[plug] Food For Thought: CILUSIG?

John Knight anarchist_tomato at hotmail.com
Wed Jul 3 23:49:56 WST 2002


I already said it a few weeks ago, one eleven year old kid, computer 
illiterate, using RH 6.0, can shutdown via command line, it's bollocks that 
people should start on Windows, that's what screws us up in the first place. 
If u get a blank hard disk, set the bios to boot from the cd rom drive and 
start the installation process, any newbie can go next, next, next.... 
through the SuSE installation process (as a good example, not a SuSE 
member!) and have it installed. It's then just a case of teaching them the 
fiile hierarchy, which makes more sense anyway, and that files are stroed 
under a permission based filesystem, and it's useable.

tomato

>
>On Wed, 3 Jul 2002 17:19:48 +0800 Leon Brooks <leon at brooks.fdns.net> wrote:
>
> > Ran across this while blearily triaging my Inbox:
> >
> >     http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/07/01/166250.shtml?tid=19
> >
> > Perhaps by end of year when there are more PLUG members, we can consider 
>a
> > Computer Illiterate Linux Users SIG? (-: with a nicer name, BoC... :-) 
>It
> > might be a novel and useful way for go-gettem not-so-newbies to test out
> > their talents as well as an approach to a less techie membership.
> >
> > Speaking of which, when's the next installfest?
>
>This is the challenge to which Computer Angels rises, Leon. Think local.
>
>I spoke yesterday to a long time Unix developer and now Embedded Linux 
>person
>who wasn't across my involvement with Computer Angels. When I explained 
>what our
>goals were, his first incredulous question was "How could you get newbies 
>using
>Linux ??" Even some Linux people don't know what's now available.
>
>Some time ago I had a very Windows person tell me what we were doing was
>_dangerous_ and would be a setback for the users we were assisting. 
>"Windows
>will not dissappear in our lifetimes" he proclaimed .. I kid you not (and 
>was
>promptly crushed by a horse drawn locomotive .. no I made that up). I 
>picked up
>my diary and wrote his exact words in it to read back to him when I need 
>to. And
>I will. He's a bit older than me and I wish him good health but I don't 
>think he
>will need it :-)
>
>As I've said before, nothing will tickle me more than that our recipients 
>will
>be on the leading edge when we snap over the tipping point.
>
>"Hey, I might be a retiree in my 80's / on a healthcare card / seeking work 
>at
>the moment / studying for a better life but _I'm_an_early_adopter_ !!" :-)
>
>We will be keeping some metrics on hours per user for our recipeints 
>internet
>support needs (we don't expect the ISPs will ever need to hear from them). 
>I'd
>like to be in a position to show ISPs that it would be in their interests 
>to
>have users running a robust dialup or ADSL connected box that never has to 
>break
>again.
>
>And who needs .NET software licensing when it's an automatic (free) feature 
>of
>your relationship with your ISP ?
>
>apt-get install your-isp-defined-disto
>apt-get update (as a quietly throttled background task when you dial up)
>
>I really really see the potential of all this which is exactly why I'm at
>Computer Angels to see what is possible and, better still, help it happen.
>
>"From little things big things grow"
>
>Just me ranting on ?
>
>We'll see ;)
>
>And that, dear PLUGers, is why it's fun :)
>
>H
>
>Oh .. there are some people amounst you at PLUG who have come from Computer
>Angels. We all start somewhere.
>
>
>Um ................... be there  |
>                                  V
>--
>    Jan 22-25 2003           Linux.Conf.AU            http://linux.conf.au/
>		  The Australian Linux Technical Conference!
>
>    Are you a computer angel? (http://www.ca.asn.au)




Make lunch, not war.


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