[ubuntu-uk] I'm new

[Avi Greenbury]

Tony Pursell wrote:

> It does seem that Ubuntu is unprepared to meet the support needs of
> the type of general, every day user that it wants (I assume) to
> attract. If we were a commercial organisation, all the support
> workers would be trained and there would be a common approach.

Canonical, the commercial organisation, is configured so. I don't
think you'll ever have a provided-in-free-time sort of support
arrangement that matches up to the sorts of things that that the paid
for ones do in terms of maintaining a low level of technical
understanding - I'm generally of the opinion that a difficult answer
that might need research is better than no answer at all, and that's
what I'll provide if I've not got the time to explain the meaning. 

And sometimes you *need* some level of technical interference becasue,
well, that's what's being asked for by someone who needs to compile a
module for their audio chipset or whatever. In which case, IRC is not
the place to explain the hows and whys, it's a place to post a link to
where somebody has already published such.

> Maybe it is time Ubuntu thought a bit more about how support is given
> through the community. Perhaps even devise an on line training
> course. 

There is one:
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/training/course-types

> Looking at the Ubuntu support page, the first port of call given for
> support is Launchpad Answers, where I hang out giving support for
> Libre/OpenOffice.  I prefer it to IRC because I can give a more
> rounded and considered answer. 

I find Ubuntu Answers to have a horrendous UI. In my experience, most
searches for ubuntu-related problems turn up links to posts on
ubuntuforums.com, so I tend to assume that's the more, er, canonical
place for support. It's also got a navigable interface, which is nice. 

> are bound to get more of the 'sudo apt-get install whatnot' type
> replies which baffle the non-tech users.  

I don't think this is a reson to stop giving such answers. I think,
perhaps, we just need a page to explain all the 'simple' things that
the users might come across (like these instructions) that the visitors
can be linked to. Repeatedly re-explaining the basics of everything is
not something that's going to happen.

> Even in Launchpad you still get a lot of this type of answer or a
> quick link to a very technical forum post.  I even find the new Ask
> Ubuntu to be pitched at a high technical level. But, perhaps this is
> the way it seems as, like in many forums and IRC, all manner of
> issues are put into the same pot whereas Launchpad tries to separate
> out queries by package, and LO/OOo queries tend to be quite simple.

It's support provided by technical people in their spare time. It's
likely to be techincal because that's their default position, and
they're not trained to assume that everybody doesn't know what they do.


Rather than try to make all the answers easy to understand, I think
it'd be better to concoct some way to make it such that the askers feel
that they are allowed to (or should) ask for clarification. Or, perhaps
rather, make it really easy to find this clarification already extant.
If we just mandate that all the answers should be aimed at
non-technical users, we risk alienating the more technical people who
provide those answers.

-- 
Avi