What are we doing wrong?

[Matthew East]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 7:37 PM, Kyle Nitzsche
<kyle.nitzsche at canonical.com> wrote:
> I think such a "Getting Started" article is perfectly applicable to Ubuntu:
> * overcoming any fear factor of a new OS
> * enabling quick user success for doing a very few essential/first things
> * pointing/linking to other help/web pages/wiki/forums, etc.

{snip}

> Contents might be:
> * welcome to Ubuntu!
> * connecting to the internet (simple case: that is: point to the network
> manager icon)
> * getting around the desktop (where are applications, system stuff)
> * which apps?
> * adding apps
> * updating software
> * getting more info/help

I think probably these are goals that would be well suited to the "New
to Ubuntu" article that we include in our documentation. I agree with
you that the article in its current state doesn't really serve much
purpose and is more likely to be scary to a new user than helpful.
This might be a way to introduce some more basic topics, while linking
to other areas of the docs too.

If then we are interested in loading such an article on first login,
then it could be done simply by calling "yelp ghelp:newtoubuntu". As
to whether we do that or not, I think that we should discuss it with
the desktop/usability team as there are clearly some competing
arguments on both sides.

-- 
Matthew East
http://www.mdke.org
gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF