Asklemmy

Operating systems come with usermanuals? I've read a fair bit of the archwiki and manpages if that counts

Yes I’ve read the entire Unix manual

Sex: Never

With all due respect, hell no

I got a manual (or just a general book about DOS?) with my first MSDOS PC, which I read. Otherwise no. I have read books about Linux or specific parts of Windows/Linux, but no “official” manual.

I never even thought about the fact that there might be actual manuals for operating systems

There's a manual?

I had no idea they had user manuals.

No, because documentation should be more like a dictionary than a novel - it's written to convey info quickly and accurately, not interestingly. 😆

Next time no need to add on apologetic stuff at the end of your post. People will engage with your post or not, it's the Internet, it's fine

Looks like they're coming over from reddit. Obligatory "women, not girls you incel. Go outside and touch grass".

Reading an OS manual cover to cover is a collosal waste of time. There are more efficient ways to level up skills. But what do I know with my gIrLy LoGiC.

I read most of the DOS 6.0 manual around 1994. This was the era of memory management. Computers had 640k of conventional memory despite my PC having 4M of total ram. Every TSR you could extract out to high or extended memory would have a massive impact on the performance of high demand applications (like all my important applications from Lucas Arts...). I managed to get mouse, soundcard, video, and other drivers loaded and still have 580+K of free conventional memory.

Now I design web scale server architectures capable of handling hundreds of requests per second with five 9's of uptime (for a few years anyway), and that memory management, from back when I was a tween, is still one of my proudest technological achievements. Thanks DOS manual!

I've never read the manual for an operating system, but I always read the terms of service for websites I sign up for.

I usually just read the sections relevant to me.

As useful as they are, user manuals are usually not known for their prose

Yes, male. I read everything I could find about my Commodore 128 and how it worked internally. Taught myself assembler.

Male. I've never read it. I use windows 11.

I have read all of the Linux Kenel documentation, but am not close to reading every manual for every program.

I read the entire manual that came with the Macintosh LC that my wife and I bought in 1990.

I've read the Gentoo handbook and Sakaki's old guide, if that counts.

Reading the entire user manual doesn't seem relevant. IMO it is a reference work; like reading all of Wikipedia or a dictionary. A manual is not a tutorial, and neither are a wiki reference article database. Most users likely expect a more intuitive design where the proper reference materials either make themselves available when needed or are never needed at all.

Not since the big white book that came with the Commodore PET.

55M. Read many manuals of many operating systems over the years. Knowledge is never wasted, you can never know everything.

[Male] Twice+. I have read both the manual of the TI99/4A and the manual of the C64 several times over, and on top of that, also the Data Becker books on the C64 and the C1541 that include the OS' (well-)commented sources. I actually had to purchase both Data Becker books twice, as the first books started to fall apart.

I have also read nearly all the manuals of the Amiga 1000, including the application manuals and the programming documentation.

Not completely, but back in like 2011 there was an official iOS user guide available as a PDF, and having just gotten an iPad I did go through a decent chunk of it learning about what I could (and couldn't) do with it.

Piece of wet cardboard here. Can't read. What's an operating system?

I remember reading some old technical manuals for windows 95 way back in the day. Taught me heaps about PnP, bus arbiters and so on.

To be fair, I probably didn't use that knowledge all that much as PnP and ACPI actually worked really well (I was fortunate enough to only have to deal with DOS as far as himem and whatnot...)

The old GUI style guidelines were fantastic back in the day too - completely unlike the anything-goes approach to modern software development (very different pros and cons, basically), especially in windows-land.

Am male

i have read the arch linux installation guide and a significant portion of the wiki. it's very useful

this is a good convo topic, isn’t it?

not really, speaking as someone whose day job is systems programming

(try that on a girl)

you are such a slimy little incel, lol

We have a lot of machines that run on HP unix at work. I read a lot of those manuals as I didn't want to break anything. It's very annoying to use coming from modern Linux.

I read some of the 9front documentation and a lot of the Debian administrator's handbook. I'm weird and just like operating systems though.

I read the entire set of Amiga manuals, and the one for the Spectrum +3 (we're stretching the definition of Operating System here, but +3DOS is still an operating system)

Sure, I read the manual all the time. I have a short memory for each tool’s options and syntax.

Have I read it cover to cover? No, and I never will.

Male. My first computer was an iMac 333. It came with a book, that I read from start to finish, then proceeded to use it for nothing but Soundjam (iTunes) and Hoyle Cards

I've read some old DOS manual. And several Linux books back from the days when Linux came on CDs alongside books.

Yeah, but not for anything Unix-like or Windows. More like small operating systems for some piece of specific hardware. One that comes to mind is some custom OS for a small robot that maps rooms.

Probably the longest technical document I know very well is the datasheet for AVR microcontrollers (the full one, not the summary). Those are 170-300 pages long, depending on the exact chip. They detail how every feature of the chip operates and is accessed. It's pretty normal in my occupation to know one or two chips really well.

I have read the entire code base of the MINIX operating system. Does that count?

I mean, my time came around long after the age of hundred-page software manuals. But I've spent a good portion of my life knee-deep in man pages and Google searches, which kinda counts?