must-read for all FOSS evangelists
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick Nov 24, 2006 10:20 AM EDT |
This article makes two important points: to get a new user off to a good start with Linux, install and set it up for them. Then help them make it the way they want. A third useful item is setting up VNC for remote helpdesk. Lots of great stuff in a short article. |
| ajt Nov 24, 2006 12:02 PM EDT |
Thanks for the friendly comments. In the first DAD1 article* I explained what I did. Later I gave a short talk to my LUG, explaining some of this and what happened as a result. Someone from the British HCI Group at the meeting asked me to write down my experience, which resulted in this DAD2 article. * DAD1: http://www.iredale.net/articles/desktop-adapted-dad-1.html |
| dcparris Nov 24, 2006 12:07 PM EDT |
I recall a Debian user who setup his brother's computer and handles the admin remotely, via ssh. It seemed to work well. |
| Alcibiades Nov 24, 2006 12:13 PM EDT |
Yes, agreed. very nice and very instructive. The remark that people find it reassuring to know they can't break it - gives them the freedom to experiement. Email as the killer app. Debian for a real stripped down appliance. KDE with a lot of stuff taken out. Broadband to be able to use the phone at the same time. All the lessons most of us have in the back of our minds, but he has written it all down in a very small space. I'd have liked to see him try Windowmaker for the appliance desktop. Its amazing how well it is accepted by people who have never used anything else. |
| ajt Nov 24, 2006 12:24 PM EDT |
I think the fuss over friendly desktop distros is just silly. No distro is perfect out of the box. For a non technical user like my father, who had never touched a computer before, it needs proper configuration to tailor it to his needs. It is more important that I understood the distro than him. I like Debian/KDE so that's what my father got, because I can admin it remotely via SSH and VNC/SSH. I could have set my father up with any other distro, and he wouldn't even notice the difference. What he did notice was the size of the fonts in the standard menus, the colours and contrast in the widget sets. To my father Debian is easy because it's what he uses and it works perfectly for him. He couldn't set it up, but he couldn't set up anything else either, and that includes Windows. |
| ajt Nov 24, 2006 12:27 PM EDT |
I could have tried other options, but I was most familiar with KDE, and as I'm my father's tech support, it's what I'm use to that makes the difference. I totally agree that there is possibly a better solution, but the solution my father has, is the one that I can support! |
| Abe Nov 24, 2006 1:30 PM EDT |
I watched the presentation video. it is nicely gratifying effort. I always wanted to do something similar but never found the time and resource. You seem to have the talent and interest, it would be really interesting to produce a similar presentation of installing Linux desktop. Following that with another video about administrating KDE and its usability would be fantastic. I wonder if you have plans for something like that! I would select either PCLinuxOS or Kubuntu. I am pretty sure it will convince many doubters and silence many critics of Linux user friendliness. Actually I had enough of installing different distros over the past 5 years. |
| ajt Nov 25, 2006 10:36 AM EDT |
Glad you liked the video. It's very good of my LUG to record things and make them available. The point of my talk and the two articles is that experienced users and new users have differing expectations and abilities and therefore a desktop for a long term Linux user is NOT suitable for a new user. Secondly, the distro DOESN'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE! It's the level of support that does. While some distros are quite good out of the box, none of them are perfect and none of them are yet perfect for really novice users. I use Debian and KDE, so that's what my dad got. It is easier for me to make Debian/KDE a good match for my father, that it would have been to take a better fitting but unfamiliar to me distro. See also: * http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/159 * http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/160 |
| Abe Nov 25, 2006 12:11 PM EDT |
Quoting:The point of my talkI understood your point. Quoting:new users have differing expectations and abilities and therefore a desktop for a long term Linux user is NOT suitable for a new user.In my opinion, a distro should be the same for both new and seasoned users. Ease of installation, user friendliness, features and capabilities, etc... should NOT have to be different. All these good attributes are desired and liked by most of both. Quoting:Secondly, the distro DOESN'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE! It's the level of support that doesDistros are alike and similar, but the added values are different. So it does make a difference when some are better than others. Again, ease of installation, user friendliness, features and capabilities, etc... are added values and they differ from disto to the other. Adoption by new users depends on them and seasoned users will continue to use a distro or move to a better one for the same reasons. The reason for my original post was to show appreciation and encourage you to do more if you wish and desire. I assure you it wasn't to open a debate. Keep up the good work. |
