My first post to our groups mailing list

Mon Mar 12 17:20:53 GMT 2007

As far as meeting up goes, it is rather difficult being spread out so far,
its true. But the LoCo team (and Jono, specifically) sort of "forbids" for a
lack of better term, smaller teams than state-level except in incredibly
large situations (ie Ubuntu-Chicago). Once the teams are large enough and
established, they do welcome sub-teams within the greater state level teams
as a way to promote actual meeting and cooperation in smaller sectors.
IRC should really be enough, for the most part, unless we were to organize
some sort of event in which case we'd have to meet up.

BTW is anyone able to contact some local LUGs near them? I am having a
helluva time getting in touch with LUG mailers, so would appreciate the help
getting the word out about the team.

On 3/12/07, Mark Sisley <msisley at ufl.edu> wrote:
>
> Urg at reply going to you (Chris) and not the list :)
> ---
> Ah, you were one of the smart ones :) I went to Palmetto High
> School, but wish I had had the opportunity to go to Pine View.
>
> I would agree completely with the idea in that respect. I wasn't
> meaning to attack Mike's idea in any way, just to say that we
> shouldn't oversimplify things too much. However, I could be
> partially wrong. I know that Ubuntu is really trying to make
> things easier for people to switch from windows with 7.04. Ff we
> market it as completely risk free though, then that certainly
> could cause problems when all hell breaks lose.
>
> On another note, it really is limiting that each of us is so
> spread apart as it is right now. I wonder how other successful
> LoCo groups work with that limitation. It really is difficult to
> coordinate a dlocalize meeting place (other than IRC) with an
> organization that spans the entire state...What does everybody
> have in mind for branching out past IRC?
>
> Mark
>
>
> On Mon Mar 12 11:30:54 EDT 2007, Christopher Rohde
> <christopher.rohde at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I dont know... in the spirit of the Great Compromise (hooray for
> > american
> > history classes rearing their heads) I think that both of you are
> > on the
> > right track re: edubuntu. While I agree with Mark in most
> > respects here, I
> > don't think Mike is trying to trick anyone or misrepresent what
> > we are
> > advocating. If we were to market edubuntu in the way that Mike is
> > recommending, why not recommend it in the same way we would to
> > friends and
> > family? ie "Listen, I know this is a change, and new challenges
> > will present
> > themselves, but you have X number of resources out there, not the
> > least of
> > which is the Ubuntu Florida team" and so forth. let them know
> > about the
> > advantages of ubuntu not only in educational software, but in
> > parental
> > control and the inability to install/remove w/o the root
> > password, etc.
> > I think this is definitely an avenue worth pursuing, and maybe if
> > we could
> > meet up in IRC one night and talk it out, we may have come up
> > with a short
> > list of goals to set for ourselves on the wiki finally ;)
> > Speaking of Parental Controls, Lando is working on something
> > interesting in
> > that regard too, and I think it would be a nice way to dive in if
> > he were to
> > need any help.
> >
> > What school did you go to Mark? I went to Pine View in Sarasota
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > On 3/12/07, Mark Sisley <msisley at ufl.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello all :)
> >>
> >> My name is Mark Sisley and I just joined the list. I'm from
> >> Palmetto/Bradenton/Sarasota area (in descending order, in hoping
> >> that you'll recognize one of the former), but am at UF in
> >> Gainesville for college. I idle in the ubuntu-fl room as Mark007.
> >>
> >> While I just joined the list yesterday, I was looking through the
> >> archives, and would like to respond to Mike's message.
> >>
> >> >> Edubuntu is the "educational operating system"; promote it as
> >> >> "educational software" that makes learning fun for the "kids".
> >> >> I have
> >> >> been looking at this distribution as a gateway into the
> >> household
> >> >> computing market.
> >>
> >> This is an excellent idea. I had never thought of the merit of
> >> marketing to parents about Edubuntu. I had always thought of it
> >> as
> >> something for schools to use in teaching students. Kudos for the
> >> idea.
> >>
