6.4. Google Group Search
Every post made to Usenet gets archived at Google's database at http://groups.google.com . This archive used to be at http://www.deja.com , but was bought by Google. Many people still know the archive as "deja".
It's almost certain that whatever problem you have with Linux, gaming related or not, has already been asked about and answered on Usenet. Not once, not twice, but many times over. If you don't understand the first response you see (or if it doesn't work), then try one of the other many replies. If the page is not in a language you can understand, there are many translation sites which will convert the text into whatever language you like, including http://www.freetranslation.com and http://translation.lycos.com . My web browser of choice, Opera (available at http://www.opera.com ) allows you to use the right mouse button to select a portion of text and left click the selection to translate it into another language. Very useful when a Google group search yields a page in German which looks useful and my wife (who reads German well) isn't around.
The Google group search has a basic and advanced search page. Don't bother with the simple search. The advanced search is at http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search .
It's easy to use. For example, if my problem was that Quake III crashed everytime Lucy jumps, I would enter "linux quake3 crash lucy jumps" in the "Find messages with all of the words" textbox.
There are fields for which newsgroup you want to narrow your search to. Take the time to read and understand what each field means. I promise you. You won't be disappointed with this service. Use it, and you'll be a much happier person. Do note that they don't archive private newsgroups, like Loki Software's news server. However, so many people use Usenet, it almost doesn't matter.
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