Questions, comments and criticism

The most popular

Can I get a PDF of this course?

Not at this time.

Will it be available one day?

We are contemplating releasing a PDF of the whole course to registered users in exchange for a donation.

You mean I have to pay for it?

No. The HTML version of this course is and will continue to be available for free. When you view these pages, banners rotate and this allows us to get a small amount of income. This is what allows the course to continue. A one time download of the whole course in PDF would actually make it impossible to offer content like this.

Don't you know my Internet connection is expensive?

Yes and we sympathize. So is ours.

Can I use this content at my website?

No. The only website that can offer this course in parts or its entirety is ours.

Can I print parts of it and use it as handouts in a course at a community center or other non-profit organization?

Yes. You are free to use this for this purpose.

Can I print this for my personal use?

Certainly.

Can I translate this into [insert your native language] for you to offer at Linux.org?

Your offer is very generous. I am flattered that someone thinks that the course merits being translated into another language. Drop me a mail and we can discuss it. Keep in mind that this entails more than just your translation work and time is not always available for the peripheral work.

Can I re-write a section of the course for you?

Why, is it that bad? Spanish speakers have an expression: 'Cada maestrillo tiene su librillo'. This means that everybody thinks they explain things better than the next person. Larry Wall has famously said about Perl: 'There's more than one way to do it'. Larry is uncommonly wise.

I found a typo. What should I do?

Send me an email about it and I will be 'greatful'(ha ha). Keep in mind that I was born with a set of human chromosomes which means that I make mistakes. We also don't have enough sets of eyes around here, so things slip by. These are normally errors that a spell-checker won't catch. Hopefully, with enough people pointing them out, we'll be able to eliminate them completely. If you do send mails about typos, please preface your comments with some information about where you found it. A basic: 'Hello, I was using the course and I found this... typo on this page [insert URL here]' works fine. I really can't do much with 'their should be there' or 'It's its not it's'. Comments on style are valuable too. I appreciate feedback, negative or positive - it doesn't matter. There may be awkwardly worded stuff that needs a fix-up, so please don't be afraid to say it.

Such and such a thing is blatantly wrong. Can you change it please?

If you find something that's blatantly wrong and can back it up with solid evidence, I can change it. However, all of the examples have been tested and are known to work. If some errant typo has caused an example to not be valid, by all means let me know. But if we're only talking about something, which, in your opinion, can be done more efficiently or elegantly, it may not meet my criteria as something that's a good teaching example.

Do you accept suggestions and criticism?

All reasonable suggestions are welcome. Constructive criticism is appreciated. The emphasis here is on reasonable and constructive. Some explanation may appear to be mangled or overly complicated and if you feel that's the case, then please tell me about it. Flames are sometimes read, frequently laughed at and then subsequently deleted.