Ok Here goes nothing. This is one nice site. Howbeit, if you are really a comlete newbie to Linux, it doesn't seem to help much. I think you must need to know most of the basics before coming here. I mean at first I didn't even know where the command line was. No one told me either. Most of the directions I have been given assume some prior knowledge. I have found this most irritating. Like here I am giving you the roof for the house that you have not yet built. So, my question is it possible to have one room where someone can come to and if you ask a question it is assumed you have never used anything but windows and know absolutely nothing about linux. I feel the same way as when star office gave me the instructions for untarring the java program. Do WHAT? It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. What instructions did they assume I didn't need to know. Honestly I know I sound hateful but actually I am crying. I have spent a whole month all day long most everyday just trying to learn and I still cannot get java or staroffice set up. Thanks all.

well, just to let you know, no one here is going to say anything, best thing to do is either flat out say, i am new, i have never used command line interface or anything like that that you might not know.
if we give you instructions on something, and you don't understand them, quote us and reply back saying "hey, i don't understand" or just find someone who might understand your problem and email them for more detailed directions in helping you out.
i found most of the people that come here are pretty cool and if they have it so you can email them or send a IM, they are usually gonna try to help you out.

but trust me, there are many things i still don't understand about this OS and everything about it, don't be afraid to ask again or have someone ellaborate on their answer given to you. :P

and we do have a newbie section. again, state you don't know anything, some people will give better instructions than most books i have seen on some particular subjects.

It is very hard for some people who try to respond to lots of posts to include everything which they think is relevent. Unless I see someone post that they don't know anything then I don't bother writing loads, just what I think. If that happens then don't be afraid to aksk more and more. Its not your fault that your new - I remember what it was like!

I don't mind if someone e-mails me, or keeps replying to my replys saying that they don't understand, and I think that most people here are like that. Its good though that you keep trying at Linux - it isn't easy, and we are all always learing, but it IS worth the effort. :)

Sorry and Thanks for the very nice replies
 

Thank you all for the nice replies. I have quit crying. After not working on this most of the day, I've decided, I need a break! In the last month I have learned so much. But it seems the major thing I have learned is that I know NOTHING! Geeze study for 16 hrs a day for a month solid and the only thing you become sure of is that you know nothing. Almost funny tonight. Now I'm laughing. I still want that durn Java. I won't be beat. I won't be beat. I wont' be beat. Tomorrow.. that is hehe. Thanks again. Warning! Warning! Questions start tomorrow.

Well I'd like to get this off my chest.

Newbie questions are great. IF as noted by TK and CS they are posted as such. They will eventually get answered if the question is specific enough, and the person asking it has at least made the effort of investigating the task they want to undertake.

Qustions that probably will not get answered are ones like "Hi I'm new to linux and networking and I want to set up my own ISP with a 54 node Beowulf cluster so all my clients can build their own secure web pages for international banking transactions. Could someone please send me detailed steps for this?" At best you'll get pointers to a whole lot of How-To's.

Most users will only invest the same amount of effort as the person asking the question. It's a lot of fun and a challenge to try to figure out some of te questions here. It keeps me sharp. But configuring firewall/DNS/DHCP/web servers is what I do fo a living and explaining it step by step is just like... work. Identifying the problems in other peoples configs is fun in a weird way.



[Edited by mcleodnine on 06-19-2001 at 02:05 AM]

Hmm
 

I feel you are implying I have not truly investigated this. Well obviously most newbies have not throughly investigated much. They have some instructions and go from there. And as for your senerial. How cute I guess. I just wanted to set up my home computer. I honestly haven't seen too many people on here asking such questions. Most of the newbies I have read seem as frustrated as me. Let me see I am studying the c++ language to attempt to learn this. Am studying at http://www.mandrakecampus I have bought the Running Linux book. Have read about half of it. Have read numerous numerous articles online. And I'm stil studying. But I'm still not sure how your senerial applies here. Have another book? But to me: I feel as if you are saying ok go study all of this througly however long it takes and when you are finally done with everything you can find online you may come and ask me a question.

Re: Hmm
 

Quite the opposite. You are throwing a lot of energy behind your effort and that's great. Your qureies also seem to generate a lot of responses so you must be doing something right.