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May I safely assume that R.T.F.M stands for "read the freaking manual"? I admit, these days that can be an odd experience since, in most cases, the manual isn't printed. It's online, or somewhere in the file system. Call me a customer.
Reading something on a computer isn't always as comfortable as reading the same thing in print.
Free is as free does, can be rude, helpful, enabling, accommodating, it can be many things, e.g. free to be as it will be. It is a matter of choice, effort, lazy, action, inaction, and perception. Sooner or later someone will complain, I know, I have, and it was pointed out to me to RTFM, now i read them, and have come to grips (for the most part) that I am a slow learner in linux but am getting by and get good help from the community more often than not after reading tfm.
For much commercial software and well a lot of stuff, the "manual" is generally a short intro about what it is, some steps like "insert cd" "run wizard" "hit ok on this window"
In FOSS, the manual is often synonymous to the "bible" of that software. It should cover everything about it, plus extra stuff. RTFM is wise advice if you don't know how to use some software.
Dev's spend a lot of time tweaking those guides, docs, manuals, whatever.
Demanding a quick answer without checking the manual (or even searching) is like saying "I demand to be treated special and my time is more valuable then others"
That'll work in a commercial world. Doesnt work in linux communities. Hence linux support appears to "suck".
Distribution: Debian Sid AMD64, Raspbian Wheezy, various VMs
Posts: 7,680
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seff
Where is the manual, usually? Is it as easy to find as "man (insert distro here)"?
Yes, there is that but some distributions, like Arch and Slackware for example, have extensive wiki pages which are useful even for users of other distributions (I've used Arch Wiki a few times when sorting out niggles on Debian, for example). Debian and Ubuntu also have package lists an guides online which, while they aren't always as extensive as the likes of Arch, are a good resource for things like setting up proprietary drivers.
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