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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday 03 April 2004 5:51, Jonathan Melhuish wrote:
Andrew Rogers wrote:5) Burn off Knoppix and stick DCLUG address on them.
Incidentally, I took a Knoppix 3.3 CD to a sick WinXP computer and although the splash screen came up, X failed. Bummer.
That's not such a bad idea. From what I've heard from friends and colleagues, a hell of a lot of them have tried Linux in one form or another, but have hit a problem that they weren't able to solve - and gave up and went back to Windoze :-(
We've all got our own 'killer application' that simply must work if the transition is going to lead to permanent change. Mine was Konqueror. When I first dabbled with Mandrake 7.1, Konqueror 2 (KDE2) was buggy and didn't implement CSS particularly well. I also had hardware problems with sound cards and graphics cards. It wasn't until I got an external modem on an old box and ran everything else using ethernet that I got a system that was usable on a constant basis. (That was Mandrake 8 / RedHat 7.2). http://www.dclug.org.uk/archive-old/msg00406.html http://www.dclug.org.uk/archive-Nov00-May01/msg00548.html http://www.dclug.org.uk/archive/2002/01/msg00354.html Overall, it was just over a year before I felt as confident in Linux as I had been in Win98. I try to promote Mozilla / Thunderbird / Firebird at all opportunities (in my case, usually after a call to remove a Windows virus) - it fixes one large hole in their preventative strategy AND gives them something familiar if they do later switch.
They generally reckon that Linux is better (at least in terms of security, stability, etc.) but if they haven't got someone to turn to
Note the someone. I'd welcome ideas on how to make the DCLUG site more useful for personal contacts. It's such a large area and meetings are sporadic, some new members would appreciate knowing more about people in their area. There is a Meeting Survey in the members area that I'd encourage everyone to complete - especially with full postcodes (street names/numbers are NOT required). With more data, I can work on a better 'locator' function that can perhaps use online mapping to bring people together more easily. The data is completely private - other members can view only in a summarised format - and I can promise no snail mail will be sent! Something like "Members within N miles of your postcode" with selections for 5, 15, 25, etc. that produces a report of names, linked to the Members Register. (The 'location' field of the Register is separate and most people only put a general area location.) For this to work, I need full postcodes, not just PL5. I'm not recommending telephone numbers (although there's nothing stopping anyone putting a telephone number in the existing data) - email is fine for initial contacts and individuals can deal with telephone numbers privately.
then it'll have to be flawless for them to not give up. A venerable aim, no doubt, and actually one that's nearer than you may think; but far better that they had someone to learn from, too! :-)
The biggest problem for most new users is winmodems - so many can now be configured but it requires a little knowledge. Without a connection to the internet from within Linux, solving problems requires forward planning and persistence. Broadband users are fine IF they choose a router. Possibly the biggest boon is if members could add details of their internet connection configuration to the archive, particularly if it involves internal modems. http://www.dclug.org.uk/archive/2002/11/msg00036.html http://www.dclug.org.uk/archive/2002/11/msg00005.html - -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.codehelp.co.uk/ http://www.dclug.org.uk/ http://www.isbn.org.uk/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/isbnsearch/ http://www.biglumber.com/x/web?qs=0x8801094A28BCB3E3 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFAbxOFiAEJSii8s+MRAnaQAJ9JjrNtKqVqUQEN6KOhRckDOKNs6ACguYnD JDmXJ39ceNJSROprjSWsNgg= =ZRsS -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.