2009-05-10, 09:12
For starters, "sudo wget http://IP/path/to/somefile" is about the MOST STUPID thing anyone could do on a linux system. Let alone a novice who can't make heads or tails of what they're copy/pasting. All it would have taken is someone to swap out one of those urls (it was a wiki after all) for one with a malicious script and they'd be happily building a bot net of naive XBMC users.
The main problem was that it wasn't so much a guide as it just did everything for you with no explanation as to what you were doing or warnings that it may be difficult to revert what you've done. There was way to much "do this then this then that" and not nearly enough "no we need to do this by that, here's a well commented script that performs that task." Many novice linux/xbmc users came to our forums complaining that XBMC didn't work and they couldn't get to a GUI after following "the minimal install guide in our wiki." We can't be dealing with that. The level of linux knowledge that's required to do some of the stuff that was happening in that guide correctly is pretty high up. Let alone the knowledge required to recover should a problem arise. We simply can't offer this kind of support here, there is plenty on our plate already.
Feel free to host and support your guide elsewhere, but PLEASE make it clear that it is unofficial and unsupported by team xbmc.
The main problem was that it wasn't so much a guide as it just did everything for you with no explanation as to what you were doing or warnings that it may be difficult to revert what you've done. There was way to much "do this then this then that" and not nearly enough "no we need to do this by that, here's a well commented script that performs that task." Many novice linux/xbmc users came to our forums complaining that XBMC didn't work and they couldn't get to a GUI after following "the minimal install guide in our wiki." We can't be dealing with that. The level of linux knowledge that's required to do some of the stuff that was happening in that guide correctly is pretty high up. Let alone the knowledge required to recover should a problem arise. We simply can't offer this kind of support here, there is plenty on our plate already.
Feel free to host and support your guide elsewhere, but PLEASE make it clear that it is unofficial and unsupported by team xbmc.