The Linux Documentation Outtakes Yard

[pseydtonne]

I've been trying to get that laptop into a network install. Yeah, I've stalled a little -- I think I'll end up using Debian, once I can get the floppy bootables and not simply wind up hitting the same link over and over.

Anyway, I was digging through The Linux Documentation Project's gracious and spacious archives when I clicked on the section about unmaintained HOWTO files. Here I found a list of papers people had written several years ago about various minutiae of the Linux operating system.

Many facets of an operating system change over time. Thus, documentation must change to explain new software and new theories. A document from 1997 describing how to run a network connection through your parallel port (it would be slower than a cheapskate DSL rate) would be elucidating a painful kludge (workaround) today. A document about getting Japanese characters onto a console is so full of ancient methods that it borders on detrimental.

So the LDP people decided to put a list of such files on a page. Their hope is to give each of these files a new caretaker. I don't know anywhere near enough to handle one, but I love the idea of baby writings needing parents. It encourages research, community and even pruning. Some files will simply retire but others have found new hosts (at least half have so far). Seeing knowledge cultivated, even when pruned, is seeing vibrancy.

Man, do I have a lot to learn about being a geek.

-man man, Dante

Comments

Off topic

[epanastatis.livejournal.com]

The spouse really liked the Skeer excerpt you sent out in your recent test-sherd. I asked if she'd responded to that effect, and she said no. I told her to tell you, in hopes that it would encourage you to write about something other than Linux.

Re: Off topic

[chaggalagirl.livejournal.com]

i agree whole-heartedly. :D