HELP WINDOWS XP

[Chris Jeffries]

The approachability of Ubuntu by new users is crucial to success. The
open software project will not succeed if it cannot get 'Joe Public' on
board without fuss. Even though I am a literate computer user myself
(since 1964), my mate who often asks my help is not, so I am going to
reference his responses to my experience as well as my own.

When I first started to install Ubuntu on this (laptop) PC, my first
question was 'How can I be certain its not going to trash my Windows
partition'. I could not find out, so I backed everything up as best I
could (40GB back up is not a simple task) and also crossed my fingers.

SUGGESTION 1: Most users are not that good with backup, so some bootable
backup tool might be a good addition to the install process. My mate
would probably have left out this step unless it was made braindead
easy.

SUGGESTION 2: A clear and simple explanation of what is going to happen
to the hard disk BEFORE the install is started - oh and make sure that
its not at all easy to trash an existing Windows partition. I needed
this - my mate would probably not have even realised the dangers of what
he was about to do.

I first tried the install from LiveCD (with some nervousness - see
above)

It failed. I think my mate would give up at this point.

I rooted around on the web and discovered that the alternate install
image was often more reliable. That must mean that people KNOW the
LiveCD install is not that reliable. SO WHY USE IT??? Installing from
the LiveCD s supposed to make it easier for newbies, but if its not
reliable, it is worse (I mean that) than useless.

SUGGESTON 3: gparted is a nice program, but for my mate it would be very
scary. For people like him, the install needs a 'wizard' - not being
dumped in gparted. The wizard needs to cope with the most un-technical
of users.

SUGGESTION 4:  If the install is aborted, there should be a way for the
user to get advice what to do next - including how to recover his
initial state. For example what to do with a lone ext3 partition or a
Linux swap partition and how to put the Windows boot loader back in
place of grub.

I experienced (without any explanation or warning) an enormous wait
while the install was checking the archives for updates. This was very
disconcerting. I almost gave up, but after some searching realised that
patience was worth while. I am certain my mate would have re-booted at
this stage. I believe by this point grub was probably installed, so he'd
now also have an unfamiliar boot process (but still no usable Ubuntu).

SUGGESTION 5: Make the archive check optional (but recommended) and warn
that it may take several hours (or even days) to complete. Also give
advice on how to do it later.

Finally, I got Ubuntu running. My mate would have been phased by the
grub boot screen. I was a bit shocked myself to see so much diagnostic
stuff on my screen - after all the only thing I had installed was
Ubuntu. What was memtest all about, why was diagnostic mode on the menu
- was something predicted to go wrong, and WHY were there already two
different versions of Ubuntu to choose from. 

SUGGESTION 6: A simple grub menu offering three options
 
    Windows (Press W), 
    Ubuntu (Press U)  and 
    Diagnostic tools(Press D) 

would be great. It would also help a lot if the install process actually
explained the boot process would change and gave an option which OS
should be the default, and perhaps even gave an image of the new boot
screen.

On first log in, you are on your own. I was OK here, happy to wander and
find out for myself. but

SUGGESTION 7: The desktop should already have an icon or two on it with
some guidance for new users. e.g. 'NEW TO UBUNTU? CLICK ME FOR A QUICK
GUIDED TOUR' AND ´UBUNTU FOR WINDOWS USERS' After all, it is but a
moment's effort to delete them if you don't want them.

As for myself.....

I STILL cannot print to the HP 5608 connected to a nearby Windows XP PC
that is sharing it (the windows spooler locks up if I send anything
there), 

Nor can I successfully make a VPN connection to my VPN provider in the
US, 

And currently aMSN won't log in even though it did a few days ago.  This
is probably due to some update or other -maybe there is an update log
somewhere and I could track down which one caused it, but I've not found
that yet either.

These are all things I could easily solve by simply reverting to Windows
- and I expect my mate probably would have given up and gone back to
Windows - assuming he knew how. If not, he would have cursed
Unix/Linux/Ubuntu to EVERYONE he knows as being not worth a light.

The Open Source project is entering phase 2, it is no longer just for
innovators, if we cannot support the computer semi-literate (and even
illiterate), the project will stall and fail to become mainstream, and
after all the efforts of so many people to create this wonderful
community environment, that would be a tragedy. My grandmother used to
say to me 'Let's not spoil the ship for a ha'pe'th of tar'.

I am not saying others should do all this. What I can contribute, I will
happily do. What I cannot, I will leave in the capable hands of those
who can. But even in this, I am not sure how to make an offer.

Chris.