[lug] Linux for Dad

[Nate Duehr]

On Aug 19, 2008, at 9:04 PM, David L. Anselmi wrote:

> So.  There are some people out there who are "common people" and would
> like to use Linux.  I don't know why they might prefer that to a Mac,
> which is wonderful, or to Vista, which they'll learn at work.  But  
> there
> are some.

Vista at work?  Nahh... not yet, really.  My company has actively  
avoided Vista upgrades and even been cow-towing to those who want  
Office 2007/8/whatever ripped back off their machines in lieu of  
Office 2003.  Most folks find the UI changes distracting at best,  
debilitating at best.

Vista/New Office has very little "traction" in the corporate  
environment right now.   Maybe later it'll be "forced" by Microsoft,  
and they won't have a choice... but the 20-30% performance decrease of  
Vista on the same hardware running the same applications (well  
documented now) isn't exactly endearing it to IT managers with real- 
world budgets... new hardware every few years isn't as likely as it  
was a few years ago... especially as they start to get some real data  
on ROI.

We'll see.  The jury's still out on Vista/New Office... for the moment.

> But, when these people tell me they want to learn Linux, I think in
> terms of bash, and lilo, and LVM.  They don't want to learn that, they
> want to learn how to do what the "common people" do--burn CDs, watch  
> movies, write letters.  So I can't really help them.

LOL... that's my problem too.  I use Linux at the command line as a  
server tool, mostly.  I know there are plenty of people who spend time  
with the desktop and common tools/applications that do things like you  
mention, but I'm almost never doing that stuff on Linux.  When I do,  
it's with cdrecord, and "old-school" tools that most folks aren't  
really interested in trying, it seems.  The command-line turns almost  
everyone off now, but it's where I do "stuff" on Linux still to this  
day.

(Maybe I should try harder to learn GUI-centric things?  Not sure...)

> I don't think "common people" use mailing lists for learning.  The  
> more
> technical might use web forums.  Some may use a group.  The rest...
> where do people learn how to use a Mac?  Should we do something to  
> help
> those who want to "learn Linux"?  Or just tell them, "too bad, buy a  
> Mac"?

Hmm, not sure if this is really a question, but the built-in help  
system on Macs is amazingly good.  It's focused on "normal user" type  
things.  Apple's forums online aren't too bad for finding common  
things, and there are a few "forum" type websites (I don't like that  
format, but it's more and more common these days -- mailing lists  
aren't the "typical" place to go for these things anymore, you're  
right.)  Honestly, the built in/pseudo-online help system on Windows  
has gotten better over the years too.  "Help" in the menu actually  
might lead to help... amazingly enough... so many folks got used to  
them being less than useful on just about every OS over the years,  
that friends/acquaintances are surprised when I point them to built-in  
help that is actually helpful, these days.  This is one area where the  
commercial OS's went back to their "roots" over the last few years  
that seems to have worked, especially with it being tied to updated  
info online from the vendors, so "continuous" updates are built in.

Linux has no good equivalent, yet...

I'll throw the "yet" on the end of that to sound positive/hopeful, but  
I'm skeptical that Linux desktops will catch up in this regard.  Many  
distros/developers seem to actively drive away professional  
documentation people that sometimes show up and volunteer to work on  
good docs.  I haven't quite figured out why/how that always seems to  
happen, but few distros actively recruit or nurture documentation  
folks... yet... (another yet.)

> I don't know so much about BLUG, being in a college town, but CLUE has
> grown much less technical over the years, as many of the obscure  
> things
> in Linux now take care of themselves.  So it is in the process of
> evolving to be a group for these "common people".  But it's slow  
> going and there's no marketing department to figure out what works  
> best.

Interesting observation.  I wonder if it's because of what you say...  
progress... just getting the OS loaded is a major concern for  
"average" computer users, but InstallFests still help make up the  
delta between where the installer's leave off, and the real hardware  
drivers get loaded (closed drivers is still the biggest "problem" for  
most folks... it seems to me), and then the "regular" meetings aren't  
focused on obscure system configuration/admin topics anymore because  
those things have (usually/hopefully) sane default settings for most  
folks.

I don't know.  Interesting stuff to think/talk about though.

--
Nate Duehr
nate at natetech.com