[plug] ComputerBank meeting Tues 24th 7:45pm

[bob at contact.omen.com.au]

In <Pine.LNX.4.10.9908191312500.20928-100000 at linux.spice.net.au>, on
19/Aug/99 
   at 01:29 PM,((WST) GMT)
Gary Allpike <spice at spice.net.au> said:


>Bob,

>Do you think that people that dont know how to use a mouse would know how
>to install RedHat or even Windows ???

We hope to be training them to the point where they can :). 

>In MY opinion, Debian is *very* easy to install, answer a few questions,
>hit enter a couple of times and it is done.  The biggest problem with
>people installing Debian is that people dont take 2 minutes to read the
>documentation.  How many people that say "Debian is hard to install" have
>actually ever stopped and read the screen of instructions that appears
>when you start dselect ?

I am probably the least qualified of CB'ers  to be having this discussion
but it appears to be down to me as none of the others have email access to
the PLUG list at the moment (due to some snafu with their SMTP config).
However... I would like to see debians install before I comment any
further on the matter but it sounds from what you're saying that the
difficulty involved in installing it is much inflated.

>However, given that the machines will be provided with the OS already
>installed, I dont see that this is an issue.

Ah, but in some cases the OS will be being installed by the newby as part
of training and we were hoping to have some consistency between what we
teach and what the newby gets to use on their machine at home. 

>The ongoing maintenance of debian is very much easier than any other
>distribution in my experience. The apt-get method of downloading and
>installing packages couldnt be any easier.  (Once again, since we will be
>providing the machines pre-installed and configured this would also be
>pre-configured.)

As above.

>To install slackware would be complete insanity in my opinion.  It would
>have to be the hardest to install, and the most difficult to maintain by
>a very long way - on top of which, even the latest version is still very
>much libc5 based - which is certainly going to cause problems with almost
>everything now being compiled against glibc2.

Even on a 386 with 4Mb ram? It was my understanding that Slackware was the
distro of choice in this situation. Is Debian capable of being pared down
to that ?

>The other issue of course is support.  Come into #linuxaus on
>irc.linux.org.au and ask for assistance on RedHat - you're likely to draw
>a stoney silence, whereas a debian related question is going to get you
>numerous answers.  At the time of writing this email, the #debian channel
>has 98 people in it, #redhat has 11 .....  Then there is also support
>from savvy people such as myself, Christain and Matt.  I stand by my
>previous statement (right, wrong or otherwise) that I wont get involved
>with  installing RedHat or Slackware - yet I feel very sure that I could
>make a very valuable contribution.

This is probably your most telling point. Ongoing support for the newbys
will be a big issue and the broader the base we can provide there the less
strain CB is going to feel in keeping things chugging along. We hope to
have PLUGians support on our side too :). 

There are a variety of aims that CB is targeting ranging from providing
the ability to draft and print simple correspondence ( ie joe and a
dotmatrix printer) through to training up to a point where economic gain
can be had ( ie to basic admin standard). No one solution is going to be
sufficient to our needs to do all that so we have to make some choices as
to what we can deal with in the way of variety without drowning in those
choices :). We need thoughts that take the variety of needs into
consideration. Please keep in mind that some of CB's "clients" are not
going to be the most confident or brightest  or in fact physically able
yet we also intend to take these people and stretch them to their limits (
and uncover a few stars along the way :), we are dealing with the widest
range of humanity imaginable and we'll need to be pretty nimble to cover
all that so that means limiting our choices now so that we have the
resources to do what we intend (The advanced stuff can grow as and when). 

>regards

>Gary Allpike

Thanks for the spirited discussion :).


-- 
/-- Bob Ogden  bob at contact.omen.com.au --------------/
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Does your system break in 134 days?