I should say:

1. Post question (I am a command line user)
2. Post question (I am a GUI user, I don't know what a command line is)
3. Post information

As many of LQ users, I am new to Linux World, although not new to computers. One kind of post that I consider would be very beneficial to many, is a post for Windows users; you know, many of us still use Windows at work and even have dual boot on our computers. While we gain experience enough in whatever distro we use, we face a lot of difficulties that we solve easily on Windows environment, but found tricky on Linux.
Not quite sure who could lead that kind of forum, it is not easy to be a Linux Guru and Windows guru at a time.
Anyway, Happy New Year!

Hi,
I would like you to expand on the thought or suggestion "that we solve easily on Windows environment, but found tricky on Linux".

I work with clients all the time concerning M$ Windows problems and the 'GUIfied' concept sometimes burdens and confuses the individuals. Sure graphically a user should be able to trail into a particular function or task. But I have found that too can be very cumbersome for a lot of people. I've worked with young and old clients who just state "why is this so hard?" so I can just tell or show them a solution in hopes they can replicate without difficulty. And that's with a GUI, just imagine what happens when at the 'cli'.

As far as 'GURU', a label that is handed out too soon to many that are not fully qualified to carry the title. I believe that a user who knows how to research, read and discern a problem could be tagged as a 'GURU' with anything.

I agree. Even Linux enthusiasts who are not newbies don't always have the time or motivation to upgrade or move immediately upon the release of each new distro (but I'm not defending RH9!), so published tutorials for specific application packages and distros still should find broad appeal.

I like wikis too, but I've noticed in general that many well-intentioned wiki editors, writing on all sorts of subjects, sometimes end up with definitions and tutorials that often try to please everyone--or that focus too narrowly on how the subject at hand applies to the very latest distro (or whatever), or are limited to a very esoteric set of criteria. The latter in itself is a compelling argument for keeping how-to/tutorial documentation.

I vote to keep the how-to/tutorials section and edit those which are not too out-of-date to be more useful, but to create new ones when updates would dilute the original too much due to changes in the latest distros, application develpment, and hardware. Keeping such tutorials for posterity assists those who help newbies or more experienced users who still use dated distros in troubleshooting issues. Hopefully, such users are running something newer than RH9!

I just tested the results of "geforce 9400" and they seemed reasonable. That being said there is a Google Custom Search option at the bottom of each search results page. As I mentioned elsewhere, we do plan to completely replace the stock search system here this year.

--jeremy

There is an additional hoop in that the Quick Reply is removed and replaced with a note about the threads age.

--jeremy

We want posting to be as easy as possible. Adding additional options that may result in fewer new members posting would almost certainly be a net negative for the site. I'm open to suggestions/opinions on the topic, but the pros would have to be huge for us to consider something like this.

--jeremy

Hey Onebuck,
as you have stated: "As far as 'GURU', a label that is handed out too soon to many that are not fully qualified to carry the title.", I do consider the label quite important, not applicable to anyone.

When I said: "that we solve easily on Windows environment, but found tricky on Linux", I meant that some particular tasks, such as installing a new application, are 'easy solved' within Windows environment whilst on Linux it may be difficult if you do not know the distro or if you have not the right set of repositories. I know that Windows can be (and many times is) more tricky than Linux, but for the day to day activity... maybe is simply that I am still to new to Linux.

I remember way back when I was exploring Slack 12. When I posted a request about the it not booting the responses were stuff like

"edit the lilo.conf file"


While I was familiar with the concept of lilo, in those days I did't know where it was stored and certainly no idea which line to edit...

Quote:
Originally Posted by David1357 View Post
I think it would be really useful if there were three buttons for submitting a post:

1. Post question
2. Post information
3. Post question (no command line answers, please)[/QUOTE]


Maybe you could have a check box that says:

"I am a GUI user and I don't know what a command line is."

The default would be unchecked, and the user doesn't necessarily need to check it, but if a person sees it and doesn't know what the command line is then they will likely check it, but if someone doesn't check it, then it will just submit.

Hi,
The means to work with anything requires one to do some research on their own, be it on LQ for GNU/Linux or M$ knowledge base. You need to get some background information to perform a task(s). Even the Blurb that M$ provides with most of their applications or OS has enough information for most users to perform an installation.

The problem that GNU/Linux has in that no such real documentation is provided other than what one might find in a README or text online for the distribution. Most cookbooks do fall short in the documentation arena since people just don't know what or where to look and the doc(s) do assume some knowledge. If the newbie or whoever would just know the proper keywords or keys to place in a search engine then the task(s) would be simpler in the long term. Sure you would still need to discern the information.

I once had a very wise man tell me that "it's not what you know but if you know where to look". Simplistic but true!

What about a separate section of the forum devoted to sed/awk/generally regex? I personally would like it.

It is hard to imagine that LILO is known while locate and man are not, and yet it actually happened. Computing allows to act well beyond one's limits and I recall many examples, like an experienced desktop software developer suggesting how to fix a web application or another developer backing up a database by copying data files.

I guess it may possibly be beneficial to have a section on LQ like "Must read". Documents there may be arranged by forum and by topic.

On the first post to a forum, a list of docs relevant to that forum may be presented together with 3 answers: I have read that, I think I already know everything written there, I do not care. After that, all posts may be marked accordingly (sort of "no command line please" logic; a "no command line answers please" question is possible only as "do not care").

Naturally, it should be possible to review the list and change the answer later.

For example, the Slackware list should contain at least the Slackbook and the email to root. Since the quote above is related to Slackware, that will guarantee that the confusion will never happen again. I also believe that these docs are of interest to people only considering Slackware.

Next, I checked the first, as off writing, newbie forum question.

It demonstrates remarkable absence of background. Even if the specific problem is solved, the querist will get minimum of additional knowledge. I remember there was (is?) a very good text somewhere in the Net describing fragmentation problems, but, as always, I do not have the link. If such texts are collected on LQ as "must read", those having a problem with fragmentation will go to the fragmentation section and get the necessary background. Even just a link to Wiki (or a copy of the Wiki page?) may be helpful.

Theoretically, Google should do that, but whenever I use Google it tries to sell something to me first and present links like "I clicked there and it WORKED" next. The answers to questions like "what does it DO?" are hard to find.

Something rudimentary is already attempted with sticky posts. For example, the newbie forum has a sticky that points to 2 more stickies. It should be possible to transform both stickies into documents that allow for linear reading and make them the first two "must read" for the newbie forum.

P.S.
"Quote" leads to an "advanced" editor window with the quote. A post with 2 quotes would be easier to write if it led to a div with quote so that it could be copied and pasted from there. And no page reload please.

P.P.S.
I see "Submit Reply" and "Preview Post" buttons below this box. Are there 2 separate entities "Reply" and "Post" or should the buttons be renamed?

I wouldn't mind seeing new smilies added. I seen a lot of funny animated smilies on other forums.

- Cheers

Fully agree with Your opinion,
Artfeddy