Hi there!

Last week a discussion started on opensuse-marketing about creating an openSUSE manual:

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-marketing/2010-09/msg00259.html

While this is a cool idea, it turned out that many people are unaware of the existing openSUSE documentation or do not know how to contribute. Being responsible for the openSUSE documentation, I would like to shine a light on this ;-) :

Table of contents (beware, lengthy posting):

1. Contributing 1.1 Getting in touch with the SUSE Documentation Team 1.2 Reporting Documentation Bugs or Suggesting Adjustments 1.3 Translating Manuals 1.4 Contributing new Chapters or Books 1.5 Contributing to the Build Environment (susedoc)

2. Outlook: What's in the Pipeline 2.1 Publishing the Book Sources 2.2 Re-writing the Build Environment 2.3 openSUSE BookBuilder

3. List of openSUSE Manuals

################### # 1. Contributing # ###################

Currently the openSUSE documentation (listed below under 3.) is maintained mostly within Novell by the SUSE Documentation Team (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Documentation_team). The discussion on opensuse-marketing has shown that people are interested in contributing to this documentation--a fact that we really welcome!

Our manuals are written in NovDoc XML, a simplified subset of DocBook (http://www.docbook.org/). The XML sources for the manuals are hosted on an SVN server. Generating books from the XML sources is done with the susedoc build environment, which is developed and maintained by the team as well. This build environment includes _everything_ to build books from DocBook or NovDoc and is shipped with openSUSE (package: susedoc, license: GPL).

You may also want to point us to ommissions, corrections, or even to ready articles (wiki, txt, pdf, whatever) that could be merged or referenced. Let us not get into a struggle about correct or wrong tools. I really like the original idea of creating a commuity driven openSUSE book. We are already looking into ways how to interconnect wiki and/or openoffice with docbook. Ideas welcome!

1.1 Getting in touch with the SUSE Documentation Team ----------------------------------------------------- Reaching out to us is pretty easy - either subscribe to the opensuse-doc mailinglist (http://en.opensuse.org/Mailing_lists#Subscribing) or join the #opensuse-doc IRC channel on freenode. If you have typos, questions, suggestions or simply want to say hello, these are the places to go.

You can also meet us in person at the openSUSE conference in Nuremberg this week. There will be a talk about one of our latest doc projects, the openSUSE Book Builder (see 2.3 below or refer to http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=71&a...). We would be glad to see you there!

1.2 Reporting Documentation Bugs or Suggesting Adjustments ---------------------------------------------------------- Currently, two feedback channels are available if you have corrections or enhancements for us:

- File a bug report (or an enhancement request) against the Documentation component for the respective product.

Or, much easier:

- Use the doc comment system:

Go to http://www.novell.com/documentation/opensuse113/ where the openSUSE 11.3 documentation is hosted. Click on a manual title and navigate to the page where you have spotted an error/would like to suggest adjustments. Scroll to the bottom of that page and click on "Add comment". Insert your comment. If you are interested in getting feedback, provide your name and email address.

Your comment is directly routed to our team, so we can take care of it.

1.3 Translating Manuals ----------------------- If you are interested in translating our manuals, we can provide the necessary infrastructure for you. Currently the Russian translation team already uses our SVN repository on berliOS to translate the openSUSE 11.3 manuals.

1.4 Contributing new Chapters or Books -------------------------------------- If you would like to contribute larger amounts of contents (chapters, sections, etc.), please get in touch with us (see above), and let us know what you like to contribute. Don't worry, you _DON'T_ have to know XML, susedoc, or the likes - that is something we can take care of ;-).

1.5 Contributing to the Build Environment (susedoc) --------------------------------------------------- susedoc is publicly hosted at https://developer.berlios.de/projects/opensuse-docmaker/ and can be checked out anonymously. Patches are welcome! If you are interested in contributing more than an occasional patch, you can get full access to the project.

###################################### # 2. Outlook: What's in the Pipeline # ######################################

The SUSE documentation has a few more projects in the pipeline. First and foremost we are working on making it easier for you to contribute. Second we have have planned two major software projects.

