[Cialug] Computer show?

[D. Joe Anderson]

On Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 01:10:28PM -0500, David Champion wrote:
> FYI... we *have* done successful Installfests in the pasts, so it's not 
> like we (collectively) have no idea how to do this. The most recent 
> event was a flop, mostly due to a lack of planning & promotion.

You know, I wonder if maybe Installfests anymore aren't a little
too . . . turn of the century?  What with better installers,
pre-loaded system availability from vendors, commercial distros,
live CDs, better hardware detection, etc. a lot of the basic
gruntwork of the basic getting-started install has fallen off.

> One area I would like to see is a "Tweakfest" where we can have people 
> bring in their existing Linux system and have us help them with issues 
> they may be having, getting them updated and such. I think there are a 
> lot of casual Linux users out there who are past the stage of needing 
> help with installation, but aren't fully comfortable with some advanced 
> configuration.

Aha.  I think this is a ripe area.  This and maybe the "demo
day" targets: People who have either never heard of this stuff,
or who have no idea what it means, or what it looks like
running, or why anyone would possibly want to use it.  Having
stuff from The Open CD running as a demo might provide a bridge
for bringing some of these folks over.  At the very least, it
helps cultivate the ground, so to speak: Even if these people
themselves don't switch, it can drain some of the strangeness of
the unfamiliar.  So when a friend or family member of theirs
gives it a try, they can be more accepting/understanding or
perhaps even more supportive.

I swear, it was the weirdest thing:  This girl working at Sam's
Club I saw the other day had a little notebook with Tux on it. 
Just because she thought he was cute, I guess.  Downloaded it,
printed it off, pasted it onto the notebook.   Knew that he was
associated with something she initally pronounced link "links". 
Had to just smile and nod, mostly, and suppress the urge to go
off about how "links" is an ncurses web browser, or did she mean
"lynx" the other, older ncurses web browser, or yadda yadda
yadda.  :-)

-- 
D. Joe Anderson         http://www.etrumeus.com/~deejoe
"DRM [...] is to copyright law as a machine gun on                                          
a motion detector is to real estate law"  -- Don Marti