[gub09]

HEADLINE: Consolidation of Documentation; Removal of Outdated Documentation

DESCRIPTION: Any time you do a web search for anything regarding Debian, the search results include a huge amount of official but outdated information. Normally for Linux-related questions I refer to the amazing Arch wiki, but there are topics that are Debian-specific, and then sifting through all the detritus is a huge waste of time. There's a wiki, a kernel handbook, a manual, random xyz.debian.org pages, mailing lists, user forums, the Debian Administrator's Handbook...

Granted, it's a huge effort to clean all of that up, but perhaps there's a way to incorporate user feedback, so that pages can be marked as "outdated" by users, or updated by users (wait, there's a log-in page- does this mean I can edit wiki pages? Did not know that...:( ), or otherwise made more systematic.

In particular, it would be great to have more complete information on the installation process: which images to use (RC, ..., or weekly image?), how to put them on a USB stick (why does my 32GB stick now say it has 128GB?; you mean I can just copy the files to a FAT32-formatted drive?), what the options are (for hostname, is any name, a FQDN necessary?), etc. For every single clarification, there will be a hundred, thousand, ten thousand people who are helped; that seems like a worthwhile investment. Everyone is a beginner at the beginning, regardless of knowledge outside this specific domain, so why not make it easier.

All that said, have been using Stretch/testing for a few years, love it, love the Free/Libre Software ethos, love what you guys do, keep it up, thank you!

[coma_]

Seconded.

One often has to rely on stackoverflow (and the likes) to get info because the doc/wiki is outdated.

That being said, the info provided on theses websites aren't necessarily correct.

There is for instance no clear, up-to-date, doc on how to install some packages from testing and keep them updated (pinning ? no pinning ? what values ? what sources ?)

[ghostly_s]

Hear, hear. The site is generally an excellent resource but I've also come across reams of outdated guides which steered me wrong, and worse, have sometimes left my system in an indefinite state because I only realized halfway through that this guide is no longer relevant. Cleaning this stuff up should be a priority.

[sjukfan]

This! As I see it a major problem not only with Debian but Linux over all is the amount of outdated documentation. At least some people will when they don't find what they're looking for on the Debian wiki google for it and might end up with at best solutions that are old and outdated, or at worst solutions that are all wrong these days and might leave their system wide open.