The scarce staff was not a basic problem out of its own. There were few
people willing to help because people where systematically being stepped on
and ignored. I do not want to mention names here, because this is not a
personal argument. The organization could have been better if more people
were given a say in making decisions. One way to incent people to volunteer
is to make them part of the process, instead of coming with decisions
without backing.
This method of decision-making led to errors being repeated that we didn't
make for years -- home-burning of DVDs at high speed that led to almost 100%
failure rate, lack of advertising and rush date change, lack of forms with
computer details, and lack of internet connection. No one can make such an
event all by themselves. Given the small staff and man-hours involved, the
event went suprisingly well.
About the distribution issue, one problem that was not addressed is the
issue of support. Whatever distro we install, these people will come to us
for support. To give this support well, we must have a community of people
knowledgeable about this distribution. In the haifux community, we have
people knowledgeable about ubuntu, debian, gentoo, mandriva, and fedora --
no SuSE. As debian and gentoo are not beginner-oriented, we are left with
ubuntu, mandriva and fedora. If one of these was chosen, the process would
have worked much more smoothly.
Regarding the issue of not enough experts for configurations. I think this
is incorrect. At least at the times I were at the linux day (which, I admit
were not too long due to pervious obligations) there was an abundance of
experts and installers and almost no installees.
I still think the idea of the linux day should be morphed to something
completely different. We need to think of our goals here, that are not the
same:
1. Introducing new people to linux -- here we need advertising to the
general computer-literate public and lectures such as W2L.
2. Convincing people to try and install linux -- lectures could help here as
well, and maybe installations in a linux day and free gifts for people
who install. Another avenue is programming courses which recommend linux.
3. Making sure people who have tried linux have a good experience -- here we
should provide quick and accurate support, and to be friendly to the
newbies. Creating a magic CD that will configure the users' internet
connection is a top priority here. I don't know how iwiz is going, but
this should interest us. Also this CD should include unbundled software
such as mplayer, nVidia/ATI drivers etc. If the CD is easy to use, we
almost don't need a configuration day.
An installation party may help with (2), an expert panel and online
support could help with (3). I think (3) is the greater problem now.
Alon
On Mon, 26 Jun 2006, boazg wrote:
i for one stand behind adir. he worked very hard with a very limited staff,
and while it was far from a perfect linux day, with all things considered it
could have scarcely been a better one. claiming he should have had more of
something is merely whining. were do you get more stuff? It doesn't just pop
out of thin air! furthermore, while i disagree with the choice of distro, it
isn't a bad distro or an awful choice, i merely think ubuntu's advantages
are slightly better, and as this is a subjective matter this doesn't make
his decision wrong. last of all, the failing DVD's were quite a stroke of
Murphy's law, that was all it was, and holding adir to blame for it is
absurd.
all in all, few could have done better, scarcely much, better and
complaining about it isn't helping making the next one good either!
On 6/26/06, boazg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
for god's sake man, adir worked very hard and tried to make the best of
what he had, and your one point of disconcent, the distro, is not enouth to
go calling him a failure in public in that sort of way. furthermore, as he
hadf the most at stake, we both watched as murphy's law beared down uppon
him at a critical moment and to add insult to injury here is quite
pointless.
On 6/25/06, Ohad Lutzky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On 6/25/06, Adir Abraham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I'm sorry to tell you that I did my own tests, and no distribution's
> > decision is finite. In your case, however, you go with Ubuntu since
> v1.
> > This is your own blind decision.
>
> I'm sorry, but I have to disagree here. How is that decision 'blind'?
> I've used many distributions over the years, and kept comparing them
> to each other as they progressed - Mandrake, Gentoo, Fedora Core,
> Debian, RHEL, various Live distros, and more. And time after time,
> ever since it was released, Ubuntu has proven to be a better choice
> for new-intermediate users than the others, and by its own right a
> very powerful and comfortable OS. I've seen many people switch from
> other distros to it, and be very happy. Admittedly, I have nil
> experience with SuSE, but saying that my decision for Ubuntu is blind,
> well, that's a bit much.
>
> > I'm glad that you achieved a 2 years
> > experience(!) with Ubuntu. Happy for you. If you ever want to do an
> Ubuntu
> > Linux Party, you go and do it. You have no right to complain here. You
> > didn't like the decision from the beginning. Every time you could just
>
> > leave, and I wouldn't try to hold you.
>
> Ah, but here you miss the point. I don't work for Ubuntu and I
> couldn't care less if people run it or something else. My interest was
> to better the experience of the installfest for the installees (to
> promote F/OSS, blah blah blah - but specifically, to make the linux
> day a good linux day). And I believed then as I still do now that
> Ubuntu would have been a better choice of distro. However, seeing as
> you wouldn't accept this option (at least not until installations
> failed left and right, and/or the first person without the DVD drive
> came along), I was faced with two options: Either refuse to help, or
> help. Believing that I can indeed help, I stayed on board. But that
> doesn't revoke my right to bitch about the distro.
>
> --
> To necessity... and beyond!
>
> Ohad Lutzky
>
--
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