[Lincs] Distro - Clarifying some points

[iain Baker]

On 4/1/07, Richard Williams <richard at rkwinternet.com> wrote:

<SNIP>

> > 2) What people?
> > People who arn't nessicairly computer literate, people who
> > maybe dont know
> > what an OS is.
>
> I would question whether computer illerates are even interested in running
> Linux. Surely, the target market is people who've used/are using windows or
> Mac [substitute any other non-Linux OS] and are aware/interested in giving
> Linux a go, regardless of their level of technical expertise. I just can't
> see computer illiterates being interested.

fair comment!

> > 3) Limitations because of the above?
> > Well, you've got to make it bootable and theres technical
> > tricks that let
> > you mount compressed drives, but you're looking at playing
> > with about 3 gig
> > of virtual space on the 700 Mb Cd (I just made that up, cause I cant
> > remember, and I'm not an expert on the compression mounting
> > thing, nor know
> > how much space has to be on the uncompressed partition)
>
> Now, I'm going to stick my neck out even further...
>
> Is having a single distro produced by LLUG, allbeit all singing/all dancing
> the way to go?

Depends on the purpose... as an advertising tool for the LUG and OS i
think it is (only my oppinion)

> What I would find helpful is having experts on hand to guide newbies like me
> in the distros that I'm interested in. For example, I was interested a while
> back in installing Gentoo. An associate, who runs his own web servers was
> singing the praises of gentoo because it was more secure than other distros
> because of fewer bells and whistles and being able to only install the
> minimum to run a web server, and he said he'd benchmarked it regarding speed
> and said it was quicker.
>
> Time precluded me from going ahead.
>
> The next distro I became interested in was Ubuntu 6.10 but ran into hardware
> compatibility issues (Dell laptop).
>
> However, if such a policy of having experts on hand in individual distros is
> a possiblity, then all this childish "points scoring" would have to stop. As
> adults I'm sure we all recognise different distros have different pros and
> cons.

A good idea, although it does require an 'expert' on every distro...
an their are LOTS of distro's... but certainly i agree with the
greneral idea of it

> Also, if this type of regime were possible/desirable would it be possible to
> use the existing forum to add categories for each distro?

Easily yes... and a VERY good use for the forum!

> If so, could the volunteer expert be given authority to moderate their own
> distro category.

Yep, easily

> The benefits, as I see it, are that newbies could have a look through the
> different distro categories and ask questions before deciding which distro
> they will try first. And then have an ongoing source of reference/support.

You, my friend are the fresh eye we need! good thinking that man!

> I'll stop here, because the rest assumes an LLUG distro.
>
> All the above are suggestions from a newbie, and if my suggestions are not
> workable I'd be interested to know why not. On the other hand, it would be
> good to see the essence embraced if it is a feasible proposition.
>
> Another thought, could both solutions be an option to see which proves more
> popular?

In my eyes both solutions are addressing different issues, therefore
yes they can both be used, and without competing against each other!
please keep an eye on the LLUG News for an update on the Forum Update
:)

> Richard
>