Re: Software section ideas

[EAMorical@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/19/98 1:50:36 AM EST, arma@mit.edu writes:

> Aiee. I can't believe I'm still on Wednesday's mail. I'll try to make this
> brief.
 
> In message <36008312.3B8D5248@po-box.mcgill.ca>, pstong1@po->box.mcgill.ca
writes:
>>Hi again,
>>     Short of writing a bunch of surveys about what software features
>>are needed for a given type of program (which may well be a worthwhile
>>task, but probably doesn't belong as part of an OS survey :), what sort
>>of information could we glean from the survey to pass on to the
>>community to help them make their labours more readily visible?
>>     Some things have already been done to this end. There's the linux
>>software map, Independance (www.independance.seul.org) and a few other
>>places. Here are a few questions to try to tease out how folks find out
>>about software and what they need to do - something we've been working
>>on indirectly up 'till now. What other questions do we need?
>>
>>Where do you normally find out about software?
>> - Word of mouth
>> - Web sites
>> - Store displays
>> - Sales advice
>> - Television advertising
>>[Any others? This could help us get at how folks find out about software
>>in the first place]
 
>good question.
 
>mailing lists (eg threepoint's lists)? newsgroups (eg cola)? this would
>be a 'check all that apply', i suppose.

I looked at the 'linux voting site' Roger mentioned:
http://www.acorn.net/cgi-bin/linuxvote.cgi
The results are quite interesting. I was surprised by some of them.
They have a question something like 'Where did you learn about Linux'.
Over 50% have selected Friend.
 
>>Which of the following web sites have you visited in the last three
>>months?
>> - Apple.com
>> - Linux software map
>> - Microsoft.com
>> - None of the above
>>[Who else should be here?]
 
>freshmeat, slashdot? intel? who's our target audience, what are we trying
>to figure out? I've been to every one of these sites in the past three
>months. I can go to the moon and back in three months. Is that a long time?

Perhaps the question should be reworded as follows:
Which of the following web sites do you frequent.

Just to get some discussion on an important issue. Lets see if I've got it
figured out.
Who is our target audience? - the end user
What are we trying to figure out? - what does SEUL have to do to make
Linux usable by the end user
Any thoughts,comments?
 
>>What would you say the single most important task you use your computer
>>for:
>> - Word processing
>> - Spreadsheets
>> - Databases
>> - Email
>> - Web browsing
>> - Programming
>> - CAD
>>[What else?]
 
>er, my instinct says we're already asking this elsewhere, in the
>user-type-categories and maybe other places too.

Perhaps the question should be reworded as follows:
Which of the following tasks do you use your computer for
This needs to be discussed also. A number of posts have something to
say on this issue. We need to pull it all together.

Before I forget. Thanks Doug, for your suggestion on Linux speech
recognition software. Unfortunately, I need something in a class with
ViaVoice, NaturallySpeaking or better. If anyone knows anything about
a current speech recgnition effort for Linux, I would appreciate knowing.

 
>--Roger
 
Bob