I take onboard both of what you say, and can understand fully. I may be
newbie (Wished I was in age) and have been a network engineer since
about 1984, Most of Linux can be followed (I got as far as I did with
Jarod & Co's docs. However things started to go wrong for me with MySql,
my fault because I could not understand the syntax of the line to change
the password! And made a typo and locked myself out.
Having followed a number of doc's with my install, the excellent one
from Jarod and another who's name escapes me was for a Red hat 9.0
install.
I think perhaps that a reference system may not be such a bad idea,
settle on a small machine (Mass appeal) and cards that will be
supported. That way a newbie would know that his hardware is right (I
made the mistake of buying a WinTV-350, and have yet to confirm if it
works) with a large number or people with identical hardware, surely
most bugs would be ironed out?
I think Myth will take off beyond belief, when I mentioned it in our
office, two other engineers also decided to have a go. Just think what
will happen when more media coverage is made?
Regards Paul.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Cooper [mailto:mythtv-users@mcooper.demon.co.uk]
Sent: 10 August 2003 19:27
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Had an idea? Would a more experienced person
shareinfo?
Cedar McKay wrote:
>
> On Sunday, August 10, 2003, at 05:23 AM, shredder wrote:
>
>> Seeing as I am well and truly a newbie, to both Linux & Myth, does
>> someone who has setup a system (Jarod & Co come to mind as I have a
>> Pundit)Wish to work along side me and make the documentation easy for
>> the first time user. I am sure it wouldbenefitmany people, I can
think
>> of two who are struggling as much as I am.
>>
>> Others could contribute variations on a theme,i.e.graphics
cards,Linux
>> versions. I would also be willing to host this information as I have
a
>> spare site sitting doing nothing.
>
> Documentation is really trickier than you might think. It is great to
> write docs targeted to a "newbie" but you will quickly discover than
you
> must make some compromises. If you wanted to make something someone
> really green could follow, you would have to really narrow down your
> hardware and software, perhaps down to one specific hardware
> configuration and a particular distro. You might only be able to
address
<SNIP>
I think the only sort of 'documentation' that would suit a 'true newbie'
is only going to come from a company such as O'Reilly! What is being
asked is no small feat!! Your asking to be taught how/what Unix/Linux is
for a start which is slightly beyond your average HOWTO or FAQ ;) If you
cannot follow Jarod's excellent document ion, then perhaps I would
suggest that what you need is an appliant-ized version of MythTV ( a
bootable, auto-configuring MythTV CD ) which a number of people have
talked about on this list.
> One approach that I think could work would be customized wizard type
> docs. You are asked questions about your hardware and software config,
> and docs are generated that suit you. However, that would be a ton of
> work, and I don't think anyone is up to that right now.
I've tried to gather a number of Install Guides for as diverse a
hardware/OS configurations as possible at
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=install_guides
,but again a 'true newbie' would probably be better off with a MythTV CD
:)
Having said all that, I've no idea what the state the various attempts
at a CD image are at, anyone?
--
Mark Cooper
http://netmangler.sourceforge.net - Network Management with Attitude
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org - Open Source PVR Hardware Database
newbie (Wished I was in age) and have been a network engineer since
about 1984, Most of Linux can be followed (I got as far as I did with
Jarod & Co's docs. However things started to go wrong for me with MySql,
my fault because I could not understand the syntax of the line to change
the password! And made a typo and locked myself out.
Having followed a number of doc's with my install, the excellent one
from Jarod and another who's name escapes me was for a Red hat 9.0
install.
I think perhaps that a reference system may not be such a bad idea,
settle on a small machine (Mass appeal) and cards that will be
supported. That way a newbie would know that his hardware is right (I
made the mistake of buying a WinTV-350, and have yet to confirm if it
works) with a large number or people with identical hardware, surely
most bugs would be ironed out?
I think Myth will take off beyond belief, when I mentioned it in our
office, two other engineers also decided to have a go. Just think what
will happen when more media coverage is made?
Regards Paul.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Cooper [mailto:mythtv-users@mcooper.demon.co.uk]
Sent: 10 August 2003 19:27
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Had an idea? Would a more experienced person
shareinfo?
Cedar McKay wrote:
>
> On Sunday, August 10, 2003, at 05:23 AM, shredder wrote:
>
>> Seeing as I am well and truly a newbie, to both Linux & Myth, does
>> someone who has setup a system (Jarod & Co come to mind as I have a
>> Pundit)Wish to work along side me and make the documentation easy for
>> the first time user. I am sure it wouldbenefitmany people, I can
think
>> of two who are struggling as much as I am.
>>
>> Others could contribute variations on a theme,i.e.graphics
cards,Linux
>> versions. I would also be willing to host this information as I have
a
>> spare site sitting doing nothing.
>
> Documentation is really trickier than you might think. It is great to
> write docs targeted to a "newbie" but you will quickly discover than
you
> must make some compromises. If you wanted to make something someone
> really green could follow, you would have to really narrow down your
> hardware and software, perhaps down to one specific hardware
> configuration and a particular distro. You might only be able to
address
<SNIP>
I think the only sort of 'documentation' that would suit a 'true newbie'
is only going to come from a company such as O'Reilly! What is being
asked is no small feat!! Your asking to be taught how/what Unix/Linux is
for a start which is slightly beyond your average HOWTO or FAQ ;) If you
cannot follow Jarod's excellent document ion, then perhaps I would
suggest that what you need is an appliant-ized version of MythTV ( a
bootable, auto-configuring MythTV CD ) which a number of people have
talked about on this list.
> One approach that I think could work would be customized wizard type
> docs. You are asked questions about your hardware and software config,
> and docs are generated that suit you. However, that would be a ton of
> work, and I don't think anyone is up to that right now.
I've tried to gather a number of Install Guides for as diverse a
hardware/OS configurations as possible at
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=install_guides
,but again a 'true newbie' would probably be better off with a MythTV CD
:)
Having said all that, I've no idea what the state the various attempts
at a CD image are at, anyone?
--
Mark Cooper
http://netmangler.sourceforge.net - Network Management with Attitude
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org - Open Source PVR Hardware Database