[clug] Re: Software Feedom Day

[Ian Bardsley]

G'Day fellow freedom fighters

I enjoyed my visit to the Software Freedom Day table on Saturday and 
echo the accolades of others to the guys who organised and participated.

I thought I would just share an observation or two.

I spoke at length to 8 people during my time on the stand.  All of these 
had tried Linux in various flavours and all had failed to pursue open 
source software because of:

a.  Problems with hardware not working
b.  Difficulty with understanding Partitioning, File Structure and File 
Navigation.
c.  Accessing software that isn't installed by default when the chosen 
distro is installed.

It's interesting that my early ventures into Linux were hampered by the 
same issues.  The only difference between me and these people is that 
Linux became a challenge and I took the time to ferret out solutions 
where others gave up or put the issues in the "Too Hard Basket".  An 
example of this, in Ubuntu, File Manager (Nautilus) is not place in the 
menus by default so at first glance there appears to be no way of 
looking at the files on the computer in the GUI.  That in it's self is 
enough to make a new user give up.  It must be remembered that every PC 
user is looking for "My Computer" or "Windows Explorer" to get them 
where they want to be.

Perhaps a worthwhile project for the active Linux community in the ACT 
region over the next 12 months would be to develop a "How to make Linux 
work on your computer" tutorial written in simple language for the 
average home user and based on a single distro.

A debate on this would be interesting.

Have a great week


Ian Bardsley