Over the last couple of days, due to some comments regarding the upcoming
WLUG installfest [1] and "Software Freedom Day" [2], the issue of WLUG and
new Linux users has come up again.
While I realise that everything I'm going to say has been said before,
hopefully any discussion that comes from this will explain a bit better
about how some people feel, or get people inspired to do something about it.
A lot of the people involved with the LUG are computing professionals, or
higher level University students in computing science. It has been said
that these people aren't new users, they don't have to do new things again
and to keep them interested, we can't offer installation meetings every
other month. It's not to say that these people don't want to help new
people - lots of them, myself included, reply to posts here, sit in #wlug on
IRC offering help. Yet people still don't think there's enough being done.
There's a faction of Linux users that like Linux because they hate
Microsoft. (Tip: if you use "M$", you're it!) Most of the aforementioned
"clever" group, while they might prefer Linux for various reasons (open
standards, open source, etc), don't hate Windows. There is a time and a
place for everything. Pushing Linux before its time will just cause people
to be aggrevated. As an example, if someone suggests running Linux to a
home user, they will inevitably field a whole heap of the same questions
over again; word documents, Flash. Questions that there exist easy answers
for if people are prepared to look.
(As an aside, people who deal with users every day who aren't prepared to
learn for themselves, get a bit annoyed with that class of people!)
Now, if you leave Linux to the people who find out about it themselves (or
push it in a non-confrontational way; say "Linux exists, learn about if you
want", and then help people when they have specific problems along the way,
I think you end up with less problems. This is the approach that several
people are espousing at the moment. Let people find Linux on their own
merits - we don't have to replace every Windows machine in the world, and we
certainly don't have to do it overnight. Then, if they have problems, we'll
help them. That way we're sure that they are prepared to learn for
themselves. No-one is paid to be involved with the LUG and some people put
a lot of time in, only to be discouraged by the attitude of people who
complain to other people, but not the LUG itself (so we have no idea how to
change).
We would love to see more new user based presentations. The general feeling
that the people who have recently been new users should be presenting them.
It's not tricky, and if you're worried about fielding questions you don't
know the answers to, rest assured there will be someone in the audience who
can help, or point to the wrong things. We don't want to alienate the
people who have done this all before, because then at the current rate there
will be no presentations at all.
Not everyone in the LUG is interested in holding an "installfest", for the
reasons above - Linux is not ready for everyone and we don't want to have to
field questions from people who aren't ready to ask them yet. The people
that are interested in helping, are. If you're interested, please shout
out.
Craig
[1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest
[2]
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/forum/viewtopic.php?forum=2&showtopic=159
for us
Have you created a swap partition? or left enough un-partioned disk space
to make one?
At 18:11 13/04/2004, you wrote:
>no, i selected mini installation it poped up the same message. it never
>warn me the disk space before that message.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: zcat [mailto:zcat(a)wired.net.nz]
> Sent: Tue 13/04/2004 12:11 p.m.
> To: Waikato Linux Users Group
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: [wlug] Re: problem with FC1 installation
>
>
>
> Gerwin van de Steeg wrote:
>
> >There is another possibility, if you selected the complete
> install of
> >FC1 then you will run out of disk space as it exceeds 5.4 GB
> >
> >
> >Gerwin
> >
> Doesn't it warn you first? Previous versions of Redhat tell you "you
> don't have enough space to install this" before even starting,
> I'm sure..
>
>
>
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>
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Fellow NZ_Luggites,
Wellylug (http://www.wellylug.org.nz) is pleased to announce we are
undergoing the annual ritual of the InstallFest. This year we have
chosen MayDay (1st May) as the day that people can make the choice to
add some freedom into their computing. We think MayDay is the ideal time
to rescue your computer.
Basically this email is to spread the good word. Anyone who needs a
penguin injection is welcome to join us at Silicon Systems on the 1st.
We're always keen for good volunteers, and I'm sure that the Aucklanders
amongst us need a reasonable excuse to get out of the traffic jam ;-)
Anyways - spread the word, and keep the heat turned up. Not long to go
until we form the Jedi Council ;-)
peace.
Jamie, on behalf of the WellyLug crew.
no, i selected mini installation it poped up the same message. it never warn me the disk space before that message.
