Salix Start up Guide 13.1.2 [DONE]

[mimosa]

Hi Tsuren,

Yes, I'd be glad to try and put something down on paper. Do you mean for inclusion in the guide itself? In which case, better keep it short I imagine.

As for proofreading, sure. Would you like me to work from p. 26 on?

EDIT

As for the GUI - I'd use Brasero over Nero any day, to pick a task that can cause problems. Now I've learned how, I might just use the command line,especially if Brasero failed first time. My impression is that those coming from Windows have difficulty adapting just because the apps are not exactly the same as they are used to, even if the functionality is superior. Of course I'm potentially confusing performance with interface in saying this. The Windows interface is clunky (I do think), but if that's all you know, it feels safe. For WIndows users, there has only ever been *one* way things are, and the very idea of even tiny differences may seem scary. I'm talking about my wife, for instance.

Another core task example - would you seriously want to use Windows Media Player, given the choice? A further point is that quite apart from clunky, it's ugly. Again one can't make a clean distinction, but maybe you know what I mean. To me, Salix feels like the result of some talented designers putting in a lot of hard work. The GUI is intuitive, clean, and elegant. I wouldn't characterise Windows in those terms.

Then again, I now use mplayer for all multimedia tasks, which kind of proves your point.

[tsuren]

Yes, I'd be glad to try and put something down on paper. Do you mean for inclusion in the guide itself? In which case, better keep it short I imagine.

As for proofreading, sure. Would you like me to work from p. 26 on?

Yes, please. I would like to add it to the startup guide. As for the proofreading, could you please start from Chapter 4? Many thanks!

Just a thought, perhaps I will write in a section about how to install wine, etc, so that people who are obliged to use Windows' applications can survive only on Linux... (And yes, I should think about writing about the dual boot stuff as well).

[mimosa]

OK, I'll get on with those two things over the next few days. Feel free to nag me.

Perhaps the greatest difficulty writing a guide like this is that you are addressing a very diverse audience. If you try to put in everything for everyone, there is a risk of it becoming unwieldy. Giving wine a mention sounds like a good idea to me, though of course one's mileage varies according to the application, and sometimes it will be far better to use a native linux clone, as in the case of office apps or email. For instance a very important app for me is wenlin (www.wenlin.com), and though they say it doesn't work under wine and you get the odd error message, basically it's fine. So for that, wine is a lifesaver.

[kudos]

Please let me congratulate you on your Salix StartUpGuide. I always felt that the 13.0 StartUpGuide was very good and now 23.1.2 draft 2.1 is even better.

The Section 5.3 "Personalising a Module" is very much needed, concise and to the point.

One thing I felt missing in the latest SalixLive is the make_iso.sh script. It was present in SalixLive 13.1-20100805.10.25 and in SalixLive 13.0 as well. This is a necessary script for remastering the "Old Fashioned Way"

I believe that this will create a problem for those using your instructions contained in the "Modify Salix Live ISO" subsection of "Personalising a Module".

While LiveClone is another alternative, I believe it is not a replacement for using make_iso.sh.

Thank you for your kind consideration

kudos

[mimosa]

Something else that occurred to me is whether it would be worth adding a line to the section on package management pointing out that error messages may indicate missing dependencies that can be easily installed. See for instance this recent post:

http://www.salixos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1949

I have made some similar ones myself.

[tsuren]

the new draft version is up.

@ kudos
I will try to add it for the next version

@ mimosa
i forgot to add it this time around. i will add it also for the next version.

[JRD]

I removed make_iso because I fint it useless.
makeiso do the assumption that some binaries are available on your system, which could not be the case. So it rely enterely on the system tools.
Isomaster could be available too on the system and do the same job. So I don't see any reason to include such a script. Moreover this script was just a wrapper for mkisofs, so folks that need to use only command line could use their mkisofs binary directly from their system to my opinion.

Please, if you really need this script, explain why it should be present for everyone.

[mimosa]

I'm pleased to note that the links in the draft Guide now work in Evince in 13.2 beta.

The reference to OpenOffice on p. 49 should probably be changed to LibreOffice for 13.2 ... and maybe there are some other things like this scattered around.

[tsuren]

i'll work on the 13.2 this weekend.

[tsuren]

now the final version is uploaded.

thread closed.