[FM Discuss] Does FLOSS Manuals hurt other doc efforts?

[James Simmons]

I agree with Daniel here.  In my own FLOSS Manuals I have a "Where To
>From Here?" chapter that suggests other sources of information.  If an
FM covers something that has official documentation elsewhere that
makes sense.

I would have to say though that if you're going to have official docs
for free software then they really should be done in FM.  Unless you
have publishers offering huge advances to write a manual, FM is the
place to be.

James Simmons


On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 9:59 AM, Daniel Reetz <danreetz at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 7:50 AM, Mark <mark.brennan at gmx.com> wrote:
>> I think that it is instructive to take a look at the commercial software
>> world, specifically Microsoft Outlook. Whether you like Microsoft or not, it
>> does believe that the availability of documentation helps promote and sell
>> its products. It doesn’t seem to think that third party documentation hurts
>> the official documentation.
>
> It might be informative to:
>
> 1. link to
> 2. discuss
> 3. recommend
>
> the official documentation and other books somewhere in each FLOSS
> manual as a matter of policy. When these questions come up, you can
> simply point to those alternatives being up-front and available. Then
> the true nature of these responses will become clear.
>
> I love what you're doing and I think it has huge benefits for
> everyone, so it pains me to hear these kinds of problems coming up.
> Daniel Reetz
> www.diybookscanner.org
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