[Ubuntu-ch] Linux Install Event Experience

[Theo Schmidt]

Wolf Geldmacher schrieb:
> Hi all,
> 
> even though most of you are busy preparing for Karmic, I'd like to share
> 
> some experiences I've made doing Linux install events in the past two weeks.

Thank you for taking the time to share this valuable information, Wolf.


...
> All of the 22 responses I got were due to the emailings - none to the
> 
> advertisement in the newpaper. 


I also tried an advertisement in a local paper once, with zero results.


...
> The feedback I've received up to now can be summarized as follows: two
> 
> participants are quite happy with the dual-boot and use it regularly; 1 
> person has decided that Linux is not for him and has switched back to Win-XP 
> only. The main reasons given are essentially "too much choice", 

Is this just from this one person, or from more? Is it perhaps an excuse? After 
all, a person going into (say) a COOP supermarket may grumble about ten types of 
(say) corn flakes, but will simply pick one and not leave the store in protest. 
Unless of course the store is so huge that he can't find the corn flakes at all.

...
> - I've been using the Swiss-Remix DVD for this experiment. The amount of
> 
> software available on the DVD is staggering and quite a few "first-timers"
> 
> are just overwhelmed by the choices they suddenly have.

Yes, Swiss Remix is mainly for the curious who are not put off by "choice". I 
think it has more to do with mind-set than experience. I installed it for am 
elder lady once with icons for the programs she wanted on the desktop and she 
was thrilled. She asked me to deinstall it in the end because her grandson 
complained of not being able to play his usual ego-shooter games.


> Having this much software is nice for showing off (there is something for
> 
> everbody), but I got the impression that for actual use less would be more.
> 
> Your non-expert user finds it really hard to cope with a choice of 5 web-
> 
> browsers, 4 email clients, 3 different GUIs, ...

True, but...: most only ever see the default choices, i.e. Gnome, Firefox and 
(?). It depends more on what is in the task-bar or the desktop (or the default 
MIME-types) than in the starter menue. We could of course help beginners with 
custom desktops or profiles, but it's a lot of work giving rise to many 
discussions...



> - The average user is *really* upset by the mix-in of foreign language (i.e.
> 
> English) interfaces, documentation, even links to English support pages.

I can't see any way around this, as some programs aren't translated.


> I got the impression that this is an area that requires additional attention
> 
> and work - maybe up to the point of providing a tool that allows spontaneus
> 
> translation (e.g. you get an English dialog - you can right click on it,

Good option, if internet available.


...
> - Even more testing is necessary! Having cutting-edge software on the DVD is
> 
> nice, but stability is even more important. 

Yes. Unfortunately very few volunteers do test the images in time.



> KDE4 on 9.04 is especially weak in this area.

Can you give specific examples? I don't normally use KDE4 yet, but it seemed to 
work all right for me on Swiss Remix.


> - Don't change user interfaces without necessity. I know this is rather
> 
> controversial, as we as developers like to experiment and develop with
> 
> the new stuff and we are frequently changing/reimplementing/improving
> 
> things to make room for all the goodies that will come, but for Joe L. User
> 
> it is really hard to adapt to a new GUI, Amarok2 being a prominent point
> 
> in case - see also the ongoing discussion there. Sad as it may be, users
> 
> seem to like interfaces they know better than shiny new interfaces.

Other distributions seem to go to great lengths to try to achieve this. Whether 
Gnome, KDE3.5 or KDE4, it all looks the same. We could, of course, even imitate 
various flavours of Windows or MacOS rather faithfully but incompletely. I'm not 
saying this is good or bad, but it is certainly not the Ubuntu way. I guess we 
have no way of keeping consistent dialogues, as different programs use different 
toolkits.

Cheers, Theo