Anne Wilson a écrit : > > Meanwhile, hostile reception of well-meaning efforts does put off a great many > newbies, which is a real shame. > I wouldn't call it hostility. More in the sense of a polite - and sane - scepticism. There's a French saying which may illustrate this: "Hell is paved with good intentions." Aside, slightly OT: I share my time between working as a (100% GNU/Linux) sysadmin and working as a journalist for various IT magazines. I just signed a contract with the biggest french computer book editor, for a series of two computer books about Linux, a bit in the vein of Carla Schroder's and Michael Stutz' "cookbook" approach. Aim: take the newbie by the hand and teach him - or her - what (s)he has to know, step by step. All the practical examples (recipes) in the book, basic as well as advanced concepts, desktop and server configurations, will be based on CentOS 5. Preview of coming attractions (scheduled for Feb 2009): www.kikinovak.net/download/LinuxAuxPetitsOignons.pdf (french) www.kikinovak.net/download/Captures.tar.gz So, to answer the question above: IMNSHO, the best advice comes from an expert who *can* think like a newbie. (At work, I usually deal with the opposite paradigm :oD) Cheers, Niki