more, Ubiquity Slideshow for Ubuntu

[Dougie Richardson]

Hi,

2009/6/15 mac_v <drkvi-a at yahoo.com>:
> where is it? Do you mean the wiki guide? That is online documentation,
> There need to be something offline residing in the system.

In the documentation trunk, it was included on the live CD.

Its being rewritten as a new install guide which is a major team focus
for Karmic.  The people most involved in this initiative are at Woscon
at the moment so I'd expect more feedback towards the weekend.

> Most non-tech users dont want to read a lot of documentations, an
> Interactive slideshow , explaining/showing how things by using
> animations/short clips , with the most minimal number of words is the
> most effective.
>
> Uptil now linux has been more for hobbyists/techs/users with atleast
> minimal gadget awareness, but to reach out to the most non-tech
> users[especially elder populations] things need more UI and minimal words.

That's going to be a popular suggestion on a documentation mailing list!

If new users haven't the patience to read our help (which isn't
verbose), I can't see them doing more than skipping quickly through a
slide show.

I'd also suggest that the "elder population" are more inclined to read
a manual, its certainly been by experience.

> 1: This is why slideshow needs to be more user interaction driven rather
> than just a timed slideshow.Allowing the slideshow to continue at a
> timed speed is not ideal, not everyone in well versed with english/any
> other native language, some take time to read even their own native
> language either due to vision problems/literacy levels.

Wait, what? This doesn't address internationalisation and translation
but yes, timing wouldn't be the best option.

> To prevent this the slides need to progress only when the user clicks
> "next". i find that the latest version has this. pls maintain it.

[snip]

Dude, I'm on the documentation team.  I didn't create this
application, its separate to us.  Our input is likely to only be the
text.

> 3: the information regarding other systems is because , right now Ubuntu
> is not a major OS, not many people come to Ubuntu directly and use it as
> the first OS. Since there are quite a few who are not able to find their
> way[for example the freak "student" who didnt attend college and
> returned her ubuntu laptop since she didnt have powerpoint software!].
> there are a lot of such people, especially the non-tech users really
> struggle to even realize that Windows is just an OS and other linux
> programs will do the same workload as windows.
>
> The stuff about other OS needs to be minimal... like example: If the MY
> computer is windows is the same as Computer or Applications is same as
> programs. {might sound silly to us ,but people do ask!}.

[snip]

Ubuntu is a major operating system, despite Windows having larger numbers.

I'd also suggest that the basic idea is a good one but as it expands
into something as huge as is being proposed here, there is a lot of
crossover with other initiatives (documentation, training and learning
for example) that introduces duplication of effort and the potential
for causing more confusion than it solves.

-- 
Regards,

Dougie Richardson
http://www.lynxworks.eu/
dougierichardson at ubuntu.com