FAQ
Ubuntu Manual Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who are your target audience, and for what reason do you expect them to read this manual? What is their level of technical ability?
- The target audience is complete newcomers to both Ubuntu and Linux. People who have heard about it, and are interested in switching from Windows/Mac. Therefore the manual will give them a brief background of Linux and Ubuntu, and explain that it is not comparable to Windows or Mac - It's completely different. I know that when I started using Ubuntu, I knew nothing about man pages, or the Ubuntu Community Docs. Finding a specific Doc page was difficult, and in all honesty, many of the doc pages are written in a style that presumes you already know your way around. The system documentation, while easier to understand, is not as in-depth as it should be. This manual/book will be easy to understand, have everything in one place so its easy to find, it will be well advertised to new Ubuntu users and it will have everything in correct order, so that users learn how to do one thing before doing the next which relies on the former. Their level of technical ability ranges from complete computer newbie to someone who is familiar with Windows but never used Linux.
2. Where is the writing style defined?
It's not defined at the moment, this is on the agenda for the next meeting in early January.
3. Who will be responsible for maintaining the document, and what sort of infrastructure will they be using to do that (i.e. translations, bug reports, version control)?
The Ubuntu Manual Team is in charge of maintaining the document, headed by Benjamin Humphrey. The infrastructure will be mainly based around Launchpad, IRC, Ubuntu Wiki and docbook.
4. How is the document licensed?
- At the moment, it is GPL v3, but this is also on the agenda for the next meeting.
5. Why did you choose the topics that you did?
The topics are based off several other Ubuntu manuals, the Community Docs, my own experience with Ubuntu, this thread and my blog post.
6. Did you carry out any research on the needs of your target audience? e.g. interviews, observation sessions, questionnaires.
- Yes, see the above question.