Re: SEUL: User Profiles (?)

[jfm2@club-internet.fr]

   jfm2@club-internet.fr wrote:
   > 
   > You are mixing Linux beginner and end user.  You were NOT an end user
   > when starting to use Linux.  Think about what would sell Linux to your
   > Ma and Pa.
   I will tell you what would sell linux to my mother and father,
   absolutely nothing.  My parents are from the pre-television era and have
   no interest in computers at all. Is this truely the 'target' audience
   you are looking for?? If so then we may as well stop wasting bandwidth
   and get about doing other things because there ain't no way that this
   'target' audience would get a computer much less linux if on the other
   hand the target is of the 'pong' generation then there may be a chance. 
   And let us not overlook the 'ninetendo' generation.  So what are we
   aiming at here????

My example was bad.  What I meant is than the end user is not more
knowledgeable than your parents.  A compiler means nothing to him.  A
better way to attract him is with flashy image manipulation programs.
Then we will have a good argument because the low end DOS programs are
more expensive than a distribution and less powerful than the GIMP.

   The Pong generation, IMHO is most likely the target simply because the
   Ninetendo wants flash and ease of use (which linux ain't).

It is our goal to make Linux flashy and esay.

   Oh and one further little point that I may have misinterpreted I thought
   that anyone that used a program was an end user (which in many cases
   will also be a linux beginner)

For me an end user is a person without computer training.  For now it
is very ambitious to aim at them.  But they are the final goal.
Immediate goal is enlarging the audience of people being competent
enough to install Linux: ie lowering the technical threshold.

   > I think than for end users an installation must be pretty directive
   > for installing a minimal set of tools: no use in making them choose
   > between editors they do not know what they do.  It is to us to choose
   > a good one and include it in what is installed as a standard.  Of
   > course at end of install we could have an experts-only option to
   > install more things.
   > 
   > --
   >                         Jean Francois Martinez

   Heavens to Bill Gate, is this what we are reducing Linux to another
   windows???

The problem with windows is not his user interface (it has good ideas
like the starting group) but its lack of power and stability.  We must
feel free to pick the good points and reject the bad ones.

   What we should be attempting to determine is not a 'standard' but what a
   new linux user would want.  Even more in my opinion we should play on
   those strong points of linux that would make someone want to use it (we
   can pretty much discount ourselves here as we all are hooked already). 
   Stop and think about what would a new user want in a system that is
   different/better then what is offered to a new user of D/W/S7.  There
   have been many good suggestions made in the list so far, covering a wide
   range of topics but to my mind the part that has been missing is why a
   person with a computer would want to install linux.  Multitasking, who
   gives a rats patoot my computer does what I (note the I) want it to do,
   networking again who gives a big whoop I only have one computer who am I
   gonna network with.  Internet connectivity, heck windows does the
   internet a whole lot easier the linux (don't believe me just take a look
   at alt.os.linux and see how many are asking about getting connected to
   the internet, in particular ppp setup with modems.

Windows setting would not be as easy if providers did not provide
preconfigured software.  And Linux setting can be made easier with
EzPPP.  The problem is mail and news.

But you have a good point: we must think about what software must be
included in an end user distribution.  The GIMP is mandatory IMHO: it
will be stable before Seul will be ready.

   I guess what I am attempting to get at is why should I go from a known
   way of operating the computer I have to one that I don't know about and
   that carries the negativism of UNIX with it??

Would you choose to pay 200$ for a Windows software or 30$ for a whole
bunch of software including a superior equivalent to the windows one?

Of course piracy makes software cheap for Windows users so BSA is our
best ally: the more difficult they make piracy the better for Linux.

-- 
			Jean Francois Martinez

==================== The Linux.  Use the Linux, Luke! =======================

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