[ubuntu-uk] Introducing Ubuntu & Unity to new people

[Grant Phillips-Sewell]

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:44:56 +0000
Alan Pope wrote:

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> Lets suppose you're in a relaxed location, your home or business
> maybe, and a distant family member, friend or co-worker (someone you
> know but not very well) says "Hey, what's that on your computer?".
> 
> Assume you only have a short while to demo Ubuntu to them - maybe 5 to
> 10 minutes - you don't want to spend all day boring them and you don't
> want to eat up your/their family/work time.
> 
> Leaving aside the explanation of what Free Software is, and what the
> Ubuntu project does, but focussing for now on "What it does and how
> it's a cool, useful, productive tool", what would you show them? I am
> of course assuming Ubuntu and Unity here :)
> 
> Here's a few things I'd consider showing them.
> 
> * Dash/Launcher - showing how I search for and start apps, and how I
> switch between applications and files
> * Default apps - show that it comes with office, IM, graphics, CD/DVD
> burner, email etc pre-installed
> * Software centre - how I can find apps, read reviews and install new
> stuff
> 
> What about you? What would you show and tell?
> 
> Cheers,
> - -- 
> Alan Pope

Definitely show them the Software Centre. In days gone by, it was quite
hard to get people to identify that "you don't download a setup.exe for
each application"... the idea of a central repository (or more) was
pretty much alien and could become a bit of a stumbling block.

With the iPod/Pad/Phone and Android, and to a lesser extent their
brethren on the Mac (does Windows have this yet?), people seem to have
got their heads around it a bit better... for mobile devices, but it
still seems to be somewhat alien for them on "the desktop". Thankfully,
though, the understanding is there now, so the Software Centre should
really make them go "Wow... this is so much better than how I used to
do it on ______ (enter your own platform)".

Grant.