more, Ubiquity Slideshow for Ubuntu

[H S]

I'm concerned that if not given proper thought and consideration, the
slideshow will just become some useless eyecandy that flashes across the
screen for a few seconds, greeted by the user with a sarcastic "Oh, isn't
that cute!", only to be totally forgotten seconds later.

The slideshow can certainly become this, but I think it could become
something much more.  Instead of playing copycat to that famous OS, we can
and should innovate.

I'm also thinking of the reviews that will come out about Karmic, and what
these reviewers will write on their blogs.


What I'd instead like to see from the Ubiquity slideshow is:


* the ability to view it any time from the 'normal' desktop, possibly
integrated into the existing help pages..  That way it's not about killing
time during the install, but about providing the user (and especially new
user) with an ongoing resource that they can turn to, to learn more about
there system.

* the ability to pause the slideshow and even go backwards and forwards.
That way I can stop, read,  browse, and take note of something that
interests me.

*the ability to bookmark a specific slide, so I can go back to it later ( I
know this might be a little difficult to implement from within ubiquity, but
it need not be.  Perhaps a little text file can be written to some part of
the system (heck, even /boot might be fine), and then the system will check
at startup if that file exists, and if so, apply those bookmarks to the
default user's slideshow.)

* I also think the 'slides' in the slideshow are too small to do any good at
conveying anything useful to the user.  Ideally, the slideshow is about
helping the user to better know their system, is it not?  Some people
require more 'handholding' than others.  Why not give it to them?  When
describing some menu entry or feature, show them (in great detail), which
menu entry they need to navigate to, and which selections they need to
click, and which websites they can turn to for additional help and
resources.  If we are not doing this, IMHO, we are just bombarding them with
useless - or worse, confusing - information,  This slideshow will be one of
the first impressions new users have of Ubuntu.  I think we owe it to all
the people who work on Ubuntu to make this a good first impression.  The
slideshow needs to be the best 'Walmart-greeter' -like thing we can build.
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