[plug] Linux training for home newbies

[Craig Ringer]

On Mon, 2005-09-19 at 14:13 +0800, Arie Hol wrote:
> 
> On 19 Sep 2005 at 1:54, Mr E_T wrote:
> 
> > On Sunday 18 September 2005 21:49, Senectus . wrote:
> > > There is a few places.. but they're for RHCE and NCLE type quals.. and
> > > _very_ expensive to do (thousands for a few weeks).
> > > 
> > Maybe Plug should have a think about something.
> 
> This was brought up at the 2005 AGM in February this year.

[snip]

Arie, I'm not sure it's helpful to get back into this territory. Last
time, all we got was a giant flamewar. Not your fault - what you were
doing mostly got caught up in the issue, rather than being a core part
of it, and what you experienced as a result was regrettable. There is,
however, more to it than what you have presented, and you know that.

In particular:

> Pluggers are excellent at providing help when there is a speciifc 
> problem.
> 
> But when it comes to general guidance and learning basic skills - the 
> user generally is on their own.

> Much of Linux use revolves around the self-help principal, go as far as 
> you can and ask for help when you get stuck.
>
> Helping a newcomer to Linux can be very time-consuming and to some extent 
> frustrating for experienced users (as I have found out) most experienced 
> users are reluctant to help newcomers unless they are sure that the 
> newcomer has made a concerted effort to learn about the problem and tried 
> to fix it themselves.

... can only lead to the same argument we had last time, in which much
was said and quite a lot of people didn't listen to anything the others
wrote. I think PLUG is better served by just dropping that topic.

Anyone who wasn't here and is really curious can look up the archives,
and if they really feel they have something *new* and *constructive* to
say, then they can say it.

Otherwise, let's wander quietly on by. We won't get anywhere having the
same argument again, and last time that unpleasant incident cost PLUG
members, annoyed a lot of people, and made the list largely useless for
anything constructive for something like a week. If that argument needs
to be had again, let's have it somewhere else where we're not bothering
people who're just trying to do useful, constructive things.

> One PC is still running Redhat 5.## faultlessly and there has been No 
> tinkering - No updating - No optimising since it was built - the owner is 
> very happy - because it NEVER  crashes and always works as expected.

I just hope it's never connected to the Internet! If so, it's time to at
least make really sure it has no listening services, and update the
kernel to the latest minor release.

--
Craig Ringer