Re: pub-whylinux

[Erik Walthinsen <omega@omegacs.net>]

> My situation is the starving computer science student.  I know there are
> lots of things I can do with my computer, I just don't have the money to buy
> all the MS geegaws, and even if I would I am not convinced they would run
> acceptably on my hardware (P5-133, 32MB RAM).  Development under Win95 is a
> spectre used to frighten naughty children in some parts of this country <g>.
In some areas it can induce heart attacks and strokes.  I'm convinced that 
Reno could take on Microsoft the same way they did the tobacco companies... :)

> I'm on the prairie in Minnesota...but even here in fairly rural Minnesota, I
> have a choice of no less than four (4) Internet Service Providers (not
> counting the big national outfits like AOL, CompuServe, MSN, or whatever).
> I think most people (including Aunt Eulalia who follows) will at least want
> some kind of email access, and maybe a browser.
It can probably be assumed these days that there is no place on earth where 
you can't get to the Internet one way or another.  What RedHat needs to 
realized (see redhat.com for recent archives of redhat-devel) is that the 
Internet rarely comes in the form of a piece of coax or UTP.  It's most 
commonly found in silver-satin phone cable.

> My grandmother is in a situation quite similar to this: she's 85, never used
> a computer before but is quite familiar with typewriters etc.  (She doesn't
> have a green parrot; it's a cockatiel.)  She's using a 386-33 running DOS
> and WordPerfect 5.1.  It does everything she needs it to do and it works.
This is a perfect market for Linux.  Not only can we make it easier for her 
to use the system in general (no more 'cd \wp51;wp'), but provide features 
and flexibility that DOS can't.  If it's done carefully enough, she may not 
notice much functional difference, though she'd certainly notice the change 
it how the machine looks.

> >In  fact, aunt Eulalia could migrate to SEUL if she puts a CD on the
> >CDROM and clicks on 'Install' and  can click again on the Excel like
> >icon.   SEUL  recognized  all   the   components   of   the   'puter
> >automatically.   If  she  had  a MODEM, it installed all drivers and
> >selected proggies for email,  chat,  ftp  etc.  Even a wordprocessor
> >and some other utilities which show  up  as  links  (icons)  on  the
> >desktop  which  the  SEUL  guys  had the good taste to choose.  This
> >could sound weird  but  it  imposes  the  greatest tech challenge to
> >'our' coders.  If a 7-8 years old child or aunt Eulalia can  install
> >SEUL, it will hit the entire world.
Precisely.  This is why Linux/SEUL has the opportunity to wrest the control 
of the OS market from Micro$oft.

> Another great target audience consists of people like my father.  He is
> fairly proficient with word processors, email, and web browsing, but he
> tends to get panicky when disk errors occur.  I honestly don't think he'd be
> able to tell the difference if SEUL came up with a nice desktop and some of
> the necessary apps.
My dad is roughly like that, though my mom would have a problem with a change 
in interface.  Lots of people are set up so that they memorize how to operate 
systems by visual cues, i.e. the Start button.  If that changes, they have to 
relearn everything.  Lots of computer users are like this... they don't want 
to learn what an icon or menu is or what it does, they just want to know where
to move the mouse and click.  Unfortunately, this is nothing we can really do 
anything about without providing a look-alike interface to Mac and doze, and 
so on.  What we can do is build a walkthrough tutor that helps people 
actually understand what it is their doing besides just clicking here and 
there as they were told to in the training class.

> 1)  Help is not obvious.  Some man pages are better than others, but if what
> one wants is a scandisk like utility, who would think to check under
> "fsck(1)" (or whatever section it's in).  Most of the documentation included
> in linux packages is gzipped, and takes real work to find.  I saw some stuff
> on meta-help which I find very encouraging.  More Linux programs need to use
> the popup "tooltips" that Windows applications use.
We have a help browser, almost ready for public alpha, that will help 
tremendously.  We haven't hammered out all the issues, but I think we can do 
a good job with helping people out...  Did you see my mail to seul-project, 
and Paul's reply?

> 2)  Hardware does not work automatically, especially ISA PnP, which most
> modems and soundcards are these days.  Getting the modem set up is only part
> of the fun in Linux, since there a number of text configuration files that
> need to be edited as well:  /etc/hosts, ppp scripts, etc etc etc.  Some of
> these problems are unavoidable, but more could be done.  I would like a nice
> X frontend (or perhaps curses, or both) to isapnp to figure out what the
> heck is going on with my boards.
RedHat 5.0 helps a lot with this, but I still get the impression that PnP is 
pretty much ignored...  As far as setting up PPP, that will have to be done 
in an almost AI manner, possibly inside the help system mentioned above.  I 
have ideas on how to do that...  As far as a frontend to stuff like isapnp, 
that would go against the desire for allowing Aunt Eulalia to install the 
system.  If something breaks, I want the system to fix itself.  Granted, this 
is a very non-trivial task, but it can be done, and it can be done better 
than doze.

> 3)  I would like to see some more tutorials in the development packages, and
> make those more obvious.  Want to learn Java?  Get Linux.  What next?  Same
> with C++, SQL, PERL, and any of a dozen others.  It's easy to start getting
> peeved when you realize you can get the OS for $2, but need to shell out
> $100 for books to learn how to use it.
Hehehe... yeah, that's an issue.  I have a feeling, though, that the docs are 
all there, but their in funky formats, like info, which is almost as hard to 
navigate as vi without working cursor keys.  Given a single front-end to the 
help documentation, decent glue, proper searching, and tutorials, I think we 
can go a long way towards solving that problem.  But then publishers would 
boycott us... :)

     Erik Walthinsen <omega@seul.org> - SEUL Project system architect
        __
       /  \                SEUL: Simple End-User Linux -
      |    | M E G A            Creating a Linux distribution
      _\  /_                         for the home or office user


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