Maintaining the Puppy Linux Wikka documentation.

[cobaka]

Maintaining the Wikki pages.

I wish to update the information on: Wikka.puppylinux.com/Steps to Installation (and similar documents)

Some info appears to be quite dated.
example:

Typically Puppy comes as a set of three files

Looking at this forum (and 'mainline Puppy Linux Distros') I find that Puppy Linux is generally supplied as a single *.iso file or disk image (for downloading). As an example LxPupBionic-19.03+14.iso contains 21 files. 4 of these are squashed file systems (*.sfs), some *.c32 files (and so on). Similarly, slacko-6.3.2-uefi.iso is a single file (or disk image) containing 13 files.

It seems, then, the information on this Wikki page should be revised to reflect the present situation.
It's just a small change, but details are important.

Installation methods.
This link gives a description of how to install Puppy Linux, using tools & methods from the Puppy desktop. I can say two things about this. Either the page is not known (or easily found) or the description is poor because this same question has been asked many times on the forum.

Question: Are the Wikka pages to be preferred as a reliable source of information about Puppy Linux in contrast to the forum? It seems to me that the forum is used to avoid reading the Wikka pages). What is considered to be 'standard operating practice' for documenting Puppy Linux?

All the best from Australia.

cobaka.

[wiak]

Question: Are the Wikka pages to be preferred as a reliable source of information about Puppy Linux in contrast to the forum? It seems to me that the forum is used to avoid reading the Wikka pages). What is considered to be 'standard operating practice' for documenting Puppy Linux?

This matter has been raised on many occasions in the past. However, it remains a valid question that should regularly be revisited IMO.

Puppy forum membership is relatively large, but only very few of these request the right to contribute/edit the Wikka. In practice therefore, one or two valiant individuals maintain the huge scope that is the Wikka, but not every day or even necessarily very regularly and certainly not fulltime enough to update the Wikka from a historical to present situation.

The forum on the other hand is, in practice, used by most all of us like some kind of 'living' constantly-added-to/amended source of documentation. Alas, being also for general thread discussions, the updated information ends up buried (and of course mixed with earlier, no longer current, information).

In summary:

The forum is alive... It contains pretty much all new information. BUT, all over the place (no matter the huge and excellent efforts to organise the forum thread sections). And... it (sometimes usefully) also contains all older information, including links back to the old forum. For current Puppy use/advice, therefore, users are advised to seek out most recent info on any discussed topic - that is, to check the date on the thread posts - if ancient may or may not still be relevant.

The Wikka is pretty much like an old forest that occasionally has new trees planted inside it. However, unlike the likes of Arch Wiki, it cannot be used as a reliable source of up-to-date information. It would indeed need completely updated, if that was required of it, AND every new piece of information contributed to the Puppy Forum, noticed, such that the Wikka was quickly amended to suit. Despite the best of intentions, it seems unlikely that anyone could manage to monitor the Forum itself to that extent, so maybe the Wikka should be edited to be as simple as possible (get rid of too much of the ever changing detail) to only attempt to document the most stable of Puppy information (including some, but not too much, alternative information required for some of the old Puppy releases). i.e. a limited but 'guaranteed' source of basic Puppy setup/use information, which is regularly checked by one or two volunteers. Being not so broad that might be acheivable.

Puppy is not Arch Linux, and the Puppy Forum is definitely Queen/King when it comes to overall almost-interactive help and all-embracing (old and new) info.

[cobaka]

Hello @wiak:

In summary you present the essential difference between the forum and the Puppy Wikka.

The forum is alive .... The Wikka is like an old forest that is rejuvenated from time to time

The forum - dynamic
The Wikka - static

On the forum: I see the same question asked many times. I myself, asked some of these and I got an answer - thanks to forum members. If the Wikka pages answered these common questions it would save a good deal of time. More than that - every question answered from the Wikka saves time and clutter on the forum. Imagine how much time BigPup would save if he could post a link rather than write an answer. He might find time to go surfing ...

An important role for the Wikka is (or should be) to inform potential Puppians who are dis-satisfied with Windows (or want to learn about the 'internals' of an OS) or who are just 'sniffing' around the net how to get Puppy 'up and running'. My guess, reading questions posted on the forum, is that we lose a large proportion of 'sniffers'. They come. They try. They fail to take up Puppy (for diverse reasons) and try Mint or Debian or whatever .... We see them only once.

You wrote

it seems unlikely that anyone could manage to monitor the Forum itself to that extent, so maybe the Wikka should be edited to be as simple as possible (get rid of too much of the ever changing detail) to only attempt to document the most stable of Puppy information (including some, but not too much, alternative information required for some of the old Puppy releases). i.e. a limited but 'guaranteed' source of basic Puppy setup/use information, which is regularly checked by one or two volunteers. Being not so broad that might be acheivable.

The idea: To document - in the Wikka - key elements of Puppy Linux on the Wikka and leave the forum to deal with day-to-day detail. Take, for example, this link: www.PuppyLinuxNews.org/releases. The most recent review of any Puppy (on that link) is about Quirky Xerus for the Raspberry Pi (and dated October 2016) A side-link points to Xenial Pup (2017). In particular, the Wikka should set out the key steps needed to download, install and run Puppy Linux. Useful in 2017 but less useful in 2021 ... Of course, the Wikka already documents a good deal of the key elements - but (sadly) I see a good deal of this was written by some-one familiar with installing and using Puppy. In summary: Your idea of 'the most stable information' is very good.

Finally, I just installed uPupBB32 on two different laptops for a friend. I learned a great deal from this exercise. Jane is a competent person (has a degree in science) but struggled with basic concepts in Puppy eg the need to 'mount' drives or where to get/install basic tools (such as Libre Office). Those tasks are 'old-hat' to Puppy owners - but even navigating the Applications menu can be demanding for a new Puppian. Given time, Jane will become a devoted subscriber to Puppy - but only with my help. Her experience is representative. Oh - she/we encountered some problems with flash-drive reliablity on our journey. Not the fault of the Puppy, but still part of the challenge of getting a reliable system working.

Thank you, William, for your observations. I made the smallest change to the Wikka already. More changes will follow. The final result must be an accurate, concise, Wikka, without excess bumpf. Too much bumpf results in less time for surfing.

cobaka.

[peebee]

I applaud anybody who is able to find the time and inclination to update the Wikka - it is a bit of a thankless and un-enticing activity compared with development or experimenting....

The other thing that is in great need of attention is the online Help information held on Woof-CE:
https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... /share/doc
which suffers from the same malaise!

[cobaka]

@peebee

The other thing that is in great need of attention is the online Help information held on Woof-CE:

Understood - but one task at a time.
Better to chase and catch one rabbit than to chase two and catch neither.

cobaka