-----Original Message-----
From: zcat [mailto:zcat(a)wired.net.nz]
Sent: Tue 13/04/2004 12:11 p.m.
To: Waikato Linux Users Group
Cc:
Subject: Re: [wlug] Re: problem with FC1 installation
Gerwin van de Steeg wrote:
>There is another possibility, if you selected the complete install of
>FC1 then you will run out of disk space as it exceeds 5.4 GB
>
>
>Gerwin
>
Doesn't it warn you first? Previous versions of Redhat tell you "you
don't have enough space to install this" before even starting, I'm sure..
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Someone unkindly hoisted this on me to get going!
It came with win95 on the disk and 2 pcmcia
modems .. us botics xejm3336 and a 3com device ..
Anyway .. I got the damn thing working under win 95 for internet stuff .. then he went and bought a usb printer
for which there was no win95 driver
Right I thought .. linux is the thing ...and installed
rh9.0 .. wiping out the win 95 partition...
well it seems to take all day to try loading open office
(64 M of memory) ..to the point of being useless
So I fell back to win 98 .. and have spent most of today trying to get this installed .. but the graphics drivers don't work .. the modem isn't properly recognised etc etc!!!! :<(((((
Has anyone experience of linux on one of these brutes
.. it has to read ms word docs ... do a bit of
graphing for illustrations and work on the internet ...
Thanks
Stephen
i have tried several times to install fodera core 1 on my laptop. i have 5G free disk space allocated for FC1 but once it's started copying files onto the disk a error msg pop up says 'a problem occured probably because you don't have enough disk space'.
does anyone know what the problem is?
regards
beau
Microsoft still offer paid support for NT.
Must of the current NT installs I have seen are acting as NAS, DNS and in a
few file / print servers.
It is installed on Compaq or HP server platforms.
At 13:43 6/04/2004, you wrote:
> > Once again "updating for the sake of updating" applies, sure there some
> > genuine new stuff that offer something that is not just a fresh paint
> > job. But can the same be said for the SERVER environment.
> >
> > Since you mentioned mickysoft, allot of people are still running NT3.5 &
> > NT4 on there OLD pentium platforms, as a server, and in same cases as a
> > work station, and shock horror mickysoft still support them.
>
>Oh Really?
>http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx
>
>And reed the "see note" bit.
>
>Please stop with the unfounded guesswork.
>
> > Well, it is true for the end user, but I was talking about servers...
>
>OK, if you want to take that approach...
>Name brand server hardware is supplied by most vendors with an expected
>lifetime of 3 years. Maybe 5 tops. After that, you expect a high level
>of hardware failures. From that angle alone, I'd not be bothering with
>old hardware in a server environment.
>
>Are you for real, or are you trolling?
>If the latter, please stop, or feel free to join #wlug, where we are eager
>and waiting to tear you a new one! :)
>
>
>--
>Greig McGill
>
>
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This sounds Cat in the Hat
> Linux is linux. It doesn't matter how its branded. It's still
> the same
> thing. Linux *will* run on an embedded 386 processor, and it
> *will* run....
If anyone has any useful or interesting GNOME 'hacks', please pass them
on. If you do email Marsee directly, make sure you mention you're a WLUG
member (probably best to spell that out, there's several WLUG's in the
world)...
Or email a committee member and we'll submit on your behalf.
Feel free to discuss this on the mailing list if you want to bounce
ideas around.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [wlug-committee] O'Reilly Looking for GNOME Hacks
Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 14:47:14 -0700
From: Marsee Henon <marsee(a)oreilly.com>
Reply-To: WLUG Committee Mailing List <wlug-committee(a)list.waikato.ac.nz>
To: wlug-committee(a)list.waikato.ac.nz
Hi Linux UG Leader,
We're looking for GNOME hacks for our upcoming book, "Linux Desktop
Hacks." We already have half of the book filled with KDE hacks, but no
GNOME hacks! Do you know of any GNOME Hackers who could help us out?
Please forward this email along.
If you have a hack to share, please send 'em our way by having your
members email me (marsee(a)oreilly.com) with "GNOME hacks" in the subject
line. Don't let KDE hacks take over this book!
As thanks for sharing, we'll make sure to get copies of "Linux Desktop
Hacks" sent to your group shortly after publication.
--Marsee
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