Re: [tlug] State of "Linux" documentation [C&C]

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Joe Larabell writes:

 > Third, I'm not sure I'd like living in a world where all computers
 > worked exactly the same.

But in one sense, if you're a Linux fan, you already do.  My point is
that *unlike cars* almost all of what is under the paint (including
the metal of the hood!) of one GNU/Linux is the same as all the
others.  So when "skinning" the system the distro vendors have done
their users a disservice by making it ever harder for them to see how
that is being done, or even for a geek buddy who has memorized the
manpage for ifconfig(8) on 6 different systems to figure out how eth0
gets its IP address.

 > I haven't bought a distro-specific book for years so I can't speak
 > to the quality of what's available today. But I don't think the
 > existence of, or even the need for, such a thing is "sad" at all.

Sure.  For the novice accurate screen shots and up to the minute lists
of options and available applications, references to hardware he
actually has, are comforting and useful.  But that wasn't the point.

The point was:

> Scott Robbins writes:
> 
>  > Well, one problem is that a book on say, RedHat, isn't going to help
>  > that much with Ubuntu. 
> 
> You're kidding, I hope.  If that's really true, how sad.

Or, at greater length: GNU/Linux could provide a lot of introspective
capability into the common implementation, and the distros could
provide UIs that organize it and make reliable and accurate access to
most important aspects.  I think those of us who've tried different
distros and different OSes and can find our ways around a new system
without a "for Dummies" handbook should "encourage" them to do so, and
at the same time encourage the authors of the distro-specific books to
take advantage of the commonalities.