about empathy as the default IM application

[Andrew Sayers]

As promised, this reply will concentrate on working around problems 
faced by migraters by patching migration-assistant.  I would be willing 
to put programming time into the ideas suggested here.

As I stated in another post, the best Linux migration strategy involves 
two stages: new apps/same OS, then new OS/same apps.  The migration 
assistant automatically configures a few applications based on your old 
settings, which can be extremely useful to migraters.  I propose we get 
migration-assistant to install (equivalents of) the user's old applications.

Installing the user's old apps would give them a personalised 
experience, and would help document the "what's the Linux equivalent of 
application X?" issue.  Because the experience would be tailored to the 
specific user, there's no concern about degrading everyone else's 
experience for the sake of some migraters.

This would mean that migraters don't get the "standard" Ubuntu 
experience out of the box.  But that strikes me as a valid choice for a 
user to make.

Obviously, Pidgin would be an application that should be installed. 
Other applications I've recently seen a need for include Skype, GMail 
notifier, and whatever the current equivalent of xmms is.

As I mentioned in another message, this wouldn't do anything for 
migraters that get Ubuntu with a new PC.  I personally doubt that many 
people move to Linux with no dual booting period in between, but I would 
be willing to look at providing a similar facility by adapting 
migration-assistant to zip up some files under Windows, then unzip them 
under Linux.

	- Andrew