Ways to get help in Ubuntu for beginners (Offline)
Solution 1:
On 12.10, you can search the dash lens for the word help and by selecting the result it will open up a useful, offline help menu displayed in yelp. I have tested this offline and it seems that everything in the document is accessible.
Please let me know if this does not answer your question.
Solution 2:
there are a variety of means of obtaining helpful documentation from the *NIX CLI - namely (using 'cat' as an example):
- man cat
- cat --help
- whatis cat
- whereis cat
- apropos concatenate
Given the demographic that you're referring to (namely seniors), the CLI may be overwhelming. However, if you were to apply this answer to a more apt target audience, such as young adults it becomes more applicable.
man cat | head
View manual entry for command 'cat'
CAT(1) User Commands CAT(1)
NAME cat - concatenate files and print on the standard output
SYNOPSIS cat [OPTION]... [FILE]...
cat --help
View options available for 'cat' command
Usage: cat [OPTION]... [FILE]... Concatenate FILE(s), or standard input, to standard output.
-A, --show-all equivalent to -vET -b, --number-nonblank number nonempty output lines, overrides -n -e
equivalent to -vE -E, --show-ends display $ at end of each line -n, --number number all output lines -s, --squeeze-blank suppress repeated empty output lines -t equivalent to -vT
whatis cat
What does the 'cat' command actually do?
cat (1) - concatenate files and print on the standard...
whereis cat
Where is the script actually located?
cat: /bin/cat /usr/share/man/man1/cat.1.gz
apropros concatenate
"I don't remember the name of the command...but I want to concatenate something - somehow."
cat (1) - concatenate files and print on the standard... dviconcat (1) - concatenate DVI files FcStrPlus (3) - concatenate two strings gvfs-cat (1) - Concatenate files ncat (1) - Concatenate and redirect sockets pnmcat (1)
- concatenate portable anymaps strcat (3) - concatenate two strings strncat (3) - concatenate two strings tac (1)
- concatenate and print files in reverse wcscat (3) - concatenate two wide-character strings
The only real problem with learning *NIX, as opposed to Windows at a glance is the transparency of the *NIX platform - it may be intimidating for new users (as opposed to Windows variants)
Perhaps opt for an Ubuntu distribution such as Xubuntu in lieu of Ubuntu. The XFCE display manager is minimalistic by design, and helps to reduce the stress of learning a new skill because you can simply focus on the task at hand.
If you're going with Ubuntu, I'd go with the KDE variant. Why? Simplicity.