Re: Newbie Idea

[jfm2@club-internet.fr]

> On Mon, 26 Apr 1999, Donovan Rebbechi wrote:
> > 
> > yep. Consider also that most of the arguments in favour of light versions
> > have been put forth as a means of downloading ... but in the long term we
> > hope that the user will be able to just get a cheap CD.
> 
> That's right, but think also of HD size. I downloaded to a machine already
> running Windows 98, but in my case I needed to upgrade my HD to a bigger one
> anyway (8.4 G), so I installed Linux on my old drive (3.2 G). So drive size is
> no problem for me... *NOW*(-;  Now I can boot to whatever OS I want or need at
> the time. Some people may not be so lucky, my point being, I always wanted to
> try Linux, but never could find the room on my hard drive. And if I did, I never
> knew how much room I needed or what files I did or did not need. Having a CD
> did not solve this problem.
> 
> On Mon, 26 Apr 1999, Brian Wiens wrote:
> >
> > This still doesn't answer my other point.  I didn't know what I wanted and the package
> > names are somewhat cryptic.  To be "safe", I would still install anything which was not
> > obvious to me that I did _not_ need.  A newbie of my type (am I rare?) would still go
> > whole hog if they had the space to spare just to be sure not to miss anything
> > important.
> 
> Brian makes a good point here! Even having a CD, just being a newbie to Linux
> the package names that I had to choose from during the install...well do I need
> to repeat what Brian said so well. (and yes Brian, I did go whole hog. I now
> had the space to spare!)
>  

Ok!  Now suppose I am a newbie.  I don't know much about what I need
depite the function key describing the package (for a true newbie this
wil be chines).  First of all I should not be selecting individual
packages: I should be selecting by categories.  And I think a newbie
should be able to tell if he wants games or not, programming stuff or
not.  Second I should be using the workstation install thus not
needing to bother about partitionning nor package selection.  I have
already said RedHat's "workstation" install is probably not we need so
we will have to create our own selection of software and give it a
different name but I think this is the way to go.  "Select this for
fun and home, this for workstation and this for sever"

> IMO having a "lite" or "fun" version with *good* documentation on size, and how
> and what to expect before, during and after the install would be to Indy's
> advantage. Weather it be a ftp download, CD or whatever. Limiting what the user
> needs to choose during the install. Meaning give the user every thing needed to
> be Internet ready, productive and fun. Preconfigured as much as possible without
> over or under doing it. Let the user choose at later time what they want to
> install, rather then in the "panic" of an install they are already confused
> about. Give'em time to learn a little about Linux first, then when they are
> ready we can say "Look what else you can do!" No need to give the new user the
> whole cow when all they want is the milk!
> 

You will notice several hints at this on 0.1 like in the way KDE and
several X related stuff like font servers and menus are handled.

A thing you won't notice is what happens when you try to read a
Postscript doc from X: the output is good quality.  In every other
distrib it defaults to fast but nearly unreadably output.  You have to
find about how to put the viewer in high quality mode at a moment it
is possible you already have enough trouble in your hands.  In Indy we
assume you are at home and perhaps you don't have a printer or it is
not have configured it so we default to high quality output because it
makes easier to undersatnd what you are reading.

-- 
			Jean Francois Martinez

Project Independence: Linux for the Masses
http://www.independence.seul.org