Hello,
Part of the problem seems to be that we may not do a good job of passing on the knowledge and understanding necessary to allow users to help themselves.
I don't know if you want user feedback on this thread but here goes... I started playing with Linaro about a year ago coming from an OpenEmbedded and direct cross-compilation background. The most challenging part of the learning curve has been moving from the 'Hey, I downloaded something and look it works' (Linaro does a brilliant job of making this really easy) to 'hmm...I want to change something but there is all this packaging in the way'. For me, this typically means I want to test a change to the kernel or u-boot for Overo. Moving from the standard compile-and-stick-on-a-microSD-card to the method of making debian packages (and understanding the implications of not doing so) was a learning curve. Not all users want to change the kernel but helping users learn to customize the Linaro deliverables (specify specific packages in an image, rebuild packages with different options...) seems important.
Other notes: I have heard of other users getting confused by hardware packs---I actually thought this was well-explained but again struggled trying to build my own.
Two pages that I keep bookmarked are * https://wiki.linaro.org/Resources/HowTo * https://wiki.linaro.org/CategoryHowTo (because sometimes I need that magic tip on some page that isn't listed above) as I usually know roughly what I wish to do but need an example of how to do it 'a la linaro'.
Cheers, -Ash