Documentation

[dos2unix]

I suppose people use different distro's for different reasons. Sometimes, (as is the case where I work, the main distro we use isn't by my choice, but upper management). I like the features of this one, or the way that one looks. I use this one because it has a specific desktop, I use that one because it supports pipewire. We all have different reasons why we like or dislike certain distros. But here is something I think is often over-looked and very under-rated when choosing a distro.

Documentation

You might think that all Linux distro have good documentation, I can assure you this is not the case. Here is an experiment for you to try. Look up some things about your distro. Even some things you may already know the answer to. Does my distro work on ARM cpus? Does it support secure boot? Does it use systemd by default? Is it an LTS distro or a rolling release distro? These are just examples, there are plenty more questions you could use here.

There are actually two tests here. In the first test, don't go to your distro's website (i.e. ubuntu, fedora, debian, rocky, ... etc)
Just use something like google or duckduckgo, or whatever your search engine is... and type in one of the questions above. (i.e. "does Ubuntu support secure boot"). I think this is a good test, because many times people don't know where to go, so they just use a search engine. See where the answer links take you. Do they take you a documentation/wiki site? Or does it takes you to user forums? (i.e. reddit, openStack, linuxQuestions,org etc... I would even include user forums like fedoraforum.org. That isn't a documentation site, it's user forum site.

The second test is, go ahead and go to your "offical distro site". (If there is one) and again try to find the answers to the sample questions above.
Does this take you to a userforum? Even an external/generic forum like reddit? Or does it take you to official static documentaion pages, or better yet, a searchable wiki.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes user forums are great. Linux.org would qualify as a user forum, and I spend a little time here almost every day. I've learned a lot from this site. It's nice to have real people to talk to sometimes about real problems. Some problem are so unique, there probably isn't documentation or wiki page to cover every single question you might have.

However the down-side to unofficial user forums, is that sometimes you get bad advice/bad info. Not usually intentionally, but what works for my distro may not work for your distro. Another thing, is that sometimes (stackoverflow is pretty bad about this) most of the info is about 3 or 4 years out of date. Linux.org is pretty good about staying current. The other bad thing about user forums, is that I have an emergency right now, but no one who seems to know the answer is on-line right now. Static doc/wiki pages are always there, even when everyone else is asleep.

From worst to best, this is what I have encountered.
1. They have a download page, and not much else.
2. They have a download page, and a facebook link that hasn't been updated in a year or two.
3. There is no distro specific documentation at all. Whatever there is, is in places in stackoverlow and reddit.
4. They do at least have a distro specific user forum, and some of the people are knowledgeable.
5. They have "some" documenation. This is a hard one to grade. But I would ask, do they have more than 30 pages of documentation?
6. They have a lot of documentation, but you can't see most of it unless you pay for support or have a subscription ( think Redhat here ).
7. They have hundreds of pages of documentation, but it's hard to search, you have to go back out to google to find the page you're looking for.
8. They have thousands of pages of documentaion, and it's in a searchable wiki. (fedora is a good example).

If you're an experienced user, and you've been using Linux for years, this probably doesn't matter that much to you. You either know the answers, or know where to get them. But if you're a noob. Someone who is just getting started with less than a year or two of experience. Documentation is really a must have. If I was advising someone which distro to start with... I would say a well documented one is a big plus.

 

[KGIII]

it's hard to search

To be fair, search is hard! So many people don't realize this because they grew up in an age where search engines were both common and good enough. It's hard to have a good search function.

I think all distros, at least the major ones, should have an official forum. I have my preferences with the software they use, but they should at least have one. They don't even have to pay money for the software as there are many free forum scripts out there.

They should also have good documentation.

That's another task that isn't easy and takes time. Oddly, assuming you sanity check the output, that might be a good task for 'AI' to deal with.

Let's test that...

This is the prompt I used:

write the documentation for the wget application in plain english that is easy to understand

This is what it spit out:

What is wget?

wget (pronounced "wuh-get" or "widget") is a free and easy-to-use program that lets you download files from the internet. Think of it like a robot that goes to a website, grabs a file, and brings it back to your computer. It's especially handy for downloading large files, multiple files, or even entire websites.

Why use wget?

• Downloading files: If you have a link to a file (like a picture, video, document, or software), wget can download it for you.
• Downloading multiple files: You can provide wget with a list of links, and it will download them all one after another.
• Downloading entire websites: wget can "mirror" a website, meaning it will download all the pages and files, so you can browse them offline.
• Resuming downloads: If your internet connection is interrupted, wget can resume downloading where it left off.
• Automation: You can use wget in scripts to automate downloads, which is helpful for tasks like backing up websites or downloading updates.

How to use wget (basic commands):

1. Open your terminal or command prompt: This is where you'll type the wget commands.
2. Basic download:
   • To download a single file, type wget followed by the file's URL (web address).
   • Example: wget https://www.example.com/myfile.zip
   • This will download the file "myfile.zip" and save it in the current folder.
3. Saving the file with a different name:
   • Use the -O (uppercase "O") option to specify a different name for the downloaded file.
   • Example: wget -O newfile.zip https://www.example.com/myfile.zip
   • This will download myfile.zip and save it as newfile.zip.
4. Resuming a download:
   • If a download is interrupted, use the -c option to resume it.
   • Example: wget -c https://www.example.com/bigfile.iso
   • If the bigfile.iso file partially downloaded, wget will attempt to finish the download.
5. Downloading multiple files from a list:
   • Create a text file (e.g., "urls.txt") with one URL per line.
   • Use the -i option to tell wget to read the URLs from the file.
   • Example: wget -i urls.txt
6. Downloading an entire website (mirroring):
   • Use the -m option to mirror a website. This is a complex command, so use it with caution.
   • Example: wget -m https://www.example.com
   • This will download the entire website structure. be aware that this can use a lot of bandwidth and storage space.

Important Notes:

• Make sure you have wget installed on your computer. If not, you may need to install it from your operating system's package manager.
• Always respect the website's terms of service and robots.txt file when downloading files.
• Be careful when downloading files from unknown sources, as they may contain malware.

Where to find more information:

• You can type man wget in your terminal to see the full wget manual.
• You can also search online for "wget documentation" for more detailed information and examples.

wget is a powerful tool, and these basic commands will get you started.

That's not terrible. I'd massage the prompt a bit, probably removing the 'plain english' part of the prompt.

I've seen worse documentation on official sites.

I've seen better documentation but not that much better. I think the Arch Wiki is pretty much the goal but that could be made easier for newer users. I personally like their wiki but I can see it being a bit overwhelming to new users.

 

[Mike-W0BTU]

I've seen better documentation but not that much better. I think the Arch Wiki is pretty much the goal but that could be made easier for newer users. I personally like their wiki but I can see it being a bit overwhelming to new users.

I was just going to say the Arch documentation. In my experience, it's almost the gold standard for Linux documentation!

In fact, a number of distros link to it. Manjaro does (which is NOT Arch). Debian does. I forget the others.

 

[dos2unix]

I was just going to say the Arch documentation. In my experience, it's almost the gold standard for Linux documentation!

It's not bad, I would put it in the top 5.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

7. They have hundreds of pages of documentation, but it's hard to search, you have to go back out to google to find the page you're looking for.

Debian falls into this category.
They have plenty of docs but finding what I need requires search engine.