2.1 Publishing the Book Sources ------------------------------- The XML sources for our manuals are hosted on a Novell internal SVN server. We are currently in the process of moving them to a public SVN at berliOS, where they will be available for anonymous checkout. Document maintainers will get write access. As a first step, the SUSE Studio documentation and the openSUSE Documentation Style Guide are hosted at https://developer.berlios.de/projects/opensuse-doc/ More is to come very soon.

We can also provide an infrastructure for manual translations on that server - in fact our Russian translators already make use of it.

2.2 Re-writing the Build Environment ------------------------------------ Our build environment (susedoc) currently is a mixture of tools using make, bash, python and perl. Although this tool collections works very well, we would like to consolidate it in order to make future enhancements easier. We have started to write a central docmaker library in perl and python which should provide everything that is needed to manage, monitor and build books from XML sources. Development of this library is in a very early state - if you are interested in helping us to develop it, get in contact with us. The sources are available from http://svn.berlios.de/wsvn/opensuse-docmaker/trunk/lib/

2.3 openSUSE BookBuilder ------------------------ In short, the openSUSE BookBuilder is a library utilizing susedoc to automatically build books from XML sources. Added is a web application that serves as a virtual library. See http://conference.opensuse.org/indico//contributionDisplay.py?contribId=71&a... for a more detailed description. If you are interested in that project, come to the talk at the openSUSE conference or contact me directly.

############################### # 3. List of openSUSE Manuals # ###############################

openSUSE comes with with a lot of manuals in HTML and PDF format with a current page count of almost 2000 pages. Not all of them are shipped in the box. The HTML version of all manuals can be installed with the package opensuse-manuals_en. http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Documentation_team#List_of_Manuals http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Official_documentation

ePUB versions can be downloaded from http://community.opensuse.org/ebooks/ebooks113/

3.1 Startup Guide ----------------- Guides you through the installation and basic configuration of your system. For newcomers, the manual also introduces basic Linux concepts such as the file system, the user concept and access permissions and gives an overview of the features openSUSE offers to support mobile computing. Provides help and advice in troubleshooting. The Startup Guide is ca. 200 pages and is found in the openSUSE box.

3.2 Reference Guide ------------------- Gives you a general understanding of openSUSE and covers advanced system administration tasks. It is intended mainly for system administrators and home users with basic system administration knowledge. It provides detailed information about advanced deployment scenarios, administration of your system, the interaction of key system components and the set-up of various network and file services openSUSE offers.

3.3 GNOME User Guide -------------------- Introduces the GNOME desktop of openSUSE. It guides you through using and configuring the desktop and helps you perform key tasks. It is intended mainly for end users who want to make efficient use of GNOME desktop as their default desktop.

3.4 GNOME Quick Start --------------------- Gives a short introduction to the GNOME desktop and some key applications running on it.

3.5 KDE User Guide ------------------ Introduces the KDE desktop of openSUSE. It guides you through using and configuring the desktop and helps you perform key tasks. It is intended mainly for users who want to make efficient use of KDE as their default desktop.

3.6 KDE Quick Start ------------------- Gives a short introduction to the KDE desktop and some key applications running on it.

3.7 Application Guide --------------------- Learn how to use and configure key desktop applications on openSUSE. This guide introduces browsers and e-mail clients as well as office applications and collaboration tools. It also covers graphics and multimedia applications.

3.8 Security Guide ------------------ Introduces basic concepts of system security, covering both local and network security aspects. Shows how to make use of the product inherent security software like AppArmor (which lets you specify per program which files the program may read, write, and execute) or the auditing system that reliably collects information about any security-relevant events.

3.9 Installation Quick Start ---------------------------- Lists the system requirements and guides you step-by-step through the installation of openSUSE from DVD.

3.10 AppArmor QUick Start ------------------------- Helps you understand the main concepts behind AppArmor.

Thanks to Frank, Tanja, Tom for compiling this writeup, (shame on me for messing it up).

cheers, JW-