On Wed, 1 Sep 1999, Rick Moen wrote:
> Hi, all. Just joined, finally. Thanks for taking the trouble to
> organise all this. Some thoughts in no particular order:
>
> 1. Glad to see that Deepak added the _dates_ to the top of each page
> of the Web site. I was meaning to mention that omission, earlier. Good!
>
> 2. The name is given as LinuxDemo Day in the HTML header, and Linux
> Demo Day elsewhere. Needs a quick fix.
>
> 3. Am I the only one who found it odd that a "day" might be seven days
> long?
I've been calling it Linux Demo Days :), especially since we've had to
spread it out even further in order to cover more of Phoenix.
> 4. "We are no longer accepting entries from LUGs as the date of the
> event is too close." Hmm. You could have said "any new listings will
> be too late to receive materials from our sponsors", but why also bar
Good point. Much nicer way of putting it. Also late-comers can already be
in the cogs for the next set of LDD events...
> listing the events themselves? (No, my ox isn't being gored: I'm
> running the BALUG/CABAL event you have listed at
> http://www.linuxdemo.org/view_lug.php?id=134, one of our long-running
> series of monthly InstallFest/demos in front of several thousand people
> each time.)
>
> 5. (From http://www.linuxdemo.org/staff.shtml:) "End user [1]
> application list. Bill is working on a application list to handout [2]
> to demo visitors that will list Windows applications along with Linux
> apps that serve the same purpose." Hmm. It may seem like a cavil, but
> isn't one of the biggest problems of Linux evangelism folks' insistence
> on a Windows-centric perspective?
>
> I have found it so, and try to stress Unix thinking up-front: Computers
> are network-centric, tasks are long-lived and can run one place and
> image somewhere else (X is a network protocol), the user is in control
> and can customise without ever affecting other users, computers are
> fast and stable. Like that.
>
> Yes, those _are_ subtle, long-term points to get across. All the more
> reason to start early: Sure, show them Star Office, but don't forget
> networked DOOM, Enlightenment themes, GIMP's Script-Fu, and exported
> X displays, because they're a Unix advantage with _no_ Windows
> equivalent. _And_ far more interesting.
Agreed. The point isn't that something does what MSWord does, rather that
it's a word processor, e.g. what functionality it fullfils. However, most
people don't think "Gee, I have to write a paper, I need a nice word
processor.". They tend to think they need MSWord. Zombies for the
marketing machines :).
I think the key is to list out sets of functionalities and
programs/environments that can meet them. With this we can compare Star
Office and Word Perfect with MSWord. We should also remember the first two
are also available for MS and other platforms.
This list can naturally include functionality not necessarily available
via other platforms. I might be trucking my 21" xterm along just for kicks
;-) (and the minor hernea).
A key type of functionality that will be important to note for the
non-geeks is data format and the programs that can read, write and
manipulate them, e.g. MS .doc can be read by such things as Star Office,
Word Perfect and vi. It can be written by the former two.
They're probably not gonna know smtp, but might know pop and imap.
ciao,
der.hans
<schnipp, schnapp>
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