[Gloucs] hello

[info at hbas.fsnet.co.uk]

Hi Simon,

Your comments are so true.

When I started this group a few years back, it was from the point of 
realisation of most of what you have outlined.

We are now at the point that there are now a number of distributions 
such as Fedora Core 5 and Ubuntu, that give a basic out of the box, 
install and it works, feel to Linux.

Which is fine for a basic user who just wants to do a bit of word 
processor work, connect to the Internet, send and receive emails and 
browse the net, but the user who wants to say build a decent website, or 
has an interest in DVD's and wants to do something in relation to his / 
her specific interest runs into a brick wall.

As soon as he /she starts to search the Internet for information and 
programmes to augment the base distribution,  the user finds that he /  
she is in "techie" land.

The sad fact of life is that those who understand how to tweak linux and 
add other programmes to the base system, when helping others, have 
difficulty in providing the precise step by step instructions to take 
the potential convert through the maze of terminology that is required 
to be proficient.

The user at that point gets very frustrated and generally runs for cover 
back to Mr Gates products.

We have a computer business, we build, repair and sort out all types of 
problems for our customers.

The bottom line with many of the problems we are asked to sort out, stem 
from an inability to understand, that windows, does need certain 
maintenance to be carried out every few days, it also needs good anti 
virus and spyware protection and regular usage and updating.

Get them on to Linux and they do not stand a chance unless, as you 
rightly state, you are prepared to offer a full support service to the 
user - for life!

If someone can point our potential prospects to easy to understand, 
simply explained instructions to go forward, great, make this 
information easy to find for the user to do it themselves and you have a 
winner to go forward with.

Over the years, I have watched people join this group, make a comment 
and never post again, where are they now???

I guess most have gone back to stuffing more $Dollars into Uncle Bill's 
bank account!

Best wishes to one and all - please keep Linux moving forward - but lets 
keep the help simple to understand and use so all may benefit.

Barrie Haycock
Founder of this Linux User Group



Simon Lewis wrote:
> Im siting here on a Mac Book, the reason I'm running OSX rather that 
> Ubuntu is due to the following 2 reasons:
> - General support in linux for laptops 'extra' buttons is poor - I 
> didn't fancy spending 2 weeks working out how to get button X working 
> correctly
> - The integration of the desktop is not great - don't you wish that 
> all your contact information was available in all programs and that 
> all applications looked the same....
>
> I would very much like to help on an install day but I think its 
> important to think about users.  The technically competent user will 
> find Linux on there own, they will happy spend weeks in their spare 
> time learning about the shell and the file system and generally love it.
>
> Then you have Joe pubic, they have a £500 laptop from PC world and 
> they have XP on it, they are fed up with reinstalling their PC every 4 
> weeks after some 'creative' surfing leaves there PC in what can only 
> be described as a 'state'... These are the ideal people to sell Linux 
> to but as soon as they want to install/do anything they will be 
> changing back to XP as fast as they can.  Unfortunately Linux requires 
> a high amount on knowledge to get going,... you need to know about 
> kernels, packages, root privileges, how to edit config files... the 
> average person simply wont bother spending that sort of time to get 
> things going.  This is where I feel that install days will only go so 
> far, you can take a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.  
> Although Ubuntu is a relative doddle to install the average person 
> would be more comfortable on a mac.... everything does indeed just 
> work..... installing applications is as easy as a drag and drop for 
> most things... this type of simplicity of operation and configuration 
> is what is needed on the Linux desktop.... Untill then, anyone who 
> installs linux for a friend is agreeing to be a sys admin for that 
> person for the foreseeable future, something that has recently made me 
> do the unthinkable and recommend someone to use Windows (a heavily 
> bolted down version) and recommend all 'creative' surfing is done 
> using a web appliance (thankyou VMWare).  Good technology and free 
> software can only go so far.... sometimes it is easier to shoot the 
> horse than make it drink...
>
> Anyway, something to think about..
>
> Simon
>
>
>
> On 28 Sep 2006, at 02:15, Maximillian Murphy wrote:
>>
>> -- Another fun and impressive thing we could do is to invite a 
>> LinuxBios chap to come and display a three second powerswitch to 
>> loginscreen boot.  Even a six second boot would be superb.  I grant 
>> that this is blue sky technology as far as ordinary linux users is 
>> concerned.  However it would make the point that linux is more than 
>> capable and has a high performance userland future ahead of it.
>
>
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