On Sunday 03 Nov 2002 6:16 pm, you wrote: > On Sunday 03 November 2002 06:59 am, Anne Wilson wrote: > > On Sunday 03 Nov 2002 1:39 pm, you wrote: > > > ahhhh Charlie, you are ever the optomist..... > > > > > > it is my bet that the only thing not to change is entropy. > > > > > > > > > ET > > > > You're such a ray of sunshine :-) > > > > Anne > > Anne; > He is that, isn't he? <g> > > Miark and ET; > Pessimists may be correct more often but we optimists usually have more > fun. > > :-) > > All; > <snip> > > I've always been aware of that. However; I'm also aware that those of us > that are called "advocates for Open Source" still have a chance to win many > of the small battles for the mind space that is the consumer market, and > that any 'revolution' has to begin somewhere. > Considering the amount of time I spend trying to sort out the problems with windows computers for friends and family, I've been considering what is really needed for an introduction to Linux.
For many people, a clean install plus Open Office and any good web browser would be adequate (sometimes too many choices are counterproductive at first). I would think that there needs to be a web page set up similar to the one Mandrake gave us with their links, but linking to lists of hardware compatibility and documentation. Certainly no app should be on a beginner's machine if it doesn't have documentation available from Help. There is a need for a magazine (or part of one) that trully tackles beginners needs. Currently the series that run in our magazines need geeks to understand them. Something on the level of Computer Active, that introduces new topics slowly, giving the user time to get to grips with a new concept, and introducing choice when they are ready for it. Then of course there is a need for a simple installer, as fool-proof as Install Shield. I think Mandrake are working well towards that, but there is a need for all distros to use the same method (at the user level, whatever the programmers feel is needed under the bonnet). A distro like Mandrake has everything most users will ever need - but they have to be able to find it and install it. The truth is that Linux is scarey if you don't have someone to hold your hand - and you are much more likely to find a windows user to hand-hold than a linux one - so startup must be simpler. A certain level of computer literacy is required to use a list like this, valuable as it is. A salutory lesson, though, whilst on holiday - I met a couple who had bought a Dell computer with WinXP and Office XP installed. They say they have no manuals. I presume they are on a disk somewhere, but they simply don't know how to get them. They got a warning from Norton AV that their signature files were out of date, and thought that it meant they were infected. They had reached the point where they would happily pack it up and send it back, if they could. It seems that Windows can be just as scarey! As for me - my 14 year old grandson wanders in from time to time, and says things like 'Is Linux difficult, then?'. He is intelligent and will get there if I don't push. I'm thinking of putting OO for windows on his machine, on the pretext that it will make it easier for him to communicate with the M$O users as school (all my family were brought up on Lotus SmartSuite, but it is really long in the tooth now). Next step then would be The Gimp, because he is seriously interested in graphic work. By the time he is using them he should be ready to change :-) The front door isn't always the quickest way in Anne
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