Re: Debian may lose a user

[Hal Vaughan <hal@thresholddigital.com>]

On Tuesday 25 September 2007, Mike McCarty wrote:
> Mike Bird wrote:
> > On Tuesday 25 September 2007 12:45, Mike McCarty wrote:
> >> I'm not trying to be mean, either. I'm reporting a single event.
> >
> > We're all volunteers here.  You too.  If you find time I guess
> > some of us would appreciate your posting links to the previous
> > problems you discussed.  And if you don't find time, we understand.
> > We also cannot find time to do everything we'd like to do.
>
> I was deliberately not posting the problems, since that
> might look like a complaint. I'm not trying to get action.

So what's the point?

...
> I provide this information only as an indicator of where
> there might be an opportunity to win more Windows users
> and lose fewer.

That sounds good and honorable, but, in reality, you still haven't 
provided anything in your original post that helps.  To me, as a 
writer, and as someone who taught English for years, it sounds more 
like a veiled way to make a complaint while trying to convince yourself 
and others you're trying to help.

I would also wonder how the questions were asked.  Were they asked in 
such a way that information was provided and was clear?

To me, the real problem seems to be in the selection of the distro.  I 
saw what you said about her running a BBS and other information, but 
that still does not mean that Debian is necessarily the best choice for 
her.  I've found it's also a personality issue as well.  I am, by 
passion, a writer.  I'm also learning 3D animation so I can animate 
some of my stories.  When I'm writing or doing animation or graphics 
work, I think completely differently then when I'm keeping my servers 
running.

I've found that when I'm dealing with my server issues, I ask questions 
in one way and deal with people in one way, but when I'm dealing with 
workstation issues, my style is different.  My "server" style works 
better on this list, but my "I'm only an end user" style works better 
with Ubunutu.

I would dare say that if she had picked Ubuntu to test instead of 
Debian, she would likely have had a different experience.

Hal