From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Bernhard Bitsch To: documentation@lists.ipfire.org Subject: Aw: Questions about IPFire installation documentation for the non-specialist Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 23:37:23 +0200 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <51D72B1A.7040307@riseup.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============2994388369767472853==" List-Id: --===============2994388369767472853== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi Beryl, welcome to the IPFire community. Nice, you want to help in polishing the english pages. >>From my sight the wiki constitutes the documentation of the appliance. It is= not complete, that's right. But the main description what IPFire is, is given on the main page of the pro= ject www.ipfire.org . If one decides to use IPFire as his UTMA ( Unified Threat Management Applianc= e ) he should know about this basics. This should not be repeated in the wiki. And yes, an user of IPFire should have knowledge/experience in installing an = operating system on a computer. But you don't have to be a specialist in netw= orking and network administration. Cordially, Bernhard Bitsch > Gesendet: Freitag, 05. Juli 2013 um 22:22 Uhr > Von: "com(a)riseup.net" > An: documentation(a)lists.ipfire.org > Betreff: Questions about IPFire installation documentation for the non-spec= ialist > > To the IPFire Documentation Team: >=20 > Hello, I have just been communicating with Erik Kapfer, who tells me > that I might be useful to your work with some polishing of the English. > I am from San Francisco, although I live in Paris at the moment. >=20 > While I do some work as a web developer, the hardware end is pretty much > Greek to me, and in that respect I would like to suggest some additional > information might be useful much closer to the front of where newcomers > get started reading your documentation, even before the installation > guide. I did download the software. "Don't be afraid!" it said, but no > information after that came up on the screen. I must say, it reminded me > of the politician's "Trust me!" >=20 > So then I searched in a search engine for an installation guide. >=20 > I must tell you that yesterday I attempted to install IPFire and gave up > before I had begun. The hardware requirements were a complete puzzle. I > could not tell whether it was possible to run the firewall on a single > computer with only a wireless connection to the Internet. In fact, I > wrote in to the forum, asking about the 2 network cards, but no one was > able to reply. It would be useful to have information like this right up > front for potential users. >=20 > If there is someone available to answer the technical questions, I might > work on your installation guide, > http://wiki.ipfire.org/en/hardware/start > from the point of view of someone who knows little about the inside of > their computer. For instance: >=20 > Hardware >=20 > Because of its modular concept, IPFire is very flexible in its hardware > demands. >=20 > On this page, we will present possible setups, without making any claim > to be complete: >=20 > Intel D945GCLF2 - A miniITX-Board with one Intel-Atom-Processor. > fit-PC2 - An embedded system with Intel-Atom-Z-Processor. >=20 > [WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WHAT ARE THESE TWO ITEMS? DO I HAVE TO BUY THEM? > IF THEY POTENTIALLY ARE ALREADY IN MY COMPUTER, HOW DO I FIND OUT?] >=20 > Demands > Processors >=20 > IPFire needs at least a i586 CPU (from Intel Pentium upwards). >=20 > [OK, HOW DO I FIND THIS OUT? I LOOKED UP THE CPU IN MY MACHINE, AND THEN > SEARCHED ON THE INTERNET FOR SOME SORT OF BENCHMARKING. I FOUND IT > LISTED ON A PRIVATE SITE, PASSMARK SOFTWARE. THERE ARE VARIOUS MEASURES > OFFERED. I COULD NOT FIND i586 ANYWHERE, THOUGH, AND THERE WERE MANY > INTEL PEMTIUMS LISTED. ALREADY, IF I HADN'T ALREADY BEEN IN TOUCH WITH > THE PROJECT, I WOULD HAVE BEEN LONG GONE. IN FACT, I NEVER WOULD HAVE > TAKEN THE TIME TO TRY TO LOOK IT UP.] > =20 > ... >=20 > Network >=20 > IPFire should have at least 2 network-cards available (see Network > topology)... >=20 > [SO HERE IS WHERE I GAVE UP. DOES THIS MEAN THAT I CANNOT USE IPFire ON > ONE COMPUTER ONLY? AND FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS TWO OR MORE COMPUTERS, ARE > NETWORK CARDS THE SAME AS CONNECTED COMPUTERS? IF NOT, HOW DOES SOMEONE > KNOW HOW TO FIND OUT HOW MANY THERE ARE?] >=20 > ... >=20 > [I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS BEING REFERRED TO ON THE REST OF THE PAGE.] =20 >=20 > ------------ > So my question for the documentation team is this: is the project > interested in having non-specialists use IPFire, or is it really geared > for system administrators? If the latter, there's no point in changing > what you have, since it seems that there is already a growing number of > users. If the former, maybe a different stream of documentation could be > added. >=20 > Cordially, > Beryl Magilavy (Ms) > _______________________________________________ > Documentation mailing list > Documentation(a)lists.ipfire.org > http://lists.ipfire.org/mailman/listinfo/documentation >=20 --===============2994388369767472853==--