Quoting Eugene C. ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> Ok, but the swap meet crowd does not reflect the average computer user
> either, (if one exist).
Well, I believe they come pretty close. These are several thousand
people who come in search of a cheap 4.3 GB Quantum IDE hard drive,
or a copy of Quicken, or grey-market copy of Win95 OSR2, or blank
Zip disks. They browse folding tables staffed by local clone vendors
fighting one another for that 10% margin on sale. All the displays
are the same mildly depressing clone hardware and commodity Win32
software -- except ours.
The customers strike me as very ordinary computer users, out to get
a bargain. We make a point of being there, in front of _them_ instead
of Unix geeks, specifically to give ordinary computer users exposure to
Linux.
[NFS/ftp installs]
> Sure, but not every InstallFest has a connection to
> the outside world.
No, that's not what I meant at all. You have five people all waiting
for a Red Hat 6.0 Intel CD. Do you make them stand around? No! You
cp the files, all of them, up to your InstallFest server's public ftp
tree. You help each of them make the necessary boot floppies, hand
them sheets with their IP address assignments, and have _all_ of them
install at ethernet speeds, simultaneously.
I hope that's clearer. It painlessly removes the CD-media bottleneck,
makes installations faster and more elegant, showcases Linux's network
capabilities, _and_ eliminates the risk of someone taking your CD home,
into the bargain.
Yes, people _will_ bring PCs with no ethernet card. Keep a few handy as
loaners. I bring several old 3Com ISA cards for that purpose, plus a
spare Intel PCI one, an IQ Technologies (NE2000-clone) PCMCIA card,
and a parallel-port "laplink" cable in case we have to do PLIP.[1]
The same InstallFest server should also feature informational Web pages
about what you are making available. That includes supplemental
offerings on the server itself, such as distribution updates/errata, X
servers released since the distribution, SSH 1.2.8, PGP, Fortify,
security tips, back issues of Linux Gazette, themes for various window
managers, local copies of the LDP and other important Web pages (don't
forget the Web pages of local Linux user groups), copies of Word
Perfact, Star Office, AbiWord and KOffice snaphots, WingZ Professional,
Tom's Root/Boot, recent kernel trees, lynx-ssl, zip-crypt/unzip-crypt,
Aladdin GhostScript upgrades, and the like.
> You describe a best case scenario, where the LUG has a choices, (CDs,
> NFS, ftp).
Eugene, certainly I don't want to be rude, but has nobody else ever
thought of doing local ftp or NFS installations from a server hard drive
before?
[library situation]
> In this library case, it is often just more time effective to do it
> from CDs.
To the contrary, installing via ftp from a server on the same ethernet
is many times faster. Mind you, all I need for this is my little K6
with a 9GB IBM drive, and I can fit the four or five most popular
distributions on there, with plenty of room for lots of other goodies.
> I agree, that some part of the installation are preconfigured and the
> user, may not get the point(s). But he will be able to do it later.
> I think, the goal is to have a user up and running with some default
> settings. Later, he will learn more about the indepth of Linux.
Actually, one of the things I find most deficient about typically
InstallFests is that vanishingly little though gets put into answering
the "What do I do next?" question for our "customers". That's the
thing that I believe needs the most work, right after covering the
fundamentals like ensuring that you're using the InstallFest LAN
to best effect.
[1] Why bother bringing a laplink cable? Well, hasn't anyone ever
come to one of your InstallFests wanting help installing Linux onto
a PC laptop that has neither PCMCIA slots nor a CD-ROM drive? No?
Well, trust me. Sooner or later, somebody will, and that's exactly
when you'll be glad to have a laplink cable.
--
Cheers, "By reading this sentence, you agree to be bound by the
Rick Moen terms of the Internet Protocol, version 4, or, at your
rick (at) linuxmafia.com option, any later version." -- Seth David Schoen
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