Hi all!
Having written a couple of books before, I will attempt to write a beginner's book to Debian. I firmly believe that a beginner's book could attract new users, and also that attracting new users would be beneficial to Debian in the long run.
A Debian beginner's book would hit a segment where there aren't really any tailored books, at least in Norwegian and possibly also in English.
I could do it alone, but a small team would be even better. That's why I'm reaching out to you for advice and/or help.
Specifically, I'm looking for general help (read: I am open for input from all) on these points:
* Feedback on the structure and content: Here is a basic outline (see below), but I'd love your thoughts on what topics are most crucial for beginners. If you are a beginner, I would love to hear from you.
* Recommendations for existing resources: I will try to look for the newest and best books, manuals and websites. What books, manuals or websites do you suggest?
* General suggestions: Any advice you have for making the book informative, engaging, and helpful would be greatly appreciated.
If you want to be a co-author, you should have one of the following qualifications. We should have people to fill all these roles:
* Someone with teaching experience or experience with technical assistance. The advice should be very easy and straight forward to follow.
* Someone highly skilled in Debian (preferably veteran member or DD) for quality control.
* Someone very proficient in written English to improve the language.
* Someone who could help make screenshots from the CLI and several desktop environments, because we all like screenshots![;)]( "Wink")
We also need someone with very little experience with Debian (for testing)
Timeline:
We all live busy lives, so I won't push for specific deadlines, but getting it ready for the first few months of Debian trixie would be nice. That should be in a little more than a year from now.
Here's a preliminary outline of the book:
Part 1: Introduction to Debian
History and Philosophy of Debian
Advantages of using Debian
Understanding Different Debian Releases (Stable, Testing, Unstable)
Desktop environments
Part 2: Getting Started with Debian
Downloading the installer image
Installation process (graphical and command-line)
Basic system configuration (keyboard, language, etc.)
Part 3: Essential Tools and Techniques
Understanding permissions
Navigating the file system with the terminal
Text editor (nano)
Package management with apt
User and group management and maintenance
Troubleshooting tips
Part 4: Resources and Community
Official Debian Documentation
Online forum
Contributing to Debian
Appendix
This is just a starting point, and I'm open to any suggestions you have for improvement.
Suggestions for resources and improvements to the general outline should be posted in this thread.
If you want to help, post in this thread or send me a PM.
Let's do this!
Having written a couple of books before, I will attempt to write a beginner's book to Debian. I firmly believe that a beginner's book could attract new users, and also that attracting new users would be beneficial to Debian in the long run.
A Debian beginner's book would hit a segment where there aren't really any tailored books, at least in Norwegian and possibly also in English.
I could do it alone, but a small team would be even better. That's why I'm reaching out to you for advice and/or help.
Specifically, I'm looking for general help (read: I am open for input from all) on these points:
* Feedback on the structure and content: Here is a basic outline (see below), but I'd love your thoughts on what topics are most crucial for beginners. If you are a beginner, I would love to hear from you.
* Recommendations for existing resources: I will try to look for the newest and best books, manuals and websites. What books, manuals or websites do you suggest?
* General suggestions: Any advice you have for making the book informative, engaging, and helpful would be greatly appreciated.
If you want to be a co-author, you should have one of the following qualifications. We should have people to fill all these roles:
* Someone with teaching experience or experience with technical assistance. The advice should be very easy and straight forward to follow.
* Someone highly skilled in Debian (preferably veteran member or DD) for quality control.
* Someone very proficient in written English to improve the language.
* Someone who could help make screenshots from the CLI and several desktop environments, because we all like screenshots
We also need someone with very little experience with Debian (for testing)
Timeline:
We all live busy lives, so I won't push for specific deadlines, but getting it ready for the first few months of Debian trixie would be nice. That should be in a little more than a year from now.
Here's a preliminary outline of the book:
Part 1: Introduction to Debian
History and Philosophy of Debian
Advantages of using Debian
Understanding Different Debian Releases (Stable, Testing, Unstable)
Desktop environments
Part 2: Getting Started with Debian
Downloading the installer image
Installation process (graphical and command-line)
Basic system configuration (keyboard, language, etc.)
Part 3: Essential Tools and Techniques
Understanding permissions
Navigating the file system with the terminal
Text editor (nano)
Package management with apt
User and group management and maintenance
Troubleshooting tips
Part 4: Resources and Community
Official Debian Documentation
Online forum
Contributing to Debian
Appendix
This is just a starting point, and I'm open to any suggestions you have for improvement.
Suggestions for resources and improvements to the general outline should be posted in this thread.
If you want to help, post in this thread or send me a PM.
Let's do this!
Statistics: Posted by Hallvor — 2024-04-01 19:32 — Replies 10 — Views 250