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It is time to fix your distro. Distributors of GNU/Linux systems do an incredible amount of work. If you're not convinced of that, try putting together a complete system from parts gathered all over the Internet. The trouble is that these distributors must satisfy a very large range of users. They cannot narrowly target one group without discouraging all others. That's where you come in.
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Helios has posted a very compelling story about the troubles a
group of elderly citizens experienced with their computers. Thankfully,
there were some very good outcomes in that story. There were also some
problems discovered and outlined. These problems directly relate to
the user experience discussed by devnet.
While Tom
Adelstein gives us a comparison of platforms without our sometimes
rose-colored glasses view of free software, and
Scott Ruecker gives us the "perspective of a non-technical user",
these are building blocks of information, not end goals. We need some
action. A lot of people need your help.
What distribution do you like to use? Could you set it up for a real
greenhorn to use? I'm not talking about setting up a system where there
will always be a Linux guru within reach of a scream for help. I'm
talking about setting up a system that will work without tending for
long enough to allow the user to do most things they want to do, alone.
They can learn to update and customize after getting comfortable.
Some minimum criteria may be in order:
- A browser. In the tale by helios, linked above, the lady could not
find Firefox. This is just plain wrong. Helios made an excellent point
that it should be obvious how to start Firefox; it should not be buried
in menus. You might put an icon on the desktop with the label "web", or
"internet", or similar.
- An email client. This should also be obvious, as in a clickable
icon on the default desktop. Naming the icon "Thunderbird" won't help.
Setup should not require someone capable of reading Sendmail configuration
files.
- A word processor. OpenOffice.org may be the obvious choice here,
but then again, maybe you have other ideas.
- An instant messenger. Gaim supports just about everything, I
think.
- A music player. Amarok, Xmms, whatever.
- An image editor. Gimp is pretty universal.
- A page with simple explanations about the system. This should be
very easy to get to and emphasize simple. Keep the target
audience in mind: people who are quite capable of typing and clicking a
mouse but who are (as yet) completely uninterested in how operating
systems work. Think, "what do I do" and "how do I do" rather than
"why". The "why" should be limited to a few links.
- Something to take a snapshot of the desktop, in case of trouble.
Being able to show somebody a screen shot of the desktop can help
troubleshooting. I have a special button that looks like a little
camera that accomplishes this on the simple fvwm desktops I set up:
*FvwmButtons(Icon copy.xpm, Action
'Exec import -window root desktop-$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H.%m.%S).png')
If the user thinks something doesn't look right, he or she clicks the
camera once, calls me, and I can take a look at it and explain what's
happening. Hardly ever used, but very reassuring.
Now, how about designing a desktop for your favorite distro and your
favorite computer greenhorn and posting it on LXer? Can you show what
modifications you would make to the standard, downloadable, generic
version of your distribution in order to make it usable by the
stereotypical Aunt Tilly, who can foul up an MS Windows system in
fifteen minutes? If you can do so, will you share what modifications
you make, so that others can download that distribution, apply your
mods, and save Aunt Tilly from the monsters in the back allies of the
Internet?
Part of what makes free software work is recognizing that each person
cannot do everything. Another part of the recipe of success in open
source is that each person may build upon the work that came before.
Here's a chance for you to do a little bricklaying and help somebody
begin using your distribution who might otherwise be trapped and left
out. You don't have to create perfection. It would be enough to get a
start for someone else to begin building upon it.
Take a shot at it, please. Start a comment thread with the name of your
distribution and your specific modifications to the desktop that would
help a newbie. Think about all those folks who worked so hard to get
your distribution to the point where you can use it. Can you help them
take the user experience just a step further?
Thanks!
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