[Cialug] Computer show?

[Theron Conrey]

The reality of this event needs to stay focused with the Installfest.  I 
agree that the "idea" of an installfest is getting antiquted however 
it's impurtant to note that "installing" ANY OS can be scary for 
computer users.  Having someone there to assist and ask questions is a 
great reliever.  Having said that, it's obvious that we're spending less 
time during an Installfest actually installing and more time talking.  
There's no reason that we can't have booths/tables available with 
openoffice and other free/open software available and be answering 
questions etc.  Those are the types of things that users may feel more 
comfortable installing on thier own, as opposed to an OS even IF it's 
really easy.
I encourage anyone who's thinking about helping to please remember that 
there's a InstallFest wiki out there and it'd be useful to get a feel 
for who's going to help....... http://www.cialug.org/ewiki/

Stuart Thiessen wrote:

> It may even be worth to take a slower step for those who haven't even 
> experimented with open source software and show them OpenOffice and 
> other software available for Windows even.  Once they are comfortable 
> with those tools, it isn't nearly as hard to move from Windows to 
> Linux, BSD, or even Mac OS X depending on the user.
>
> I have a Mac OS X laptop and  a SUSE Linux fileserver that I use 
> predominantly. I have an old Windows 98 desktop that I keep around for 
> those Windows apps that I use from time to time that do not have any 
> equivalent in Linux or Mac environments ... yet.
>
> I have managed to get people to consider OpenOffice much easier than 
> Linux, but once they have an office app and meet some of the other 
> everyday open source tools that do work well, then moving to Linux is 
> a less "scary" step.  Might tie in with the "tweak fest"
>
> Thanks,
>
> Stuart Thiessen
>
> On Jun 8, 2005, at 0:52, D. Joe Anderson wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
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