That's good. I have considered buying a print copy several times, but they were always outdated, and so I dropped the idea.

If you really want to make the book as good as the distribution, may I suggest that you take a look at the printed SuSE documentation (it's on their CDs, too, usually), which is by far the best OS documentation I am aware of, for admins as well as end-users. Just to get some ideas, of how much detail is needed and useful for which type of user.

But I know that this is HUGE task...

gargamel

Same here.......

Maybe the real quick n' dirty temporary solution in between massive slackbook updates would be to simply add some links to all the new relevant documentation (CHANGES_AND_HINT.TXT, etc). It shouldn't take too much time to do it and I'm sure it would be helpful for some people.

This in addition to having the documentation menu during installation would be really helpful.

I guess so:-) However, I think Slackers are very resourceful, hands-on, exceptional problem solvers. I've always found that the Slackbook meets my needs. Also all of the support documentation you need is supplied on the install ISOs.
I'm looking forward to 12.1:-)

The FreeBSD Handbook is OS documenation at its best, I think.

And as for the comments about buying the Slackbook if it was updated, I would order it in a second if it was brought inline with 12.1.

Here is an interesting thread about a questionable screen saver that I thought should be noted in this thread.

It's about how the Web Collage screen saver included with Slackware, which simply grabs random pictures from the internet, often inadvertently grabs ...nasty images. The real problem is that this screen saver is selected by default if 'Random' screen savers are used, so a lot of people might get in trouble for it before knowing they even had it.

Yeah, personally I believe it should be off by default, I've read of a number of people nearly getting into a lot of trouble because of it.

Hardly helps the 'convert to linux' cause when your shiny new linux install shows the boss porn..

Sorry to drag this back again, but in a moment of boredom I decided to write up my views on the site issue: http://zymic.com/~alex/slackware-site.html

Figured this was as good a place as any given the rest of the commentary was in here. Interested in comments, I'll probably update it as I get feedback.

Hi,
Alex, good ideas. You need to remember that Slackware® is maintained by PV and a few team members. All the effort is towards Slackware® therefore 'KISS' is applied. Neat and clean without all the bells and whistles. Everyone can go to the site and they are not over whelmed with a current web site environment. World wide access is a plus. Some are still using text based browsers and will continue because of the access limitations.

And it wasn't my intention to break with that. It's possible to cater for them without severely restricting the site (which is my current opinion). In some cases I was talking about simplifying things as well (the navigation for example), and it makes it easier to find all of the related forums/wikis/resources that you might want.

So, yes, there is an accessibility concern, but I think that that's fairly easily accommodated by having any javascript enable itself (so that the non-JS version is default, and dynamic content replaces it if JS is available), that way it degrades gracefully all the way back to text based browsers. CSS also allows you to position the content as you like in the markup, so that it appears in the order you want in a text-based browser, so switching to semantic markup wouldn't harm.

And, yes, I wouldn't make Pat get out his PHP books and do it, I'm suggesting he looks for someone he can trust to act as a webmaster. Provided that doesn't take away from any existing responsibilities that would be plausible.

Hi,

Agreed. You need to remember the limitations on the Slackware® team. The primary objective is Slackware® and not the site. Sure to provide a detailed hierarchy would be the best for Slackware® overall but the way the site is, it is easier to maintain by non web admin personnel.

So, you might say, something for the future? Because I think it is something that should be somewhere on the timeline. The longer you wait... for the record, I'd be willing to back up my grand designs, making it maintainable for non-web-savvy personnel is just a case of working out requirements and building a comprehensive content management system for them, so they don't have to get into the nitty-gritty. That is of course the idea of open source, find something that you think you can help with and offer to "fix" it.

I think that it would be possible to achieve what I've put forward without reducing accessibility or usability, and I stand by that.

Using something like Betsy could help create an auto-generated text version of a web site. It basically acts as a filter. Here is a site I created a year and a half ago (I haven't been the maintainer of the site for about a year now, but it still looks the same for the most part) that makes use of Betsy - http://www.wmich.edu/ece/. Use the 'Text Only' link at the top to see Betsy in action. You can even change the text color and size with the some links. I think the site is also a decent example of a modern looking design that still works well if you take away the css (or view it in a text browser without Betsy).

Honestly, though, I have no real functional problems with the current Slackware site. It is simple and clean and has what I need (Well, I wouldn't mind if it had RSS feeds...). However, I imagine many people would probably like a screenshots page. Yes, I know, it sounds silly since you can see vanilla KDE screenshots on KDE's site, etc, but it still wouldn't hurt to have a screenshots page (gotta show off that sexy new bootsplash ). Ratpoison's site even has screenshots. People with old computers or text only browsers can just not view that page (and the Propaganda one).

And then some might say that "That General Info page should have a quick bulleted overview of Slackware's Features". Of course if people are scared of reading blocks of text on a web page then they probably won't want to read the Slackware docs (hmmm...do they?), and then you realize that most people who go to the site are probably already pretty determined to try out Slackware anyways (who probably heard about it from friends).

I'd much rather time be devoted to documentation and the next Slackware version than revamping an already functional website. That being said, I like what PsychoticDude85 had to say on the site linked, and I'm sure most people will agree to most of the points (particularly having stale info updated). If the Slackware team ever wanted help with the site I'm sure some people would be willing to donate some of their time (myself included). If nothing else, maybe Pat can link to a blog for himself of something (I think this was mentioned in this thread earlier).

The big thing people want to see is activity, and without having to dig in the links for it. Of course if there was a big huge link on the front page to LQ (with an enormous ASCII arrow pointing to it) people would see there's plenty of activity going on here

I would say the website does have a factor to play when you're choosing which distro to go with, and at the moment those sort of borderline users would probably end up choosing one of the others. Whether they would have gone with Slackware if the site got across more succinctly what we stand for is somewhat academic though, since we can't really find out without a large-scale survey, which isn't going to happen.

Also, I would agree that the distro itself and documentation are the higher priorities, but I believe that some of the changes I would like to see would help with both (development tools would aid in distro work, and a central wiki would improve documentation). That's not to say we shouldn't be doing other things, but I think it's not really true to say that the website implies that you're neglecting either the distro or the docs.

I love Slackware, and would welcome -- and depending on the nature of the work, help work on -- anything that would beat away the sort of gnatty cloud of "oh, SLACKWARE? so out of fashion" that seems to swarm in from time to time. For example, I enjoy the Distrowatch site, but I find the "nothing exciting, same old same old, move along" tone of its Slackware reviews to be rather irritating.