Literally, a bikeshed
is a small outdoor
shelter into which one may store one's two-wheeled form of
transportation. However, in FreeBSD parlance, the term refers to
topics that are simple enough that (nearly) anyone can offer an
opinion about, and often (nearly) everyone does. The
genesis of this term is explained in more detail
in this document. You simply must have a working
knowledge of this concept before posting to any FreeBSD mailing
list.
More generally, a bikeshed is a topic that will tend to generate immediate meta-discussions and flames if you have not read up on their past history.
Please help us to keep the mailing lists as useful for as many people as possible by avoiding bikesheds whenever you can. Thanks.
This, and other documents, can be downloaded from http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
For questions about FreeBSD, read the
documentation before
contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.