GNOME User Guide - draft.

[Pat Costello <Patrick Costello Sun COM>]

All, 

We are making available a draft of our GNOME User Guide for review by 
the GNOME community. You can download the pdf file of the book from the 
following location: 

/cvs/gnome/ gnome-docu/ gdp/ contrib/ user_guide/GNOMESSUG.pdf

There is also an announcement on the following page: 

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gdp/

As well as being a preview of what we intend to publish, we would also like to  
invite community members to look at the User Guide in the light of being able to 
use the material in the community desktop, as online Help for the various 
components. In addition, we welcome all comments and suggestions about 
developing the book. 

Before you start reviewing the User Guide, you should read the attached 
readme.txt file. 

Pat


Notes for the GNOME On Solaris User Guide
=========================================

File Details
-------------

Release Date: 06 November 2001

Contact Person: Pat Costello (patrick costello sun com)

File name: GNOMESSUG.pdf

Purpose of this Release
-----------------------

The purpose of this release is to show the GNOME community the work 
that the Sun documentation team is doing as regards a comprehensive 
User Guide for the GNOME desktop. As well as providing a standalone 
book, the aspiration is that the community can use some or all of 
the material in an online Help capacity, for example in Nautilus. 

This draft is a print file, however as we have used sgml in the 
source files we can produce html file formats for standard online 
display. 

Status of this Release
----------------------

The User Guide is a work in progress. There are still gaps where 
information is missing. There are also TBD flags and questions 
throughout the book. If you can help with any of the questions or 
TBDs then the Sun documentation team would appreciate your input. 
This draft of the User Guide is designated as a Beta release, which  
allows people outside the Sun organization to view the material. 

Orientation of this Release
---------------------------

Although formally designated as the GNOME on Solaris User Guide, the 
information in the book is generic, and applies to the GNOME deskop 
running on other operating systems. 

Copyright
---------

At the moment the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) is 
undergoing an update to allow for Warranty and Liability disclaimers 
to ship with the license. As the updated GFDL is not yet ready, 
Sun is releasing this draft of the User Guide under the normal Sun 
copyright.  As soon as the GFDL is ready, Sun intends to make the 
User Guide available under the GFDL, with attendent Warranty and 
Liability disclaimers. 

GNOME Desktop Version
---------------------

The current draft is a stage on the way to a GNOME 2.0 User Guide. This 
release of the User Guide is based on the GNOME 1.4 release. Sun 
plans to amend the information in the User Guide with GNOME 2.0 
information, when the GNOME 2.0 desktop becomes available. A GNOME 1.4 
book will not be published. 

Migration to XML
----------------

The Sun documentation team have used sgml to write the current draft of 
the User Guide. The team plans to migrate to XML prior to the GNOME 2.0 
release.