| jimf Nov 25, 2006 12:39 PM EDT |
> new users have differing expectations and abilities and therefore a desktop for a long term Linux user is NOT suitable for a new user. You use Debian in your example, so what you're saying is that the Desktop 'configuration' must be different since Debian is obviously configurable for any level of user. > the distro DOESN'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE! That's certainly not an absolute. For an experienced user, or an inexperienced user with local support it mostly doesn't matter, but remember that many don't have good local support (like a son or friend that knows Linux). In that case, some of the Distros provide much better support than others. I've also observed that the packaging system and whether or not the individual user has access to broadband has a huge impact on the appropriate Distro choice for both the new and seasoned user. Broadband has been a major factor in the rapid spread of Linux. |
| rijelkentaurus Nov 25, 2006 2:03 PM EDT |
>but remember that many don't have good local support (like a son or friend that knows Linux). Did you notice here http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/11/the_open_source... that one of the gift ideas to buy someone is a year's support from Canonical for Ubuntu? I think that's a grand idea if you can afford it. |
| ajt Nov 26, 2006 7:21 AM EDT |
Buying a support contract sounds like a good idea for someone. But will they set up the PC properly to start with? I know Dell et al. will set up a PC with Windows but it's next to useless for real beginners. Proper configuration is a grossly undervalued aspect of desktop computing. While many Linux distros are much safer out of the box than Windows, I can't say that any of them are actually that good for totally new users. |
| ajt Nov 26, 2006 7:28 AM EDT |
> Desktop 'configuration' must be different Yes, my desktop looks quite different from my father's. I know my way round KDE so it was easy to make two the desktop suitable for two very different users. > some of the Distros provide much better support than others. True, but I think it's the support element that makes the difference not necessarily the actual code in the distro. Where I live it's easy to get good Debian help from my LUG, which makes Debian easier for me to use than Red Hat - even though I'm Red hat certified. It's the people that make the difference not the code. |
| rijelkentaurus Nov 26, 2006 7:37 AM EDT |
>Where I live it's easy to get good Debian help from my LUG, Here, where I am at (North Carolina), many people know the name of Red Hat but have no idea WTF Linux is. I guess it's largely a matter of where you're located, eh? |
| ajt Nov 26, 2006 7:41 AM EDT |
> So it does make a difference when some are better than others. Again, ease of installation, user friendliness, features and capabilities, etc... are added values and they differ from disto to the other. While I agree with this to some extent, I also believe that people are also conservative and lazy. I'm happy running Debian at home, I could try OpenSUSE, but OpenSUSE would have to be amazingly better for me to go to the pain of installing another distro and really trying it out. If after one week of OpenSUSE I found something annoying that I could easily do in Debian I may conclude that Debian is better - but I wouldn't be comparing like with like. I believe that your skill and experience with one distro clouds your ability to judge another fairly. I prefer Debian to Red Hat but after taking an expensive official Red Hat Training course I dislike Red Hat less. I have more experience with Debian than Red Hat so things seem to be easier in Debian than Red Hat, objectively that may not be the case, but to me subjectively it is. Perhaps I should spend time with another distro building on something else may be a better solution, after all I'm the one being lazy and conservative... I encourage all Linux users who are in the position to help others into Linux to remember that the new user has differing skills and that the skill they have can be the biggest help to getting the new user going, |
| Scott_Ruecker Nov 26, 2006 7:51 AM EDT |
>It's the people that make the difference not the code. Touche' my friend. It is the people. |
| jdixon Nov 26, 2006 3:35 PM EDT |
> I believe that your skill and experience with one distro clouds your ability to judge another fairly. In my experience that's true. I'm a lot less patient than I should be when trying a new distribution because I already know how to do things in another. That makes it extremely hard to evaluate a new distribution fairly. OTOH, I think I've tried Debian and it's derivatives enough times to have a fair hand on how they work, and I still prefer Slackware, so in this case it's more a matter of personal preferences than impatience. The times I've tried Red Hat and Mandrake (this was before the name change), I also gave them quite a bit of time before deciding they weren't for me. |
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