Re: Google hits for OpenLDAP

[Howard Chu <hyc@symas.com>]

Brett @Google wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 10:00 PM, Hallvard B Furuseth
> <h.b.furuseth@usit.uio.no <mailto:h.b.furuseth@usit.uio.no>> wrote:
>
>     Howard Chu writes:
>      > Zytrax.com is not a reliable source of OpenLDAP documentation. Most of what
>      > they advise is misguided or flat wrong.
>
>     Yet Google(OpenLDAP cn=config)'s two first hits are at Zytrax.  It's not
>     surprising people keep using that stuff.
>
>     Maybe the OpenLDAP site could be improved to help that.  Google has some
>     guidelines for that at <http://www.google.com/webmasters/>
>
>
> I think the popularity of Zytrax guide on google indicates that there is a
> need for some simple guide or howto of how to get some sort of trivial ldap
> server running, in the first instance.
>
> Zytrax might fail with regard to accuracy in specific details as it seems to
> be infrequently updated (last August 2010, before that July 2009), but taken
> asis it gets people going such that they can at least get a server running,
> then they can then start to learn by actively using openldap. The zytrax guide
> itself is open source, so the other alternative is to help improve it's accuracy ?

Wow, talk about putting the cart before the horse. Last time I checked, the 
OpenLDAP documentation was also open source. If anyone sincerely wants to 
improve the docs and make things easier for new users to get off the ground, 
while getting their edits vetted by people who actually understand how the 
code works, the obvious (to me anyway) thing to do is to submit updates in the 
ITS.

The Zytrax guys are clearly just out to make a buck, lifting the OpenLDAP 
Admin Guide content and putting a thin layer of "personal experience" around 
it. They're not contributing back to the OpenLDAP community; they're not 
participating in the community at all, and the info they're distributing is 
(as noted) already outdated.

> Such a openldap guide might least serve a purpose, more for newbies as
> supposed to the old salts, in that it could reduce chatter regards to getting
> a server compiled/running/loaded etc., in the first place, but call me an
> optimist.

If you really believe that helping a 3rd party keep their obsolete plagiarism 
of the OpenLDAP Project's work up to date is a good idea, "optimist" is not 
the word I'd use for you.
> Cheers
> Brett
>
> --
> *The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.*
> *
> Albert Einstein*


--
  -- Howard Chu
  CTO, Symas Corp.           http://www.symas.com
  Director, Highland Sun     http://highlandsun.com/hyc/
  Chief Architect, OpenLDAP  http://www.openldap.org/project/