Information About

How-to








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A how-to or a ''howto''' is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. A how-to is generally meant to help non-experts, may leave out details that are only important to experts, and may also be greatly simplified from an overall discussion of the topic. See Procedural Knowledge for a discussion of what sort of Knowledge is imparted, and how far it can be imparted, in how-tos.


SPELLING

The correct way to write it in English is "how-to", but it is common practice to write it as "howto" in the Linux community. A possible reason is that this makes it easier to find a how-to in search engines like Google as searching with the words "to" and "how" does not necessarily deliver in relevant search results.


HOW-TOS ON THE INTERNET

How-tos have a long history as a way of sharing knowledge on the Internet , but are less successful as FAQ s, manuals, Recipe s and Guide s. How-tos are very successful within Linux communities.

In the beginning, most how-to's on the internet were the result of a linear process in which an author wrote a how-to that readers would read. An example is EHow . This company raised $30 million from venture capitalists including Hummer Winblad, Media Technology Ventures, General Electric and Fingerhut which it used for hiring 200 professional writers EHow , Wikipedia. Accessed on June 27, 2007.

After contains a number of wikis on specific subjects. Howtodude.NET is a website where users can archive and share their own how-tos. It claims that wikis are no proper way for how-tos stating "howto's are fundamentally different from the information that is shared in wiki's" as "Wiki's require that contributors share a certain amount of norms and values" while "a howto is never neutral by definition" Why not a wiki? Howtodude.NET. Accessed on June 27, 2007.. A blog style website that allows user to add how-tos on Linux is HowtoForge How To Forge .


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