Getting Help the Free Software (and Open Source) Way - Newsgroups (
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Although the best sources of information might not
be on the
Web (after all, the World Wide Web is only a component of the
Internet), there
is one place which is considered by many to be the best and quickest
source of
information on the internet:
Google.com.
This website is probably the best general resource you have at your
disposal.
As a member of both the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group (SVLUG) and
the
Suncoast Linux Users Group (SLUG), I've seen more than my share of
references
to this website. As a writer, I've often relied on it for quick bits of
information. As a developer, however, the
newsgroups
search on Google.com is even more valuable. As far as Open Source
software
is concerned, if you need to find the meaning of almost any error
message for
any piece of software, you have no further to go than the newsgroup
archives at
http://groups.google.com.
This being said, aside from this rather behemoth
exception,
which can, in all honesty, command a category all its own, newsgroups
and
mailing lists are probably the slowest of the methods covered. Don't
mistake
this last statement to mean that they are not quick, however. In some
lists
you're likely to receive your answer within a minute from the time you
post the
question, which is better than can be said for some searches. As I
mentioned
before, the problem with search engines comes when you either get too
many
answers, not enough, or when your problem requires a bit of human
analysis,
wisdom, ingenuity, and direct intervention. In any of these cases,
newsgroups
and mailing lists make great alternatives.
Now, at face value, the process of finding a
newsgroup of
worth and then finding your subject being discussed within those groups
can be
a bit of a hassle (in the same way that this was a bit of an
understatement).
If this is all you're looking to do, then do yourself a favor and stick
to the
search engines. Think about it; Go to your favorite Newsgroup reader
and type
in PHP at the “Group
Find”
prompt. When I did it, I got a listing of thirty-six different groups.
Don't
even ask how many hits I received when I typed in Linux; this is just as useless as
getting that hundred
thousand hits that I got before.
In contrast, some searches can be small and to the
point.
Searching for MySQL yielded one list (mailing.database.mysql)
with approximately 635 messages. On the other hand, Zope returned no
results.
That wouldn't give me much hope of finding my answer already there, but
I can
always shoot off a message to a list and ask for help. At the very
least, I can
expect to be pointed in the right direction. For example, in the case
of Zope,
I'm can send off queries to the comp.lang.python
list
and expect at least some success. You results will vary, depending on
your
manners, the number of participants, their willingness to help, and the
nature
of your question. Note, however, that having a reliable, fast newsgroup
reader
comes in very handy when doing this sort of thing, so choose your
software
well.
To save you some time, I've compiled a list of the
busiest
groups (that is, the ones with the largest amount of volume) that I
could find.
In this case, the old saying that “there's strength in numbers”
certainly holds
true.
- Python: comp.lang.python,
which beat out alt.fan.monty-python
by about 1245 entries.
- Perl: comp.lang.perl.*,
especially .misc.
- PHP: comp.lang.php
and php.general were pretty close.
- Java: comp.lang.java.*,
especially .programmer.
- MySQL: mailing.database.mysql, which
was outnumbered by microsoft.public.sqlserver.*,
especially .programming, by about 800 queries.
- XML: comp.text.xml,
microsoft.public.dotnet.xml,
and micosoft.public.xml.
- Linux: *.comp.os.linux.*
(Surprised? I didn't think so. The “*” beforehand is for those groups
in other countries, such as pl, fr, es, and de.) An especially large
number of messages was also available at the linux.* groups, especially
....debian.
- GNU: gnu.*, particularly .emacs.
- BSD: comp.unix.bsd.*,
especially .netbsd.misc, .freebsd.misc, and .openbsd.misc. Also fido7.ru.unix.bsd,
a Russian newsgroup had a large enough readership to deserve mention,
although I presume most of my audience consists of fluent English
speakers.
(*Note: This list deals only with Open
Source related
components. Other components, such as Flash, have a good following, but
are not
within the scope of this article.)
This is just a sampling of some of the largest lists
out there
in the field of Open Source. If you're serious about using newsgroups
as a
source of information then go ahead and pick a few to make your
favorites and
familiarize yourself with them. Doing this will save you time and
frustration
in the future.
As a final note, remember that message boards,
although not
technically newsgroups, can often be even quicker than newsgroups. If
you want
to try one out, check out our message boards here at DevShed.
I invite you to
put your comments about this story on those boards. It's probably also
a great
place to ask newsgroup, mailing list and IRC related questions!
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