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

[bob at contact.omen.com.au]

In <37BDB2EF.C252783E at global.net.au>, on 20/Aug/99 
   at 07:56 PM,(+0000 GMT)
Christian <christian at global.net.au> said:

>You seem pretty confused here - or maybe that's just me.  Firstly you're
>saying that Debian shouldn't be used because in some cases the end-user
>will be trained to install the operating system and it would be too hard. 
>Then you're saying Slackware should be used because you're going to train
>them anyway and you don't want just another clueless end-user! 
>Installing Debian is at least one order of magnitude easier than
>compiling/installing .tar.gz software so if you're going to set a
>realistic training goal then installing Debian and basic system
>management (including package installation) would seem a sensible idea.

It's a bit confused as we're actually talking about half a dozen different
things at the same time here. _My_ vision (*)  of where CB is headed
includes a incremental path to the heights of geekdom for CB's clients
_but only for those who want to go there_ . Some clients are going to be
served by a simple 386 4Mb box that prints out letters for them, and
that's all they're interested in! Some clients are going to be benefited
by giving them a whole new source of income and then there's going to be
all the options in between that to cover as well. There needs to be
strategies in place to cover as many of those options as possible while
not drowning us in details, some of those details being who has knowledge
of what distribution. At the moment no one involved in CB has much
experience with Debian so it makes thinking of that as a solution
difficult, if you have experience with Debian and want to come along and
JOIN then we can make some better informed decisions but until that
happens we have to base those decisions on distributions we're happy in
supporting.  

(*  and my vision gets a run because I'm part of the CB team :)

>As for the training, I was under the impression from David's email (and
>from what I had heard in the past about CB) that the project was about
>giving people, who might otherwise not have the opportunity, access to
>very basic computer systems for little or no cost.  I didn't realise it
>was about training the next generation of system administrators.  I
>suspect that if the CB project is going to succeed then it needs to set
>realistic goals which, for my mind, do not include trying to undertake
>the mammoth task of training people (with little or no computer skills)
>semi-advanced concepts like compiling and installing their own
>applications and libraries virtually from scratch.

Shall I tell you the tail about teaching someone to fish and them not
being hungry ever again? I think there's a need to have the option to go
that far in teaching, not everyone may want, need or be able to reach that
high but CB _has_ to encourage otherwise what use has it been.

So will we expect to see you there on Tuesday evening ? Anyone else? 

>Regards,

>Christian.

-- 
/-- Bob Ogden  bob at contact.omen.com.au --------------/
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Does your system break in 133 days?