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> The free-source movement suffers from this. It has no centralized
> management of information. As such, it is prohibitively difficult to
> locate information you need. This also creates an atmosphere where the
> barriers to entry are enormous. In order to learn about open-source
> technologies, you have to wade through volumes of unfriendly material. Its
> not fun.
I agree. A lot of information on the web is a couple of years out of
date, which makes it positively Jurassic by computing standards. In
addition, many so-called original books and articles are copied or
paraphrased from earlier material. Some of it must go back to the first
UNIX man pages in the 1970s.
For example, if you look at the Linux man page for /etc/passwd, the file
that stores standard passwords unless you're using any of the modern
enhancements, it tells you that a 6 to 8 character password with 56 bit
encryption is very secure. That hasn't been true for years, yet this
file continues to be distributed.
However, centralized management of information wouldn't necessarily make
a difference. Several editions ago, the Red Hat manual devoted five
pages to the cat command, but took two or three even to explain in
obvious terms what the command actually did! Besides, centralized
management is prone to spending its time on style guides and the like.
Of course, the plus side is that any half-way decent writer can get some
easy kudos by putting the information together.
> Personally, I think technologies are moving toward "dumber" audiences so
> they can embrace more people.
You know, seeing "dumbing down" being tossed about by various people on
this list makes me wince. It seems to go against the spirit of what
everyone on the list does for a living.
We're only dumbing down if we present incomplete or misleading
information with the excuse that our audiences can't handle anything
more. If we do that, we're being contemptuous of our audiences, and
deserve contempt ourselves.
We're NOT dumbing down if we're trying to communicate better, or to
reach more people. We're doing our jobs.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"Fool's luck can only take you so far ... after that you have to get out
and walk."
-Tom Holt, "Olympiad"
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