[clug] Wanna hold an installfest?

[Martin Schwenke]

>>>>> "George" == George Selwyn Bills <u2564793 at anu.edu.au> writes:

    >> "please backup your system before bringing it, cause we might
    >> delete stuff accidentally"

    George> You might also want to give a little bit of info on what
    George> learning /installing a new OS entails so that you lessen
    George> the "culture shock" and also so that people wont assume
    George> "might delete stuff accidentaly" means "don't know what
    George> they're doing."  Not so scary a warning that people balk
    George> with fear, but also you want to avoid anyone who may not
    George> realise that Linux "wont let them do MS Office."  Having a
    George> few blank CD's on hand at low prices to backup a persons
    George> documents with could be good too.
    George> (Not mp3s / videos etecetera as that would be a waste of
    George> your time - just stuff like emails / letters, personal
    George> stuff.)

I suggest you/we don't go there:

* As soon as you start talking about helping people back things up it
  sounds like you're willing to take some responsibility.

* You're going to ask someone who is excited/scared about having a
  stranger do major things to their machine to identify all of the
  things on their disk that are important to them?  Or are you going
  to do that identification for them?  :-)

* What happens if you burn a coaster?

I think that people should be told:

  NO WARRANTY!

  Backup any important data on your system before you bring it to the
  installfest.  You should expect to lose all data on your hard disk,
  although we will do our best to avoid this extremely rare
  occurrence.

Better to issue a scary warning and have some people balk than:

* Damage Linux's reputation by making people feel comfortable and then
  letting Linux be the bogeyman that destroys systems.

* Having people hunt you down and throw bricks through your windows
  [sic :-]. 

We live in scary times...

peace & happiness,
martin