On 28/7/08 20:07, "Cory K." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Would it be safe to say "switchers" are 3 groups of people?
>
> * teens->30's
> * 30's->50's
> * 50's on?
>
> These sets of people can be very different and isn't black and white.
> There are gray areas. But this is what happens when you're trying to
> cater to such a broad category of people. Ultimately, it might need to
> be narrowed to exclude some people.
>
> -Cory K.
I roughly agree with your categorisation. With that, I have some notes to
add.
The first and second groups are likely to be switching of their own accord,
whereas the latter is likely (to take the case of ken's mother), be switched
by a relative who will have to support their computer.
The latter case is perhaps a more appropriate candidate for a mac mini, but
lets gloss over that.
Let's say switchers want it to work like windows. Assuming we're not trying
to do a Linspire (gosh, can't we just call it Lindows like it was before?)
and actually replicate windows in linux, let's say these are the important
things:
It must be really easy to use:
- To setup - okay, this is quite easy, we have a 'zap everything' option. In
the third case, the relative will be doing it anyway. Check.
- To login - Check.
- To launch an application - The difference is that the gnome foot is a
different icon and is at the top of the screen. Perhaps we should move the
default to the bottom and have only one bar like people are used to. No,
don't quote off the gnome lists at me, I'm aware I'm inducing hatred. Apart
from that it's quite easy. - FIXME?
- To browse the web - Can we have an icon called 'Internet' on the desktop.
Not 'firefox', not 'epiphany', 'Internet'. FIXME.
- To setup adsl - Automatic. Check.
-To email - I don't rate evolution at all. I've had serious troubles trying
to persuade it not to be unusable with IMAP. It's always been the second
most frequent thing I have to kill (the first being firefox - it seems to be
quite unstable beyond 40 tabs) - FIXME
- To setup an email account - No more convoluted than Outlook Express I
suppose, but evolution is quite convoluted. - FIXME?
- To launch the client. Let's have an 'Email' icon on the desktop. FIXME
- Install software - Packagekit sucks. Lets be honest. Advanced users can be
fine with conary but they aren't the target audience. Fix packagekit or find
a replacement. FIXME
- Update the system - See packagekit rant. FIXME
- Produce documents/spreadsheets etc. - Openoffice.org isn't all that bad.
Check.
Here are differences perhaps we should concentrate on:
- Different artwork can be confusing. Tango icons go some way to alleviate
this, but the Gnome Foot is not exactly intuitive. FIXME?
- Installing software is just not remotely the windows model. We need to
find a way to make packagekit more obvious to the user but not irritate the
hell out of them. This should also be disable-able because some of us aren't
new converts and find such things annoying. An interesting thing to think
about is that the over-50s probably don't want to be installing software
anyway, and the youngins probably want software available for windows. I
suggest we take an approach of software solving problems. I'll flesh this
out below. FIXME
Here are other things we need to consider for other environments:
- Interoperability in the office:
- MS Office - Largely fine. Nothing we can otherwise do. Check.
- Windows networking. Ridiculously complex. What can we do? FIXME.
- Working with company email:
- POP/IMAP/SMTP - Fine. Check.
- Exchange - Largely fine. Check.
- Domino/Notes - Completely doesn't work. What can we do? FIXME.
- Custom applications. Can't do a lot about these. There are certain
exceptions like visio doesn't do too badly with dia etc., but on the whole
there's nothing we can do about it other than package adequate work-withs.
Sorta-Fixme.
Software solving problems:
- I need to produce a picture - GIMP. Okay, it's installed, fine.
- I need to stave off boredom - <list of games>. Okay, installing, fine.
- I need to produce a UML diagram - Dia. Okay, installing, fine.
Etc.
This is a fundamentally different workflow from the default. It's worth
considering, however.
Let me know what you think.
--James
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