Re: SEUL: User Profiles (?)

[Micah Yoder <yoderm@geocities.com>]

> > If we are aiming at the end user I think we can assume that they
> > won't be wanting to program in C. Similarly, anyone who will be
> > writing C programs can probably handle a more complicated and
> > involved installation process.
> 
> Here I would have to diverge, one of the reasons that I first looked
> at linux was a little blurb I had seen about it being a development
> system for programmmers and as I was trying to learn/relearn/comprehend
> C programming at the time so I grabbed it and got hooked, all of this
> aside
> though, linux is being touted as the "FREE" system that includes C et
> al,
> which I think is the main drawing point for linux because who wants to
> pay
> upto $1000 just to see if they would like to program??

Right, and also I think c and c++ should be included because it's the
standard compiler for Linux.  If the user downloads something from the
Internet and it's in source form, he will need a compiler.

That brings up an idea - would there be a way to have a "compile
wizard"?  Just download a .tar.gz file and have it uncompress it, untar
it, and attempt to compile it with the makefile using reasonable
defaults?  It would work for some things but could be a huge mess with
others.

About databases, I again suggest that we include one, possibly
PostgreSQL.  It is a client/server system, so that would require that it
run as a server all the time, but I don't think it takes much memory
when it's not in use.  We could then build productivity applications
around it, such as an address/phone/appointment book.  Normally you
wouldn't need a client/server RDBMS for an address book, but this way we
could add features like the ability to share it over a network.  If we
want to get this into corporations, that could be a plus.

Let's think of other "wizard" possibilities.  Did any of you see the
most recent Linux Journal?  There's an article about how to get your PC
to dial into the Internet automatically at specific times.  If we could
automate that with a simple dialog box, that would be sweet.

Maybe I'm overestimating the use of an "end user" here, but end users
*do* seem to like powerful toys to play with.  They'd be telling their
friends "Hey, look what this Linux box can do!"

Too bad we couldn't get voice dictation like OS/2... :-)  Is there a
university working on such a project for the cause of free software?



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Micah K. Yoder            My computer is 100% Microsoft free!
yoderm@geocities.com      Support freedom in computing:  Use Linux!
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/2359
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