<html>
<!-- Yeah, my markup is ugly. So sue me. -->
<!-- Ugly markup means it will parse over a wider range of browsers correctly so he will not apologize for it. -->
<head>
<title>
RTFM: But I'm Lazy.
</title>
<!-- <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.rivetserv.com/style/style.css"> -->
</head>
<body>
<center>
<h3>FAQ Questions:</h3>
<h6>Did you know that "FAQ" stands for "Frequently Asked Questions" so "FAQ Questions" is redundant?</h6>
</center>
<p>Actually, I did know that. But when I write "FA Questions" it looks boorish.
<h4>What does "RTFM" mean?</h4>
<p>When asking questions, you may hear this a lot. It means "Read the fscking Manual", or (for those who prefer to be couth) "Read the Fine Manual". The fsck manual may not seem relevant but you should read it anyway. You should read everything you can before you commit changes to your hard drive. It's extremely important that you read and learn as much as possible on your own. If you get stuck, then there's nothing wrong asking others for assistance. However, if the answer is plainly stated in the man page or other documentation, it's very likely someone will tell you to <b>R</b>ead <b>T</b>he <b>Fucking</b> <b>M</b>anual.</p>
<h3>I don't understand so I thought about asking a complete stranger with no particular qualifications how to fix my system. Is this a good idea? </h3>
<p>Obviously not. Any advice you get or commands that you are asked to perform you should 1) read the man page 2) read your particular distro's manual on the usage and repercussions of such action or google it. </p>
<p>Another fine reason to read the manual yourself. Check your distro for wikis and instructions on configuration second, google the forums third, post to the forums fourth and ask for help last. With this knowledge in your hand you are less likely to find yourself in a worse predicament then when you simply couldn't get your wireless to address correctly.</p>
<p>While this<a href= http://www.junauza.com/2008/11/7-deadly-linux-commands.html> list </a>is hardly exhaustive an example of the hazards of simply taking advice.</p>
<h3>Alright I took your advice but Google doesn't send back any relevant results! </h3>
<p>Googling "I can't get my wireless to work" won't help you any more than posting that in a chat room. Don't bother googling "I need help" seven times either (unless you capitalize it). If you are looking for help on your wireless, you should tell google what hardware it is, what distro it is. Googling; "realtek rt8171 USB ubuntu" might find you some really useful information.</p>
<h3>Googling isn't for me. I hate google! </h3>
<p>Post to a forum then. They are moderated, many people will see your question and can post to it. Your question may help many other people who can google.</p>
<h3>I still just want live help. Why are they ignoring me in the chatroom?"</h3>
<p>Remember that Linux is a free. Those people chatting about something completely random in that chat room are not paid, have no commitments to help you* or anyone else. They are helping you out of the kindness of their hearts; so be patient, polite and respectful, pay attention to what they say, answer their questions or if you don't understand their questions explain that to them. If they ignore your first posting of your question spend some time googling - likely they don't know, are away from the keyboard or are in the middle of something. Repeating your demand for attention or getting angry will likely just get you ignored.</p>
<p><i>* The percentage of linuxusers assigned to work release working or community service working off their sentence helping in a chat-room is very small</i></p>
<p>Politeness also dictates that you should ask before PM-ing a complete stranger. Please ask first.</p>
<h3>Isn't there a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to do that? Why does everything have to be done with commandline!</h3>
<p>There may well be. Linux is all about empowering the user, not hobbling them. A GUI is often simply a "front end" for a command line function so they have simply filtered the results of the commandline function to fit in their window. If you are troubleshooting a system it is preferred to have as much information as possible not let someone else filter your results for you. Once the system is up and working is the time to search for that "cool app" that puts the status at your fingertips on your desktop. It is out there - you just have to find it.</p>
<br>
<hr>
<br>
<h4>I can't figure out how to install the distro of my choice!</h4>
<p>First off, you're going to need to know what kind of processor your computer uses. For example, is it i386 architecture? PowerPC? ARM? Here's a basic (albeit incomplete) <a href=http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f10/en_US/sn-which-arch.html target="_blank">list</a> which will cover most users. If you're still not sure, then you should probably choose i386 32 bit.</p>
<p>Here are links to the installation guides for the distributions mentioned previously:</p>
<h5>GNU/Linux Distributions</h5>
<a href=https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation target="_blank">Ubuntu</a>
<br>
<a href=http://en.opensuse.org/Installation target="_blank">OpenSUSE</a>
<br>
<a href=http://docs.fedoraproject.org target="_blank">Fedora Core</a>
<br>
<a href=http://www.centos.org/docs/5 target="_blank">CentOS</a>
<br>
<a href=http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer target="_blank">Debian</a>
<br>
<a href=http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_Arch_Linux_Install_Guide target="_blank">Arch Linux</a>
<br>
<a href=http://www.slackware.com/install target="_blank">Slackware</a>
<br>
<h5>BSD Distributions</h5>
<a href=http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/install.html target="_blank">FreeBSD</a>
<br>
<a href=http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html target="_blank">OpenBSD</a>
<br>
<a href=http://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-intro.html target="_blank">NetBSD</a>
<br>
<p>Keep in mind that you'll probably end up trying many different distributions before you find one that you like. Don't be afraid to experiment.</p>
<h3>My hardware doesn't work. I have had no luck with any of the forums, all google returns is the same complaint. <b> Why doesn't Linux support my hardware?</b></h3>
<p>Linux OS is still a small percentage of the market. It is therefore "not" the target audience of the major manufacturers - if they see no profit or increase in sales by supplying linux support they likely will not. Further, the <a href=www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>GPL</a> licensing is often seen as prohibitive; if they create opensource drivers than they are opening their hardware to scrutiny (not necessarily true but it is often a complaint). If they create proprietary drivers it expands their support commitment. Again seldom seen as a profitable move. The only way this situation is likely to change is if they see a large percentage of complaints and returns based upon this - what you can do to help increase the support is to post on the offending manufacturers forum your complaint and request for support by supplying drivers for linux.
