Help to new users

about this wikinode

about this wikinode / attibute

Ideas expressed here are not only from the current wiki page initial author. The core idea of a wiki is to facilitate the creation of collaborated text artifacts. Currently i try to give refs (external from devuan) (and internal) in the refs section. Interestingly in the forum discussion there is greater clarity of the initial community member proposing an idea. So maybe merging is in the semantics of a wiki.

about this wikinode / semantics

It's could be argued what means 'new user'. New in age ? Or of little experience? But little experience but on what ?

On Unix/Linux ?
On certain other linux distro?
On Desktop GUI ?
On De(b)vuan apt ?
On Computers?

Obviously because you can never be sure ideally a project should have flexible help systems.Ideally a help system should accomodate various frequent and nofrequent cases and could also in a welcome handshake probe for the level and type of help that accomodates best the user. Practically older users and sysadm of the Devuan project-community would know the general trends of new users and could steer a helpsystem in certain directions.

And surely each user has already his/her helpsystem. Notes, shell aliases ,scripts , org files etc.

What about a experienced user that has lost access to the internet and must relies on offline help to perform various troubleshoot tasks ?

Any user thinks of help in personal terms and has preferences.

about this wikinode / missing pieces

Linking to workflows of testing news ideas is essential .

about this wikinode / refs

DevuanForum/Documentation/@ (contains various propositions for new users and the initial members of ideas that are merged here).
Debian Beginners Handbook @
Debian Beginners Handbook's exercises @
FreeBSD handbook @

Help to new users / work to be done.

Establish a testing workflow.
Study similar welcome apps.
create .deb packages of offline guides

Help to new users / devuan welcome app

devuan welcome app / about

@EDX-0 devuan forum user has proposed (ref @ /#12 ) the idea of a general welcome app and given links to related projects.

devuan welcome app / related projects

bunsen-welcome @
antix-control-center@

Help to new users / man devuan page

related wfs: Writing man pages

There is no man page for Devuan.

Help to new users / tips on using man pages

@blackhole devuan forum user has proposed (ref @ /#2 ) command :

$ man man

as a necessary step for refreshing or learning using man pages.

Help to new users / xman help

@fanderal devuan forum user has given some tips. Ref full tips in: (@) /#8

Don't know if it's of use but included in the x11-apps pkg is xman, which may be of help to 'point and click' users.

Help to new users / fuzzy searching of man pages

@EDX-0 devuan forum proposes a fuzzy search of man pages and has implemented a script prototype. Ref: (@) /#9

Help to new users / irc

Add a chatbot backend tied to an irc local client . It doesnt have to be LLM level. Even adventures of the 80s had interesting text parsers!. I remember LarryLaffer 's designer explaining in a video how he collected hundreds of possible questions from beta testers and aligned his game text parser to these questions!

Help to new users / offline docs

Offer offline copy of Devuan site , Devuan install guide and currently a variation of Debian begginers handbooks (also see if it's @exercises can be downloaded)

Here we see help workflow depedencies emerging! What's the point a presenting info on setting devuan sources and using apt update if user has no internet connection . I guess that info is relevent thought if a user is using a dvd image and want to learn to search and install packages.

Help to new users / hardware troubleshoot guides

offer help to establish connection to internet offering specific and general advices .

@chris2be8 devuan forum user has proposed guides to help establish net connection. Ref: (@) /#11.

Help to new users / connections to irc and im

offer connection to a irc devuan channel for new users

Help to new users / installer loading screens info

history&basic usage in loading screens : Installer by default (or in less powerfull mode) could present unix-linux-debian-devuan history snippets intermixed with basic user knowledge. (unix mantras etc) .