member
From: Aguascalientes - Mexico
Registered: 2008-01-02
Posts: 348
Website

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!

And if I like it, I may translate it to spanish


Proud Ex-Arch user.
Still an ArchLinux lover though.

Currently on Kubuntu 9.10

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#5 2008-06-11 18:10:40

sniffles
Member
Registered: 2008-01-23
Posts: 275

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

This is probably not the thread to mention it but.. I'd be more interested in an Arch Linux Handbook (a` la` FreeBSD / Gentoo).

Barrucadu wrote:

Go for it, you can never have too much documentation!

I have to disagree. More (scattered) documentation usually means you have to digg more to find out what you want. There is presumably a lot of "Linux documentation" out there and a lot of it is outdated and a lot of it is of poor quality.

I've never been a fan of tutorials / howto-s etc. written for the sake of being written. Do you have something of value to contribute via your piece of work bzreed ? Are you able to explain things which are not yet explained or explain them better? Would you be writing the tutorial just so that you'd have incremented your number of articles?

P.S.: I've read the first page of that Slackware guide / how-to / whatever it was. I'm not really sorry to say it's useless. I mean come on.. "Enter a hostname (it can be anything you want) and press Enter:" are you summarizing the installer's dialog boxes or something? Seriously. I was too bored to check out the rest of the article.

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#6 2008-06-11 18:34:49

Misfit138
Misfit Emeritus
From: USA
Registered: 2006-11-27
Posts: 4,189

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

When I expanded the Beginner's Guide, I was shooting for a more 'handbookish' approach than what was already provided. Freigeist started the document and I eventually started maintaining and adding to it.
An Arch Handbook is my ultimate goal, but it is an ENORMOUS project that I will need a lot of help with. I take documentation very seriously; in my mind good docs are as important as good code.
If anyone is interested in assisting in such a project let me know. It will take at least 3 dedicated, good, knowledgeable writers to get started.

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#7 2008-06-11 18:41:36

JeremyTheWicked
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2008-05-23
Posts: 193

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

The Beginner's Guide is REALLY good. It got me going in no time. I think it would be more valuable, bzreed, if you help to develop this already excellent source of knowledge rather than duplicating it.

@Misfit138: I would gladly help with Arch Handbook but I'm unlikely to have any free time at all before August. And I don't know Arch that well yet - if you can deal with that you got my help (unless Arch manages to make me angry to the point of leaving wink )


arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P

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#8 2008-06-11 19:38:46

ornitorrincos
Forum Fellow
From: Bilbao, spain
Registered: 2006-11-20
Posts: 198

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

what a coincidence, lately I was thinking about some kind of handbook or some explanations about what causes some errors. Unfortunately, I don't have much time at the moment sad


-$: file /dev/zero
/dev/zero: symbolic link to '/dev/brain'

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#9 2008-06-11 19:54:37

marxav
Member
From: Gatineau, PQ, Canada
Registered: 2006-09-24
Posts: 386

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

I quickly glanced at one of the first ref mentionned on the first message, and I my opinion is that the Arch Beginners Guide is really good.  As some mentionned, one good source of documentation is better than scattered bits all over the place.  So efforts should reside on the Beginners Guide.

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#10 2008-06-11 20:40:25

bzreed
Member
Registered: 2008-05-15
Posts: 9

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

Thanks for all your comments.  I believe that people learn using different methods.  While the Beginner's Guide is useful for some people, perhaps 90%, there are the other 10% whom it doesn't appeal to.   The "Perfect Desktop..." would include a step-by-step procedure using pictures and a conversational style which may be appropriate for the remaining 10%.  It's a thought.

Last edited by bzreed (2008-06-11 20:53:27)

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#11 2008-06-11 20:50:34

marxav
Member
From: Gatineau, PQ, Canada
Registered: 2006-09-24
Posts: 386

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

I think the beginner's guide as very good step by step procedures.  Is there anything that prevent from adding pictures to it... ?  Then you will catch the odd 10%

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#12 2008-06-11 20:54:27

bzreed
Member
Registered: 2008-05-15
Posts: 9

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

marxav wrote:

I think the beginner's guide as very good step by step procedures.  Is there anything that prevent from adding pictures to it... ?  Then you will catch the odd 10%

Sounds like a really good approach.

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#13 2008-06-11 21:18:15

Garns
Member
Registered: 2008-05-28
Posts: 239

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

bzreed wrote:
marxav wrote:

I think the beginner's guide as very good step by step procedures.  Is there anything that prevent from adding pictures to it... ?  Then you will catch the odd 10%

Sounds like a really good approach.

