[NYLoCo] Need Newbies and Geeks list for underserved NYC areas

David Quist davidquist at earthlink.net
Mon Oct 8 21:02:55 BST 2007


Zach Stern wrote:
> I've got a great idea guys, re: sandra.
> 
> Why not a post-october 18th gutsy installfest!
> 
> While all of us are fine runnning beta products and such, I can't in good
> conciounce reccomend a beta OS to a non-geek.
> 
> But after october 18th lets get all these people into a room and install
> Ubuntu for them. (I'm happy to make housecalls if necessary)
> 
> -Zach
> 
> On 10/6/07, Sandra Greer <aratinga77 at verizon.net> wrote:
>> I have been running into Windows users who have been cornered
>> multiple times and should become Ubuntu users. As I do Windows tech
>> support all over NYC, for an old nonprofit product, I feel helpless
>> in the face of all this struggling humanity ;-). They have perfectly
>> fine crappy PCs that have become infested, and think they have to buy
>> new ones! They really don't have the money for all this bogosity.
>>
>> I recommend Ubuntu and the help of the local computer geek, but where
>> is the source of all this local action? (I don't think most of these
>> innocents should be alone when they upgrade.)
>>
>> Have you any idea what should be done? I can order a bunch of disks,
>> as I have in the past, but I don't feel right just handing them out
>> to people who are already clueless about Windows and computers in
>> general. We need an "each one teach one" starting in the local junior
>> high school! I haven't time to do them myself, but I go into every
>> borough plus Westchester,  Rockland, and Nassau, as do my colleagues.
>>
>> I run Linux and Mac at home, Windows XP at work.
>>
>> Please connect me with whatever is going on.
>>
>> Sandra Greer
>> Tech Assistant/Trainer
>> MHRA Data Link (part of the New York City Dept of Health)
>>
>>
>>
>>
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> 
> 
> 
I'm not in your area (I'm up in Albany), but have one cautionary thought
in going straight to Gutsy.  I remember when I upgraded from Edgy to
Feisty I ran into some nasty regressions with some of my peripherals.  I
had faith driver corrections would be coming out, and they did after
about 6 weeks.  Given that experience, would it make sense to take a
cautious path and at least let them cut their teeth on Feisty, then help
them upgrade in a couple months if they needed/wanted the help?  Based
on my last experience, I have to say I am inclined to wait about 6 weeks
after Gutsy's release before upgrading on my main machine.

Just a thought.  You might also consider offering some house calls to
these places, as packing up their machines to come to some central
location (assuming they're desktops) might be a bit of a lift.

All in all, though, this sounds like a great idea.  Those of us in other
parts of the state should be similarly on the look-out for local not for
profits with the same issue - not only is it a waste of money they don't
have if the machines are otherwise servicable, but it's simply a waste
of good hardware.



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