I'm happy for my RPMs to become "the OpenACS Reference Platform", and/or for my info on how to install them to be used, improved or rewritten, if that is what will help newcomers to get started.
However, I'm not quite self-confident enough to create a FAQ that declares my RPMs to be "the reference platform"!! The choice of such a platform for newcomers needs to come primarily from the newcomers (or only-just-ex-newcomers) themselves, based on their own experiences. There's already a thread about
suggested Linux distributions for testers over in the testing bboard. As you will see there, my personal take on that is that newcomers should use whichever distribution their local friends use -- so they can easily get local help should they need it.
When it comes to my RPMs,
they are tested by me on Red Hat 6.2 and 7.1, and are reported by others to also work on Red Hat 7.0 and Mandrake 8.0. If there is a strong desire to pick a single Linux distribution as "the" reference distribution, which would use my RPMs, my suggestion as of today would be for Red Hat 7.1, since that is the distribution they are being developed on.
As Michael suggested, if David is able to create a FAQ on this topic, that would be a useful way forward, I think. Over time, it might bloom into a "Newcomers Guide to OpenACS" or some such document, as a part of the Documentation Project?
We don't seem to have a clear documentation roadmap at the moment, so anything you can create that helps newcomers get started is probably going to be useful and welcomed!