I'm not so sure about that.  Somehow, these highly "picturized" guides feel - I don't know - untidy or something. I know there are uses for such guides, I even wrote a shorter one myself once. But I don't think many pictures would add to the Beginner's Guide. An alternate Version perhaps, that's another thing.

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#14 2008-06-11 21:51:04

marxav
Member
From: Gatineau, PQ, Canada
Registered: 2006-09-24
Posts: 386

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

Garns wrote:
bzreed wrote:
marxav wrote:

I think the beginner's guide as very good step by step procedures.  Is there anything that prevent from adding pictures to it... ?  Then you will catch the odd 10%

Sounds like a really good approach.

I'm not so sure about that.  Somehow, these highly "picturized" guides feel - I don't know - untidy or something. I know there are uses for such guides, I even wrote a shorter one myself once. But I don't think many pictures would add to the Beginner's Guide. An alternate Version perhaps, that's another thing.

Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, but if all you have to say is pacman -Syu, then a picture is a waste.  From an installation of Arch point of view, considering it is text driven -- with basic dialog -- I don't think a picture would be much useful.  Picture could be useful when an application like KDE throughs an error message that means nothing to the average user.  Another problem with picutres though , is that as soon as you change the look and feel, you have to update you picture.  It can become a nightmare.

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#15 2008-06-12 01:11:36

freakcode
Member
From: São Paulo - Brazil
Registered: 2007-11-03
Posts: 410
Website

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

Suggestion - Do documentation following this style: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/

FreeBSD's handbook is great, probably the best documentation of a software I've seen. It's not the usual "for dummies" how-to, yet it doesn't consider that you know everything about UNIX, and goes explaining with objectiveness, from the ground up, in a great style.

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#16 2008-06-12 01:33:08

Raisuli
Member
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 135

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

I still use the Beginner's Guide when reinstalling because it's so clear and well written. Adding pictures would in my opinion not increase the usefulness of the guide, just the amount of scrolling involved. smile

@bzreed: I really like your Slack tutorial, but creating something like that for Arch would, as you say, only be valuable for the 10% of users who have problems coping with the Beginner's Guide. That's a relatively small number compared to the time you would need to invest in this project, time that might be better spent on finding out what problems these 10% encounter in the Beginner's Guide and working on that. Not trying to discourage you, it's just a thought.

Last edited by Raisuli (2008-06-12 01:34:28)

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#17 2008-06-12 02:03:56

jacko
Member
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 840

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

no offense, but that would be one huge and in depth tutorial for the 'Perfect Desktop' I hope u wouldn't just stop with the top 3 DE/WM.

The beauty of arch is the fact it is what u in the end want from your computer. I am not sure how that can be translated into the 'perfect desktop'.

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#18 2008-06-12 03:05:14

drewbug01
Member
From: chicago
Registered: 2007-04-06
Posts: 85
Website

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

"The Perfect Desktop Arch Linux"

Perfect is highly subjective.

I'm inclined to agree with sniffles on the point that sometimes more documentation is not a good thing, if it is not complete, and kept up to date.
Also, as JeremyTheWicked mentioned, why not just contribute a lot to the already amazing Beginner's Guide? I know I'd rather consult one source of documentation that is complete and up to date, then 5 sources each with a piece of the answer.

Personally, if I were you I'd just become a massive contributor to the wiki. Be all community-oriented and stuff, improve what we've got.
But I'm not you. So, it can't hurt. But, is it the best way to spend your talents?

--drew

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#19 2008-06-12 03:15:07

Allan
Pacman
From: Brisbane, AU
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11,357
Website

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

Although I am not against the idea of a handbook, I do think it would be better to concentrate on improving the wiki. 

BTW, I just looked at the Beginners Guide for the first time in ages and it has really expanded!

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#20 2008-06-12 12:28:00

bzreed
Member
Registered: 2008-05-15
Posts: 9

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

Thanks for all of your comments.  I'll work on the wiki and not create a tutorial.

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#21 2008-06-12 14:40:39

Husio
Member
From: Europe
Registered: 2005-12-04
Posts: 359
Website

Re: any interest in an Arch tutorial?

It's perfect desctop for that guy. Not everybody wants to use those applications. Using Arch Linux, you can choose how to build it. There's no global perfect desktop. Use what best fits you.

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