Fw: [clug] beginners path

[jm]

David Tulloh wrote:
> jm wrote:
>> This raises an interesting thought:
>>
>> Would anyone be will to give an introductory talk on how useful Linux 
>> is in getting everyday tasks done, aimed at the beginners level, ...
>
> The problem I tend to see with 'everyday task' talks is that people's 
> everyday tasks vary so wildly.

Yes, I was being vague. In part to leave it an open question.
> My housemate's home tasks basically just involve a browser.
> My parents write a few documents and send a lot of emails.
> My sister uses it for music, browser based games, talking to friends 
> and university work.
> My daily usage includes email, browsing, writing documents, writing 
> scripts and tracking my todo list.
> Other people want to record or play movies, do things with photos, IRC 
> etc.
>
>
> I feel if you try to cover it all it's very superficial and just 
> confuses people.  To get any depth you need to define a small subset 
> of tasks and a work or home environment.  Browser, email and word 
> style documents are probably the common ground but they get fairly 
> trivial if you use the Mozilla suite on Windows to start with.
>
It wouldn't have to be in-depth, the talk would be forcused on 
awareness. Saying to the audience, "See Linux isn't this strange beast 
you've been lead to believe. You already know more about it than you 
think if you already use these common applications. And, here's some 
others that you may not be aware of. Yes, it's not MS Windows or Mac OS 
X. It does have some differences and we're here to help you with those 
differences."

It's educating from the point of view of anti-FUD, and reducing the 
barrier to entry. Not to actually teach them anything in-depth, just to 
let them know that Linux exists and can do real work for them and a real 
alternative.  As you point out cover in-depth for everybody would be 
impossible.

Jeff.