Perhaps it would be wise to open #Ubuntu-LTS?

[Jo-Erlend Schinstad]

On 14 May 2010 19:28, Guntbert Reiter <guntbert at gmx.at> wrote:

> I have to say that LTS users (after several years with their system) won't need help in "day to day
> use" - what they will need is indeed troubleshooting and here we should not split up the work force
> of helpers.

I don't understand. Why do you think these people won't need help
using Ubuntu, like other people does? Do you think LTS users are the
more advanced ones? I think the opposite will be true. Specially as
LTS releases will be the ones that are preinstalled on new computers.
I think people who buy computers with Ubuntu preinstalled, will want
to adjust audio settings, perhaps configure which applications to run
automatically at login, etc. These are fairly basic use cases, aren't
they? Well, I couldn't tell you how to do that in Hardy over the
phone, for instance. I would have to look it up. Since I don't have a
computer with Hardy on it, if you asked me on IRC, I just wouldn't
respond. Then some other guy would probably say something like: «Well,
I don't remember how that was done in your ancient version, but in
more current versions of Ubuntu, you do it this way.» In any case, I
think the bleeding edge users will have much more use for help
troubleshooting.

You say LTS users, after years with their system, won't require any
help. Well, a user going from Karmic to Lucid will have much less use
for help than a user coming from Hardy, don't you think? But I don't
understand why you're focusing on the people who _doesn't_ need help.
Perhaps you're thinking that in a year from now, people won't install
Lucid. I think you're wrong. I certainly hope you're wrong. I hope
we'll get lots of new users during Lucids lifetime, and I hope most of
them start with an LTS install. Wouldn't it be nice if we could
provide long-term IRC support of LTS releases?

And as I've written several times, I'm not looking to split the
community in any way. I don't want people to have to choose between
#ubuntu and the more specialized #ubuntu-lts. If you want to
troubleshoot apt, which hasn't changed much lately, then it makes
sense to ask that question in #ubuntu. If you want to know how to use
MeMenu to send messages to Twitter two years from now, I'm sure hardly
anyone in #ubuntu will be able to tell you. The people in #Ubuntu-LTS
will use that on a day to day basis, and can easily provide an answer.
What about Firefox... Do you think you'll remember the specifics of
that, two years from now?

Consolidating knowledge should be a good thing. I don't understand why
you're opposed to it.

Jo-Erlend Schinstad