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N'Jal
May 18th, 2005, 09:27 PM
I have had a crazy idea to create a manual, since i came from SuSE and found it a bit too mercyless on my lower end hardware, i miss the manual that came with SuSE so... I propose a manual that perhaps can come with the CD's? Or just avalible as a PDF download?

What do people think? Has it been done? Would it be useful?

See i finish college within the next week and being in a working mood i wish to do something with my time. This seemed a good thing to do.

Tell me what you honestly think. If it's a stupid idea please tell me. It'll only be a basic installation manual, with adding extra repo's and software like GCC nothing from universe or multiverse. Just things that are not obvious but are simple.

Stormy Eyes
May 18th, 2005, 09:34 PM
Why not take the contents of http://www.ubuntuguide.org, edit it, and use that as the basis for the Ubuntu manual? Paraphrase the man pages for the more common commands and you're ready to rock.

N'Jal
May 18th, 2005, 10:14 PM
That was one idea. I would have to strip the guide down a bit. Some stuff there is definatly NOT meant to be in a basic installation manual.

I am more than happy to work on it and just upload it for free download, and if conical were to ship a copy of the manual with the discs well that would be fantastic. Also anyone wanting to help i think i entered my email address on my profile. I will have to check that though.

One word of note to all you talented artists. I cannot do anything remotly artistic to save my life so some ubuntu artwork would be nice if this get's off the ground for some front covers ;)

But let me get some notes together first.

(EDIT: Attached is what i have done already)

christooss
June 3rd, 2005, 11:49 PM
.odt?

Which program do I use for opening this?

Alexander Kirillov
June 4th, 2005, 02:02 AM
I have had a crazy idea to create a manual, since i came from SuSE and found it a bit too mercyless on my lower end hardware, i miss the manual that came with SuSE so... I propose a manual that perhaps can come with the CD's? Or just avalible as a PDF download?

What do people think? Has it been done? Would it be useful?

See i finish college within the next week and being in a working mood i wish to do something with my time. This seemed a good thing to do.

Tell me what you honestly think. If it's a stupid idea please tell me. It'll only be a basic installation manual, with adding extra repo's and software like GCC nothing from universe or multiverse. Just things that are not obvious but are simple.
There is a whole Ubuntu Documentaiton team working on Ubuntu docs. Talk to them.
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/DocumentationTeam Of course, if you do not like their approach or priorities, you can woork indpendently, too. But it would be nice if you could coordinate with them.

Just to clear things up: UbuntuGuide is a great tool, but it is not a manual. It is a FAQ. These are different genres.

And do not forget, there is wealth of available GNOME documentation:
www.gnome.org/learn
No need to repeat it.

luisd82
November 16th, 2005, 03:51 PM
.odt?

Which program do I use for opening this?


Hi mate, open the ".odt" file with Open Office.

Cheers

LD

KingBahamut
November 16th, 2005, 03:58 PM
I have often thought of trying to PDF/ODF the Doc (http://doc.gwos.org).

But Doing such a thing with the UbuntuGuide would itself be helpful. It needs updating though, I have a Team Bahamut member working on that as we speak.

Brunellus
November 16th, 2005, 03:58 PM
a nice, printable PDF would be nice.

canadianwriterman
November 16th, 2005, 04:08 PM
I'd be happy to work on this project too. I'm a writer by profession and somewhat artistic. I think it would be great to start with the Installation Manual and then expand it into a full manual, especially when Dapper comes out. I have a feeling that Dapper will mark the "end" of this round of Ubuntu development and that Dapper will be around for quite a while.

Brunellus
November 16th, 2005, 04:29 PM
dapper can't be the "end," unless canonical has abandoned the official semiannual ubuntu release cycle...

canadianwriterman
November 16th, 2005, 04:36 PM
dapper can't be the "end," unless canonical has abandoned the official semiannual ubuntu release cycle...

True. I didn't mean the VERY end. I just think that the releases up to now have been building toward a "perfected" version when Dapper is released. True, development will continue with new releases every six months, but I believe that Dapper will be the milestone release for some time to come and, therefore, is where a lot of the focus will be.

UbuWu
November 16th, 2005, 09:21 PM
I would recommend you to work with the documentation team on the user's guide:

Ubuntu user's guide (far from complete yet): http://doc.ubuntu.com/gnome/userguide/C/

Stangely it is not listed on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocteamProjects anymore...

Burgundavia
November 16th, 2005, 09:27 PM
The Ubuntu Users Guide is not going to be developed. Instead we are working on the Desktop and Server guides. We welcome all people who wish to help us.

The best way to find us in on #ubuntu-doc on Freenode IRC.

Corey