LTSP upstream docs: Scope question...

So, I've got a question for the rest of the developers, or anyone else who's
interested.  I think this is a question we should probably answer soon, as it's
going to crop up again and again, and I think it makes sense to have a
discussion about it, so we're all on the same page.

The documentation's really starting to take shape, and I'm very happy with the
way things are progressing.  However, we need to talk about scope.   There's
already some bits within the documentation about "adding users" and "killing
processes" that, in my opinion, shouldn't be there, since they're general
"sysadmin" type issues.  On the wiki, yeah, sure.  In the "official" docs, no.
Here's my reasoning:

The "official" XML docbook LTSP docs should be about... LTSP.  Not a general
guide on how to run a server that HAPPENS to run LTSP as well as a bunch of
other stuff.  Otherwise, we end up having to comment on everything to do with
whatever can run on an LTSP server. Case in point: someone was on the channel
the other day wanting to know about running a wine program on an LTSP server.
I gave him some pointers, and he indicated that something like this should be
in the docs.  But where does it end?  Wine under LTSP, Firefox under LTSP,
OpenOffice.org under LTSP, gimp under LTSP, Battle for Wesnoth under LTSP....
whoa.  We could have a VERY big manual.

As well, even something simple like "adding users" becomes a muddy mess, as
even within ONE distro, there's probably at least 2 ways to do it (gui and
command line) and with all the different distros, there's a ton of different
variations on the theme.  And, really, *all* that stuff's been documented
elsewhere.  Why should we maintain a complete "how to be a sysadmin" document
when others are doing it better?  More to the point, WE produce LTSP, and I
want the LTSP part to be well maintained, and not spread ourselves thin having
to maintain "adduser" sections in the docs.

Here's what I'd suggest:

I think Lns has done a bang-up job on fixing up the Ubuntu LTSP wiki, which has
a lot of good stuff on the idiosyncracies of running LTSP under Ubuntu.  I
think the model we should take would be:

1) Upstream documents LTSP and LTSP alone, to be used by the distros as either
a standalone document package, or by inclusion into a larger "how to run
SuSE/Fedora/Ubuntu/Debian" document, and we should make every effort to see
that the docs' formatting supports both those roles.
2) Within the upstream docs, we have a "For More Information, See..." section,
that points to wiki/web pages where users can get info about their distro.
3) We encourage distros to set up a LTSP wiki/web "portal" that we can point
to, at a well known, well formatted address.  Something like "ltsp.distro.com"
or "wiki.distro.com/ltsp" or the like.

That satisfies the best of all worlds: people interested in the "How to set up
Wine in Ubuntu LTSP" can trundle off and make a wiki page, and we limit the
scope on the docs.


That's my opinion.  What's yours?

Cheers,
Scott

-- 
Scott L. Balneaves | Nature uses as little as possible of anything.
Systems Department |    -- Johannes Keppler
Legal Aid Manitoba | 

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