[Nottingham] Re: Linux InstallFest / Awareness Day 1st November

[Mike Martin]

 --- Duncan John Fyfe <djf@star.le.ac.uk> wrote: > On Wed, 9 Jul
2003, Martin wrote:
> 
> > Michael Simms wrote:
> >  >> Now we need lot's of volunteers and ideas for the day ;)
> >
> > Use Windoze defrag to push all the data to the bottom end of the
> > partition, and then the partition can be safely resized with such
> as the
> > Mandrake disk utility (DiskDrak?).
> >
> 
> ha ha ha.
> This can work but it can also go horribly wrong.
> 
> ... much agreement snipped...
> 
> > [... Distros ...]
> >  >> I think you're right. I think pretty much for absoloute
> beginners
> >  >> it's between redhat and SuSE, and I personally would go for
> SuSE..
> >  >> But then, I suspect there will be much disagreement on this
> :)
> >  >
> >  > I would say Red Hat. Why, because people know the name red
> hat. If
> >  > you say 'Red Hat Linux' people will say 'oh yeah Ive heard of
> that'.
> >  > If you say 'Suse Linux' people will say 'huh?' We need to make
> sure,
> >  > if we want to give people confidence in letting us butcher
> their
> >  > machines, we use words they have heard before and can relate
> to.
> >
> 
> If you are old (enough) in the Linux game this is true but I
> suspect if you
> took a straw poll of neonates many more are coming in through SuSe
> and Mandrake
> than via RedHat.
> 
> I know SuSe have offered us some stuff but I kind of err on the
> side
> of RedHat (TM) for GPL'd ness even if we use PinkTie (notTM) or
> equivalent.
> But ultimately I think 'ease of use' has to win the day for the
> install day.
> 

Only thing is that RH10? will either be out or close to it then -
what are peoples views on beta (latest gee whizz stuff as opposed to
6 months old)

> People also need to be willing to present a united front on the
> day. Choice
> is a great thing when you have an idea what you are choosing
> between.  But
> for someone who isn't certain and maybe not too sure it can be
> confusing
> and offputting.
> 
> If someone walks in and says "I want Debian" yipeee!
> 
> If they walk in and say "I'm interested in linux but I'm not too
> sure"
> I would like to reply "We are offering X because it is easy peezy
> lemon sqeezy"
> not "Would you prefer RedHat|SuSe|Mandrake they all have pros and
> cons but to
> be honest my favorite distro is Debian."
> 
> Same goes for Gnome vs. KDE.
> 
> I think we will find we need:
> 
> 	Knoppix for PC try 'before you buy' (is there an equivalent for
> other hardware ?)
> 	One of SuSe|RedHat|Mandrake as a default PC install.
> 	YelloDog for Macs
> 
> 	Smoothwall|IPCop for firewalls (home and business internet
> security).
> 	Debian for everything else.
> 
> >
> >
> >  >> Let's not forget the does it work on my Mac issue...
> >
> > Yep, there are other devices other than PCs...
> >
> 
> I know a few people have experience of Linux distro's on other
> hardware
> and it is good to accomodate all we can but I wouldn't be happy
> installing on hardware I wasn't familiar with.  So... we kind of
> need people to
> say "I'll be there and I'm happy to install on zSeries"
> 
> >
> >
> >  >>> 4.  Linux tutorials. Can we get hold of a screen and
> projector
> >  >>> for the day (I'd hope Green's =
> >  >> Mill would have one).
> >  >>
> >  >> Hmmm, I suspect one-on-one demos would work much better.
> >  >
> >  > Depends how many people are there
> >
> > Some sort of demo sequence running between short 'tutorial shows'
> should
> > be a good format to grab interest.
> >
> >
> 
> As an aside to this...
> I would like to set up a 'hands free' demo of (for example) GIMP. 
> Something
> that will loop, running for a couple of minutes at a time, showing
> a picture
> being drawn and saved.
> 
> Does anyone know of any good/easy tools (the best I can think of
> are Windows
> 3.1 macros) which would allow such a demo to be created ?
> 
> 
> Have fun,
> Duncan
> 
> -- 
> Duncan John Fyfe          X-ray Astronomy Group,
>                           Dept. of Physics & Astronomy,
> Phone +44 116 252 3635    University of Leicester,
> E-mail djf@star.le.ac.uk  University Road,
>                           Leicester, LE1 7RH, U.K.
> 
> 
> 
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