[Gllug] BETT at Olympia

[Alain Williams]

On Sun, Jan 05, 2003 at 10:40:54AM +0000, John Hearns wrote:
> On Sun, 2003-01-05 at 00:33, Mick Farmer wrote:
> > Dear UKUUG elders & GLLUGers,
> > 
> > First, let me declare my UKUUG interest, having served as
> > its Chair for a number of years.
> > 
> > Second, the idea of a "schools/educational Linux CD" has
> > been bounced around a number of user groups, including the
> > UKUUG, for a number of years.  Personally, I can't see why
> > we can't get a working Linux CD out there next week - if
> 
> > Get a few educational system administrators saying in public
> > that they've chosen Linux, and you'll start a movement
> > that's unstopable!  Let's just do it. 
> Great!
> 
> 
> I'd just like to say something here.
> My ideas for a GLLUG demo kit have been a bit more generic.
> Not an educational specific thing.
> 
> Two ideas:
> 
> a) get a good spec laptop. load it up with a recent Linux distro,
> and customise the desktop with a Windows-alike theme. 
> load on Open/Star Office and Evolution.
> This will help clear off the 'Linux is great for running on your old
> surplus kit' stuff.
> Can present said laptop and show businessmen, teachers, whoever what s
> modern Linux desktop can do.
> 
> b) get a small server (really just a hard disk that can be put in a PC)
> with Linux Terminal Server on it.
> At a show we can them set up a small LAN almost instantly from kit that 
> people bring along.

Take a step back. What are we trying to do ?

1) show people that Linux/OSS can do what their current systems can do.
   That means: word processing; mail; simple accounts; ...
   For some M$ only apps that don't have OSS equivalents: Wine will need
   to be used; admit that some won't work (I ignore vmware).

2) show people that Linux/OSS can interwork with their current systems.
   Ie the transition can be fast/slow.

We need to go with a simple message/demo. Ignore fancy features (eg skins),
concentrate on simple basics - you don't have much time with each visitor,
so don't confuse them.

We probably want about 20 software items, of which half will be generic and
the other half a 'pot' of stuff specific to an individual show/event.

We should have a few Linux boxes, maybe another one running M$ XP on which
M$ Word docs can be generated and read/updated via a samba share on a Linux
box. This will quell the big interoperability fear.

Generic things (probably too long):
* OpenOffice: word processing; spreadsheet; presentation
* Evolution
* gimp
* Mozilla/...
* fax send/receive
* gnucash/...
* a game or so
* video edit
* CD/DVD player
* Show a paging (workspace/multiple_desktops) window manager
* handout with a web address on that summarises everything that
  we have shown, plus a *few* other important things such as:
  apache; firewall overview; etc. Plus links to the major
  distros & perhaps contacts for further help.

On top of that we need a set of 'specials'.

-- 
Alain Williams

#include <std_disclaimer.h>

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