Windows FOSS on the Live CD -- the OOo2 question

[Aaron Whitehouse]

Christian Bjälevik wrote:

> Sure, but it's not Ubuntus default piece of software. Therefore I don't
> think we should ship it on the WinFOSS part of the CD either. The space
> is better used for other things... Like, for example, Ubuntu! :-)

I have thought about this since the thread began and I personally cannot
justify the inclusion of the Windows FOSS on the CD at all.

Perhaps it is my commercial background, but I think of the live CD as an
 Ubuntu salesperson. The job of the CD is to entice the user to switch
to your product. If I hired a salesperson to represent my product and
they spent 1/6 of their time (100MB of the CD) telling a potential
'customer' about ways to use products on a competitor's platform, they
wouldn't last very long. I think the difficulty that often arises in the
open source world is that people lose their focus and, in trying to
achieve too many aims, fail in all. I would like to see all Windows
users using FOSS but that is a different aim from wanting everyone to
use Ubuntu. As has been said before - the market for open source on
Windows is saturated, TheOpenCD and various other projects fill this niche.

To my mind the only justification for the precious space on the CD to be
wasted on Windows support would be to give instructions on how to get
the CD working (as they are already doing things incorrectly if they are
in Windows by the time they are looking at the content). I personally
have been using Ubuntu since Hoary and have not once viewed the CD in
Windows.

What the Live CD has always been missing, and which would be a much
better use for the space in my opinion, is some 'hand-holding'. I have
sold many people on Ubuntu and *never* have I just sat them at my
install and left them to it. What I will do is step them through some of
the 'cool' things; point at things on the screen and give them some
guidance. If a presenter was giving a talk to a room about Ubuntu, they
would explain about Ubuntu and talk them through reasons that it is
better for them than anything else. Why then is there nothing on the
Live CD to convince them when the user is so close to being converted
that they have gotten so far as to put one of our CDs in their computer?

I would be keen to see voice instructions, movies, demos, little bubble
things, at least *something* on the screen to get me excited when I
first get going. Maybe we should recruit a cute 'paper-clip-equivalent'
to sit in the corner and suggest things for you to try.

Most people reading this will like and promote FOSS on Windows, but
would prefer to see people in Ubuntu. Don't sell yourself short; Ubuntu
 is what we are selling when we are making a Live CD.

Aaron
--
http://www.whitehouse.org.nz

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