Y'all wanna meet in the #brlug chat room and bandy about some ideas? Tonight? Tommorrow?
Doug Riddle wrote: > Hello All: > > First, IMHO, we need to remember that the focus here is Open Source, > not strictly Linux. > > IMHO, we should not limit our offering to 5 CDs, but offer a fairly > wide selection. We also need not place the entire selection in every > Library. Librarians already have a system for ordering items from > other branches which they do not have at their branch. I was > thinking of a system whereby we keep a good offering fairly well > updated at the central Library, and offer a basic list for the branch > libraries. In that basic offering we could supply (for instance): > > 1) Cross Platform Office Suite (to aim at their windows weak spot) > 2) Open Source firewalls and other widgets to protect PCs > 3) A Beginner distribution like Mandrake 8.2, or Lindows > 4) An intermediate distribution such as RedHat (no offence to the > Redhat-philes) > 5) An advanced distribution such as Debian or FreeBSD > 6) A networking CD with Howtos and examples for SAMBA, CUPS and > Linneighborhood perhaps. > > In the Main Library offering, keep a slightly larger set of > distributions, or at least more recent distributions, more office > suites, games, Squid, and other firewalls, email and browsers, more > documentation, and a set of development tools. > > I really do not think we should let our own filters stop any > interested users from experimenting. I do think we need to make > clear from the outset what kind of local support they will find for > the various and sundry OS's and applications. > > In short, I do not think we should leave Joe User out of the picture, > but we are not likely to attract him unless he is actively looking to > abandon MS for reasons of his own. The teenagers, the older folks, > and the curious looking for help from the library are our customers. > When I first heard about Linux and Open Source, I went down to the > Library. This was way back in the 1980's. I got a big blank stare. > After rambling enough, I was directed to LSU. I was a student at > LSU. I had gone to the public library looking for something really > OPEN. VAX and VMS were not open. There was nothing for Intel, and I > gave up for a few years. I would like to remedy that. I think > Highschool kids whose parents are buying a new PC might have designs > on the old one. I think it would be perfect if they knew they could > go down to the library and check out two or three Operating systems, > complete with free software and play around. Or simply try some Open > Source software on the old tired PC. > > Doug Riddle > > --- Mnemonic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >>Hash: SHA1 >> >>I checked out http://rute.sourceforge.net. As I was looking around >>I started >>to think about an individual with whom I work. He is not willing >>to give >>Linux a try because he says he does not want to face another steep >>learning >>curve. Considering this, I think that what has been suggested is >>exactly >>what I want, but not necessarily what everyone wants. That is, >>most people >>want to turn on their computers and have them function at such a >>level that >>operation is intuitive. I do not think they want to spend an >>inordinate >>amount of time learning how to use their expensive box of metal and >>plastic. >> >>Let's say that I am Joe General Public...if my computer is not >>broken and I >>am able to do everything I need to do with it, why in the world >>would I want >>to try something like an alternate operating system. What the heck >>is an >>operating system? How do I even find out that such an animal >>exists? >>Education/awareness is paramount to the success of this project. >> >>- -K >> >>On Friday 19 July 2002 14:15, you wrote: >> >>>I still think that it would be a huge disservice to the users to >> >>give >> >>>them a hacked, unsupported outside of BRLUG distribution of >> >>Linux. >> >>>Giving out a Debian or Red Hat or Mandrake would leave open their >>>options for support. CDs are cheap. Trying to shoehorn a bunch of >> >>mixed >> >>>software wouldn't have any benefit, unless you abandon the idea >> >>of >> >>>creating a custom distribution and offer an "add-on" CD of >> >>software that >> >>>the distribution doesn't currently have, such as OpenOffice, >> >>nVidia >> >>>drivers (or scripts to obtain, build, and install them if >> >>licensing >> >>>doesn't permit), and books in electronic format. >>> >>>One other avenue to consider would be the possibility to have the >> >>Rute ( >> >>>http://rute.sf.net ) printed and donated to libraries. Having it >> >>done at >> >>>Kinkos might be prohibitively expensive, but does anyone have >> >>ties to >> >>>publishers or printing companies that can possibly get this done >> >>at a >> >>>reasonable rate? >>> >>>-Tim >> >>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >>Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) >>Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org >> >>iD8DBQE9OHlqUoGHsPHkAUoRAsS1AJ95u069d31+9GUxDJv9Rc/ra5MzOQCeNn4Z >>ObvWDXxlrGcaDbmqARqdGlI= >>=NSrU >>-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >> >>_______________________________________________ >>General mailing list >>[email protected] >>http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Autos - Get free new car price quotes > http://autos.yahoo.com > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net >
