Recently a buddy on msn asked me a linux question, he just started linux so he had some problems getting stuff done.
He downloaded an installer, he said, a .run, but he doesn’t know how to execute it. He tried googling for it and asking on forums, but didn’t get an answer, so he asked me.
I solved his problem, but I still wondered, where you can find that you need to put ‘./’ in front of a file in bash to execute it and where can you find that you probably need to chmod +x the file too if you downloaded it from somewhere, if you are a total newcomer to linux.
The bash tutorial would’ve probably solved it, but do you know that that thing in which you are typing actually is a separate program? Probably not.
I basically learned all this trivial stuff while following the gentoo installation manual, but I guess that’s a bit too much to ask from each new linux user. There should be a good linux introduction that explains this trivial stuff somewhere to which I can redirect new users. Anyone knows one?
A “Linux for Dummies” would be my best bet, but I guess buying a book is too much.
Maybe you should make it your own project. Maintain a Linux starters’ wiki, write a few tutorials, the like. w-nz.com/starters. But that kinda defeats the purpose of the internet. You know, the purpose where you and I both and everyone we know expect that everything has already been said on the internet. I think that hypothesis is getting closer and closer to being 100% true 😉