Friday, January 14 2005 @ 01:10 PM EST Contributed by: glosser
I know from experience, sometimes finding help on the Gnome desktop environment is QUITE challenging. And so, I bring you this tutorial that may help the Gnome users out there.
There are many ways of getting help when it is needed. However, you will need to remember that all these methods are community driven. Everyone that you find help from is a volunteer, and they are helping because they want to. This community driven model has both advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that the support you get is from someone that cares, not a technical support representative at some big company that hates his job. The is huge, you will frequently find that you get more help than you ask for. The most significant disadvantage is the lack of a controlled, moderated environment. There is nothing keeping you from getting flamed or worse. Now, lets talk a little about how you get help.
Types of help
User Documentation
Of course, the first thing to do is look at the documentation. GNOME has a handy help application, Yelp. Usually found near the bottom of the application menu with a life preserver icon. I would recommend dragging that icon out to the panel for quick access, if you are just starting out. It will be your friend (even thou GNOME is quite intuitive). (TIP: Click and hold the icon on the Application menu and drag it to your panel and drop it). You can also view the user documentation at http://www.gnome.org/learn/.
Forums
Web based forums are probably the easiest way for most people to ask for help. A good starting point is http://gnomesupport.org/forums/. Web based forums allow you to simply search other people’s posts and the responses as well as post your own questions.
Mailing Lists
Mailing lists are also a great method, you will get answers to your questions right in your inbox. Mailing lists require you to subscribe to the list in order to post questions, some lists are very high volume, so expect lots of email. Another tip that will save you much grief is to ALWAYS search the list archives before asking your questions. List subscribers tend to get very upset getting asked the same questions many times. There is a mailing list associated with GNOME Support at http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-list.
