to GNU-spec ravers.
To paraphrase recent radio advert for well known vision correcting outfit.
I find it disappointing and expletive-forming when I navigate to /usr/share/doc/asterisk looking for any help or info about program usage for 'asterisk' and, apart from nada, all I find is one file - COPYING.
Never mind any inbuilt help or MAN page.
I'm aware that development and programmer groups in the Open Source community don't sing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to the matter of distribution/usage and "licence".
Even so, is it fair to generalise that, whoever provides the source and installation rpm, deb packages etc, any further distribution/incorporation must include the whole thing?
Essentially, why do some installations leave out rafts of files from /usr/share/doc and others don't?
And it's not as if there's the element of tightness of fit on a CD. Some maintenance type distros could have multiple copies put onto 1 CD, yet, aside from empty /usr/share/doc, even trying 'man asterisk' or 'asterisk --help' results in intermittent success compared to a 'proper' distro.
Quite possibly some programs don't come with any usage help at all but I fail to see why it can be left out when they do.
Which is why the point about the "licence" and copying/distribution etc.
Oh, and dare I mention the wonderful GUI apps, provided on the monster DVD installations, which, when clicking on the Help on the menubar, display a pop-up notice - "unable to connect, check your network cable".
I'd love it if, having bought that big SAMS or O'Reilly tome, you went to the back to check an entry in the Index and found a page with - "check the bookshelf in your local bookstore for relevant Index titles".
What's the opinion on this apparent foot-shooting scenario?