Places to be?

[raboof]

developers and end-users play in different leagues... Please don't mix them

I know this was semi-serious, but I'd like to whole-heartedly disagree here.

One of the great things of the linux/floss world is that the distinction between developers and end-users is a very fuzzy one: everyone who takes the time and effort can get involved and improve the ecosystem. I guess the fancy word these days here is 'prosumerism'.

I really think we should invite end-users and make it easier for them to contribute - these can be small things like submitting good bug reports and improving documentation (wiki's are a great piece of the puzzle there imho).

I'm tired of people "helping" newbies with commands, it gives a very bad image to Linux and scares new people off

Sorry, I disagree and won't.

Aside from the fact that GUI's are often not available across distributions, saying 'could you paste the output of lspci' is much easier than something like 'could you describe the information in System->Information, tab 'foo', panel 'bar', under 'Advanced...'...

As for CLI vs GUI: this is certainly not an either/or thing, it just depends on the task and how often you perform it. I'd hate to have to click though all kinds of menu's to perform apt-get/apt-cache operations, but i'd certainly appreciate a good GUI for mencoder.

As for forums vs mailinglists: this is a matter of taste and getting-used-to. There are some real differences though: forums are fundamentally easier to get started with (just surf to the webpage and presto), mailinglists are fundamentally more flexible (not only can you choose between mail clients, you can also follow many mailinglists without having to periodially visit their respective websites. forums' RSS feeds are only a small step in that direction).

Personally, I think it would be desirable to have a single system for "discussions", and allow for various interfaces (both mail, forum, and let's throw in NNTP for good measure) to operate on them. There are some gateways available right now (gmane, nabble). Those tend to suck, but I think that is mostly a matter of implementation, and that the idea is still good. Of course some functionality (such as editing posts) might have to be sacrificed, but (paraphrasing the Evil King in Shrek), that's a risk I'm willing to take .

[DioXide]

The small size is to not distract people from the original topic too much. Be considerate.

I'm sorry, but be considerate of your readers' vision. My eyes are killing me just glancing over that post.

Just quote the message to read it in normal size. In my screen it's completely unreadable because I use DPI 72...

raboof: Some people can't be a prosumer.. They literally can't. Think of an old mother who just wants to chat with her sons.. We can't ask anything from her, at most some feedback. In our ideal world Linux is for everyone...

Oh, and an unified communications method like that would be too good to be true.. (Actually it is right now)

Also agree with you on GUI vs. CLI.. I was just saying that, to new people, it's better to suggest the GUI, as some people suggest the CLI for everything... GUIs should not be all that different across distributions. Furthermore, the people helping other people are usually doing so to people using the same distribution, so it's usually not a problem...

[raboof]

raboof: Some people can't be a prosumer..

Oh sure - sometimes it is impossible. From your remark, I got the impression that you felt it was generally undesirable (even when possible) - might've misinterpreted you there.

[DioXide]

Yup, misinterpreted me. It's desirable when possible, of course.

Let me resume all I was trying to say to one line:
"When dealing with new users, think Ubuntu, not Gentoo".
Please note that Ubuntu goes as far as to call programs by description instead of by name. That is how we should be treating typical, non-prosumer users. Everything in easy point-and-click. Few things to learn.

[brummer]

Back to topic, . . .

KVR is also a interessting PRO AUDIO site/forum with mutch information for crossplatform users, here is the result from a google search in the KVR forum for tread's handle about Linux.
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=linux ... afe=images

[spm_gl]

I'm actually more interested in general audio forums, less linux specific. I've been posting a bit on gearslutz and SoS, but it won't take long until I get annoyed with them.

[brummer]

What is KVR Audio?

KVR Audio is the Internet's number one news and information resource for open standard audio plug-ins. We report new releases, product announcements and product updates (major and minor) for all VST Plug-ins, DirectX Plug-ins and Audio Units Plug-ins (and RTAS too). We manage a fully searchable audio plug-in database (updated daily), and offer many free member services including user reviews, product update notifications and a very active discussion forum. We also host official support forums for many plug-in developers plus the official Receptor support

http://www.kvraudio.com/