<br>
<hr>
<br>
<h4>What are the basic commands I'll need to get started?</h4>
<p><b>man</b> is short for "manual". It shows manual pages for commands:</p>
<p><font color="#253679" face="monospace">questionablemoose@donkey:~$ man man</font></p>
<p><b>pwd</b> stands for "Present Working Directory". Sometimes, you'll need to know where you are:</p>
<p><font color="#253679" face="monospace">questionablemoose@donkey:~$ pwd</p>
<p>/home/questionablemoose</font></p>
<p><b>ls</b> lists the contents of a directory. You will use this frequently:</p>
<p><font color="#253679" face="monospace">questionablemoose@donkey:~$ ls</p>
<p>Backup filename torrents zinc-1.1.11 zinc-1.1.11.tar.gz</font></p>
<p><b>cp</b> is used to copy files from one location to another. Usually, the original file will remain intact. This is useful for backing up configuration files before you edit them:</p>
<p><font color="#253679" face="monospace">questionablemoose@donkey:~$ cp /home/questionablemoose/filename /home/questionablemoose/torrents/filename.bak</font></p>
<p><b>mv</b> moves or renames files. This is used less for backing up configuration files before you edit them:</p>
<p><font color="#253679" face="monospace">questionablemoose@donkey:~$ mv /home/questionablemoose/filename /home/questionablemoose/filename.bak</font></p>
<p><b>cat</b> is usually used to output the contents of a file to your terminal:</p>
<p><font color="#253679" face="monospace">questionablemoose@donkey:~$ cat filename
<br>
Apple<br>
apple<br>
Pear<br>
orange<br>
bicycle<br>
Muffin<br>
Porkchop<br>
toast<br>
Taco<br>
Gingerbread horror<br>
fork<br>
A perfect resume<br>
A new job<br>
A better pay rate<br>
Failure<br>
Lost the house<br>
Had to eat the pets and kids<br>
Live in a ditch now<br>
A sunny meadow<br>
What<br>
is<br>
the<br>
meaning<br>
of<br>
this?<br>
questionablemoose@donkey:~$</font></p>
<p>You've probably noticed that cat doesn't allow you to scroll up or down to read long files. That's where there's <b>more</b>:</p>
<p><font color="#253679" face="monospace">questionablemoose@donkey:~$ more filename
<br>
Apple<br>
apple<br>
Pear<br>
orange<br>
bicycle<br>
Muffin<br>
Porkchop<br>
toast<br>
Taco<br>
Gingerbread horror<br>
fork<br>
A perfect resume<br>
A new job<br>
A better pay rate<br>
Failure<br>
Lost the house<br>
Had to eat the pets and kids<br>
Live in a ditch now<br>
A sunny meadow<br>
What<br>
is<br>
the<br>
meaning<br>
--More--(96%)</font></p>
<p><b>less</b> does the same as more, except is has far more options. Remember, less is more!</p>
<br>
<hr>
<br>
<h4>I can't read/write/execute a file!</h4>
<p>The permissions are probably wrong. Time to learn about UNIX <a href=http://www.perlfect.com/articles/chmod.shtml target="_blank">permissions!</a></p>
<br>
<hr>
<br>
<center>
<h4>More to Come</h4>
</center>
<p>...But I'm tired right now.</p>
<br>
<hr>
<br>
<center>
<a href=http://www.rivetserv.net/index.html>Go Home</a>
</center>
<br>
<hr>
<br>
</body>
</html>