Martin Fitzpatrick wrote: > Welcome to the list alan, Thanks I realise just now that my recent presence on the gmane.linux.ubuntu.user.british is mirrored anyway.
>> I have just joined the list and hope to be helping at LinuxWorld. I am >> a recent user of Kubuntu, having started linux three years ago with >> suse. I really appreciate the Ubuntu approach and the energetic and >> friendly efforts to spread the distro. > > What prompted the switch from SUSE to Ubuntu? I demo a number of distros, and was originally inhibited by the ubuntu version(s) 5.10 text based installer, although otherwise I was attracted by the good community feel of the ubuntu family of products. When 6.06 appeared with a more gui installer, then I began looking more seriously. Suse 9.3 through 10.0 is a very comfortable distro, and has good internet based (and retail pack) support, and I like/d the corporate feel anyway, with its implication of longevity. Along with the Ubuntu community positiveness and energy, there is a good drive to spread Ubuntu. Suse promised a 'lizard blizard' and has made some moves, but the 5 CDs and the novell licence, although not being an inhibitor for small scale installs, make it harder to attract a mass 'spreading' activity, except via more corporate channels. Ubuntu etc is free by policy. A single CD is very convenient - and a live CD gives two birds with one stone, and there is windows FOSS things on it also. The shipit facility and the CD pack is attractive, the pack design gives a 'retail' feel to things - competing in the realm which 'customers' actually understand. All these aspects are strategic bullseyes. Oh, and of course, the distro is a good well balanced one. The updates facility is very competent, while the suse 10.1 updates facility is getting pretty slow and unattractive, I get an impression of lack of focus there. > I started out on that > (for a brief 5-10minutes before the install died), then Redhat. While > Ubuntu is far from perfect it certainly doesn't reduce me to despair > as often as the alternatives! I'm including Windows in that too btw. I don't count windows. There seem to be a fair % of people (experienced users) trying to escape it as I did. Suse is still a comfortable distro to use, and I find pclinuxos very appealing, although it has not yet gained enough following for support of newcomers to linux I think, that can take a lot of attention in support forums. >> I run (mostly single handed) the Infopoint table at the Bracknell >> Computer fairs monthly if I am available. The table has rapidly become >> a defacto Ubuntu Kubuntu distribution point, other distros are not so >> attractive to newcomers - who are the main attenders. > > What success do you have handing out CDs Around 10 or 15 per day to people who approach and come to discuss maybe more sometimes. >and do what sort of feedback > do you get? It's always good to hear people are having success > introducing people to OSS The initial measure is in what they choose - a retail looking pack is far more attractive than a home made copy with no colour pack. (btw even colour packs containing home made checked iso burns would be attractive...). For my part I am glad to reccommend Kubuntu to a windows escapee because of the basic distro and not least the community and its obvious promise for the future. It took me personally a couple of years to start a linux try seriously, and a couple after that to feel at all confident. Unless there is a close local group to hold peoples hands, it could take some time. I have had few return to discuss it yet, once per month is not close enough contact to get a feel in a few months, I would like a local venue to offer a local install fest and club, but -another story. > - in many ways the individual stuff is where > the biggest impact can be had. I am convinced that is a basic truth, unless linux is pre installed by dell etc for popular use. I had first hand experience of the then windows 3.1 being chosen in preference to OS/2 by team leader end users in direct contravention to a main IT policy in the company. I had the discomfort to chair the decision, and was visited by our company heavy gang but the users still won. OS/2 was a better more stable os and we used it for control systems. The reason for OS/2 unpopularity was simply that all the end users had windows at home! > Do you get into much post-introduction support? Not yet locally but I have a small yahoogroup set up awaiting any very local users who are not yet confident to contact a full LUG (which can be a bit daunting). Almost all the computer fair Infopoint activity so far has been with people who have never really installed linux (yet) but are encouraged to be actually *seeing* it. I note that these have decided to investigate a changeed OS first, then come and talk. Many others are yet uninterested, or have not yet noticed. -- alan c -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
