Re: Servers as appliances

[Doug Loss <dloss@csrlink.net>]

On Sat, 22 May 1999 11:05:43 -0700 (PDT), Tonnesen Steve <tonnesen@cmsd.bc.ca> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 22 May 1999, Rob Bellville wrote:
>
>> I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination but I would be
>> willing to help with testing and documentation. I think the documentation
>> is EXTREMELY important in a project like this since we would be dealing
>> mainly with novice Linux users.
>
> Have you had a look at the k12admin packages yet?  The download site is
> http://k12admin.cmsd.bc.ca/ .  I have absolutely _zero_ documentation, so
> this is a welcome offer, to say the least.  I need both comprehensive
> manual-type documentation as well as context-sensitive online help
> documenation.
>
I think an important thing to do in a situation like this is to have the 
documentation available in multiple languages.  The initial documentation 
should probably be in English, as that's the language most commonly shared on 
the internet, but all documentation should be available in French, Spanish, 
German, Russian, Chinese, etc. (I mention those languages specifically just 
because I know we have individuals available on this list who can do those 
translations for us.).  And whatever programs are made a part of this package 
should be similarly internationalized.

Finally, I don't think we should make this a separate Linux distribution.  
There are many many distributions now, with more appearing every day.  We need 
an add-on package that will install properly over any distro.  What we might 
do is to prepare a list of installation options for the various major distros 
to make installing our package as painless as possible.

Doug Loss            Democracy substitutes election by the
dloss@csrlink.net    incompetent many for appointment by
(570) 326-3987       the corrupt few.
                        George Bernard Shaw