Re: Attracting newbies (Was Booting Debian/testing fails)
On Mon, Feb 05, 2007 at 07:45:17PM +0000, Chris Lale wrote:
> Michael Pobega wrote:
> >Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> >[...] I think in reality Debian doesn't cater to a lot of people's needs
>
> On the other hand, there must be a lot of people who would find Debian a
> great solution if only they could get started.
>
> >(The more common desktop user just wants Beryl and eye candy, whereas
> >Debian really offers only stability), and there's really nothing we
> >can do about it.
>
> This may be true for gamers and the like, but stabilty and security are
> surely more important for a large number of home users who buy online,
> bank online, use digital cameras, etc?
>
> >
> >[...]
> >
> >What I'm trying to say is, if we are just a kind community and we
> >don't lie to potential users, they will probably come back to Debian;
> >And if they don't, they will at least have no gripes or negative
> >things to say about it.
> We can do all this and still make Debian more accessible.
>
> >
> >The one thing I really don't understand, though, is why people use
> >Ubuntu.
>
> I read in a Linux magazine that Ubuntu's popularity was mainly due to a
> vibrant community. Well, if that is the case, Debian already has that -
> it just doesn't yet have much of a focus on "complete newbies" or
> "BDUs". I think that Douglas's ideas for "complete computer newbies"
> could help to fill this gap.
>
I haven't use windows since 3.1, and only then to run Harpoon and
the Canadian Encyclopedia. Other than that it was OS/2 for everything
until my old version wansn't Y2K+1 compatible. I got a RHL book with a
CD (Sam's Teach Yourself Linux in 24 hours) for $2 on a sale table. It
took a while to sort out. RPM wasn't satisfactory. The RH GUI apps
kept dying. It wasn't my rock solid OS/2 by any means.
Then I got the Debian GNU/Linux Bible with 2.2r2. It was great. I
learned to network when I came across a second computer. But it has
been a steep learning curve.
My target audience is non-windows users. Windows users may also find
anything I write useful but I can't address their needs. My typical
user would be someone like my parents who would like to take an old
computer (that someone gives them because it will no longer run windows)
that they know nothing about but would like to use to:
get email
browse the web
I would like to take people from knowing absolutly nothing and turn them
into good debian newbies able to get email (therefore access
debian-user) and browse the web and use google, and to know how to get
help. They would be good single-box sysadmins doing things safely and
securely. I don't want to create people who know diddly about their
computer, who just want a magic box that "just works". Sooner or later
the magic breaks.
Doug.
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