Indy should aim at desktop and home users

[SteelHead <brk@slip.net>]

I am borrowing from JFM, but I agree, Indy should aim at desktop and
home users.

I am new to this list, but not to Linux.  I have fought through many
heartaches, I installed from Slackware in 1994, went back to Windows and
OS/2, then tried Slackware gain, then to OS/2 Warp, then Win95, then
back to Slackware, Red Hat, Debian, and back to Windows 9.x and NT.

I cut my teeth on a Commodore PET, used a TRS-80 in one round in
college, built computers from etched boards and discreet components in
the early 80's and learned to love CP/M.  I finally broke down  and
bought my first PC in 1987 for $3,000.  I got screwed.  It came with
MS-Dos, and a color monitor.  In 1988, I cried when I learned it would
not run the UNIX from Cal Poly.   I finally got a 386 box in 1992, and
started hunting for a cheap copy of SCO to practice on.  After being
introduced to a local Ham and Computer swap meet in 1994, I was in
heaven.  I was told about Linux, told what to get, and the basics of
installing it.  All I wanted was a computer that could do serious stuff,
without crashing.  (I tossed out my first copy of Win95 the day after I
bought it because it crashed continually.)

Over the next two years I had a hate relationship with Linux.  I could
install it, but I could not get it to work for me doing the things I
wanted and needed.  The big thing missing was a Mentor.  I started using
the "young" web in 1991, but did not catch on to the beauty of it till
1994.  I must confess to some skill, but Linux help was not in my area
of exploration.  In 1996 I discovered this thing called Red Hat, but it
was still not there.  I floated between OS/2 and Windows, playing with
Linux on the side, but not yet serious.

This week, after crashing Windows for the 5th time in one day while
working on a website, I tossed it out of the office.

I now find myself looking for the final pieces to make myself fully
functional on a Linux box.  I have access to the web and lots of cool
buds to help me when there is a problem. Most people don't have these
cool bus, most people will flounder, and toss Linux in the trash,
forever.  We need to see the issue from the eyes of a lost person.

What I see for Indy is cross platform, rh/slack/debian etc., one piece
at a time.  I see it useful as a SMALL distro, with the basics a lone
user needs to be functional.  I see it is needed as an "add-on" in a
loose sense... A standard stable distro is re-released with Indy as the
actual installer, adding those stabilizing factors discussed here.  The
result is something useful to the common user.

How to get there is kind beyond me, I make things work, I do not code. 
Things may change, But not his week.

my 2 pfennig

Bill

BTW, Finding the list archives is a real pisser, how about a link from
the front page to the archives?