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Re: "for dummies" Re: Linux is not for consumers!



scripsit Alvin Oga:
 
> On Thu, 11 Dec 2003, Thanasis Kinias wrote:
[snip] 
> > I would like to have something I could hand to non-geek colleagues which
> > would give them the hand-holding they need to realize that they _can_
> > learn this, and that if they put in a little effort they will be richly
> > rewarded.
> 
> everybody has deifferent levels of "what they are willing to do to learn
> this" or not ..
> 	- some dont mind spending a few minutes to figure out how to
> 	setup their ip#, gw, dns, ...
> 	- some dont even wanna try
> 	- some dont mind compiling ... some do know how or what it means
> 	and that includes [regular] system admins ...
> 		- and forget it when it doesnt compile
> 	- some dont mind installing precompiled binaries ...
> 	and others are paranoid about precompiled binaries ..
> 
> 	==
> 	== pick your level of "want to learn" vs ease-of-use vs
> 	== need for upgrades and updates ... vs backups of their data
> 	== 

Well, the colleagues I'm thinking of are academics in the humanities
(see my sig!) who don't necessarily know what an IP address or
`compiling' is, much less worry about installing precompiled binaries.
But for a wide variety of reasons they might want to rid themselves of
Redmond (and not everyone has the budget to go out and buy shiny new
Macs).

They're intelligent and well-educated people, however -- we're not
talking about Joe Sixpack mouthbreathers.  They don't need to be talked
down to, but they also don't like being made to feel like idiots.

-- 
Pax vobiscum; pax cum omnibus.
.
Thanasis Kinias
tkinias at asu.edu
Doctoral Student, Department of History
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.



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