mattme
December 31st, 2006, 02:10 PM
I can't be the only one to think this but the usefulness of this guide is becoming rather dilute (and looking rather ridiculous) as the count of "How to install package X" sections increases exponentially. The selection appears random; I think a reader comes along and decides to promote their favourite package by adding another identical section. There are twenty thousand Ubuntu packages avaliable, elaborating on how to place their name after apt-get install for each would be ludicrous. There are already about a hundred such entries. Please, teach a man to use apt, so he can manage all his packages for life. It's pretty simple.:
to install packages A, B and C
# apt-get install A B C
to remove packages A and B
# apt-get remove A B
If a popular package isn't avaliable, and requires something unorthodox to install it does deserve an entry. By unorthodox, this doesn't mean 'How to build from source', which needs just one entry including
$ ./configure
$ make
# make install
I thought I should make my point politely here rather than adding entries for the 20000 packages possible, although this would no doubt illustrate my point :p Not only is it redundant clutter, I think the replication makes gnu/linux appear a lot more complicated to new users, who are often confused about how to install programs. Bizarre when there's one command that that will install any of 20000 packages, in a predictable reliable manageable way (I hated windows where every installer was untameable and the programs would compete for you to use them; it's just rude really). I think users are confused because to install say firefox, or gaim you need to to look in your distro's repositories rather than at the developer's site. Of course kudos to everyone who has contributed to the other sections particularly the 'Tips and Tricks' section which I think is a gift to new users.
What do you think?
Matt
ps. Will someone add the following if they please. It's saves a fair bit of time around the /home.
Howto case-insensitive autocompletion in shell
$ echo set completion-ignore-case on >> .inputrc
to install packages A, B and C
# apt-get install A B C
to remove packages A and B
# apt-get remove A B
If a popular package isn't avaliable, and requires something unorthodox to install it does deserve an entry. By unorthodox, this doesn't mean 'How to build from source', which needs just one entry including
$ ./configure
$ make
# make install
I thought I should make my point politely here rather than adding entries for the 20000 packages possible, although this would no doubt illustrate my point :p Not only is it redundant clutter, I think the replication makes gnu/linux appear a lot more complicated to new users, who are often confused about how to install programs. Bizarre when there's one command that that will install any of 20000 packages, in a predictable reliable manageable way (I hated windows where every installer was untameable and the programs would compete for you to use them; it's just rude really). I think users are confused because to install say firefox, or gaim you need to to look in your distro's repositories rather than at the developer's site. Of course kudos to everyone who has contributed to the other sections particularly the 'Tips and Tricks' section which I think is a gift to new users.
What do you think?
Matt
ps. Will someone add the following if they please. It's saves a fair bit of time around the /home.
Howto case-insensitive autocompletion in shell
$ echo set completion-ignore-case on >> .inputrc