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Manual? What Manual?© Copyright Darrell Anderson. For many years Windows users have been spoiled with structured and easily available hard-copy manuals and detailed on-line and context-sensitive help. Documentation in Linux is a rat’s maze. With Linux, on-line and context-sensitive help is in its infancy and what does exist is not always helpful or comprehensive. In Linux the traditional help avenue is the “man” page. However, man pages often are restricted to the command line world, not the GUI world. As an individual who has provided technical writing and documentation services for many years, I find most of the man pages written stiffly and cryptically. Perhaps a man page reads fluently to experienced Linux and Unix users, but not to newbies. With respect to application documentation, the user often is dependent upon the distributor to provide Start menu links to any such sources. Some of the KDE documentation is incomplete. Overall, however, to find meaningful documentation often requires an internet connection. That is where one finds extensive and arguably useful documentation. Especially with respect to configuring a computer. In short, do not expect to find nicely packaged documentation with Linux. Tomorrow perhaps, but not today. Finis. |
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