[Gloucs] hello

[Steve Greig]

It is good to see more offers of help (Max and Simon) for a Linux
install event. It looks like Christian is thinking of a full day. That
is probably more realistic than 3 hours. I agree that identifying the
right end users and recruiting them is essential. 

Simon's observations do ring very true but I think it is reasonable to
assume that there are enough people out there who would consider using
Linux (perhaps dual booted with Windows) for us to be able to get a good
audience.

I think it is also a good idea to demonstrate something along the lines
that Max suggested to impress on people how powerful and sophisticated
Linux is although I think the main emphasis of the event should be to
achieve everyday computing requirements on Linux such as those Christian
suggested.

I notice Linux Format has a Mepis and Ubuntu 'made easy' pack in the
shops at the moment and wondered if we might use these. I rang Linux
Format to see if they might be interested in helping or sponsoring the
event. The key person, Paul Hudson, is back on Monday so I will try
again then. It might be good to have any ideas about what we should ask
for from you before I talk to him. I did talk to someone there who said
they would be happy to advertise our install event in Linux Format which
might be useful. We need to discuss that to ensure it is done in a way
that attracts the right people for the event.

I would be keen to meet up to talk to others involved in the event. An
evening towards the end of next week or beginning of the week after
would be fine for me.

Best wishes from Steve




On Thu, 2006-09-28 at 23:13 +0100, 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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