> >> >> So you just let them know that they can keep windows and have
> >> >> this great
> >> >> "educational software" too. All they have to do is pick which
> >> >> one they
> >> >> want to use when they turn their computer on.
> >> ...
> >> >> Note: Forget terms like "dual-boot" or other things that will
> >> >> scare
> >> >> them.
> >>
> >> This, however I feel a little differently about. When I first
> >> read
> >> this post yesterday, I thought, "That's a pretty good idea."
> >> However, pulling the wool over someone's eyes like that is
> >> dangerous for several reasons. First, and most importantly, we
> >> can
> >> never be entirely certain that (edu/x/k)ubuntu will work on a
> >> particular set of hardware. Just yesterday I was about to install
> >> Edgy on a computer at home, but was completely unable to get
> >> xserver to start when loading the live cd. Turns out, there are
> >> some problems with ATI video cards that I was unaware of in that
> >> particular version of xserver. While it may be fixed in 7.04, the
> >> case still stands that somehow, somewhere ubuntu will not work on
> >> someone's hardware. If you market it as software and something
> >> comes up like X not starting, uninformed users will worry that
> >> they've screwed up their computer and won't have the slightest
> >> idea how to get around.
> >>
> >> I'm trying to formulate exactly what I mean clearly. I was going
> >> to state a second reason as being potential problems with
> >> partitioning and the bootloader, but ubiquity has really done a
> >> lot to remove those for the most part. However, I just don't
> >> think
> >> it's right to pull the wool over people's eyes and market this
> >> completely as educational software. Fact is, it's linux. Say the
> >> user wants to uninstall this piece of software; what do you tell
> >> them? There's no autouninstall feature for ubuntu so that the
> >> user
> >> can get their hard drive space back. What gives? It's simply
> >> dangerous catering to a completely uninformed audience.
> >>
> >> Having said that, I'm going to take it all back. Sort of, at
> >> least
> >> :) I don't know if you all have heard of the install.exe project,
> >> but it's quite interesting
> >> (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/install.exe/Prototype). I had a friend
> >> try it, and it didn't really work too well so I wouldn't advise
> >> using it till it's stable, but this has the potential to offer
> >> something that _would_ have an uninstall process. I'm not sure
> >> how
> >> they would implement uninstalling the boot loader that is
> >> installed, but maybe if they could have some way of replacing the
> >> windows bootloader, then that particular facet of the problem
> >> could be solved.
> >>
> >> Essentially, the idea is that NTFS writing is safe only so long
> >> as
> >> you don't change the file size of the file you're writing. So, if
> >> you create an ubuntu file while in windows, you can then modify
> >> the file in ubuntu. You just have to give ubuntu xGB of space to
> >> work with in the first place. Now, all of the problems involving
> >> drivers and hardware problems would still apply, but it is
> >> remarkably less intimidating and daunting than the prospect of
> >> repartitioning or reformatting your hard drive (if your hard
> >> drive
> >> has errors, then it won't be resized for the ubuntu install -
> >> this
> >> was the case for me - I had to completely remove windows and
> >> start
> >> over again, and that kept me from ubuntu for a while).
> >>
> >> So, in essence, the gist of my meaning is that we really can't
> >> market it as something that simple. There's too much that could
> >> go
> >> wrong, and it would then be hard to justify our actions. However,
> >> I have no qualms with marketing the product in new ways. I just
> >> don't want to pretend that there is no risk involved to those
> >> less
> >> informed than linux geeks :)
> >>
> >> Hopefully that's not too many words <grin>
> >>
> >> Mark
> >>
> >>
> >> --
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > -- Christopher Rohde
> > taxnation.wordpress.com
> > veritastic.wordpress.com
> >      w:   863-686-8900
> >      c:   863-885-1229
> >
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> >
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Christopher Rohde
taxnation.wordpress.com
veritastic.wordpress.com
     w:   863-686-8900
     c:   863-885-1229
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