HELP WINDOWS XP

[Joep L. Blom]

Chris Jeffries schreef:
> I made a suggestion, and I started some work on it. A startup guide for
> people trying out Ubuntu and thinking about moving over to it from
> Windows. It is still a very immature document, but in the spirit of
> community, I have put it on line at
> http://www.candm.org.uk/UbuntuStartup.html#
> 
> In response to the interesting and informative comments here - thanks
> everyone, I want to quote Richard Feynmann, a well known physicist who
> worked, on the Manhattan Project. They took delivery of one of the early
> computers to help them do the complex math. They put the computer
> together, they studied it, they explored what it could do, and, he says 
> 
>    'after two months, I realised that we were working on the computer 
>        - instead of working on the problem.'
> 
> I suspect many of us are like those early pioneers. The computer
> fascinates us. We want to add new bits to it, we want to study how it
> works and we want to work on the computer rather than the problem. 
> 
> Most of the population is not like us. They don't work on the computer,
> they work on research, or a letter, or a budget, or listen to music or
> watch a film. The fact they use a computer to do it is incidental. As
> far as possible, the computer should be invisible to them. It is only a
> tool.
> 
> And in reply to those who say an approachable system should just be a
> starting point, I would just say --- I drive a car. I don't take it
> apart every weekend and enjoy examining the engine, and however long I
> own and drive it, I am never going to want to. 
> 
> 
> 
Chris,
A very laudable initiative.
As always with the start of an initiative, it is open for improvement 
and I hope you don't mind if I give, from the top of my head, some 
suggestions.
1.	It is may be a good idea to start with a paragraph explaining why it 
is a good idea to try a Linux distribution.
2.	Most Windows users are literally digibeets, just as - relation to 
your comparison with cars - most people don't know what an ignition is 
or a carburettor or an injection system, etc when going for a new car. 
Therefore an short explanation of the most relevant hardware components 
and the difference between machine memory (volatile) and storage 
(permanent) and the way information is organised in storage could be 
necessary. You would be surprised how many people, working with 
computers on a daily base have no idea of the concept of files.

I can think of some other additions but maybe you an do something with this.
Thanks again for your initiative.
(Question: how would you propagate this initiative to the Windows world?).
Joep