On 2013-05-23, at 1:11 AM, Jared Camins-Esakov wrote: > Lars, > > Unfortunately they often give up, before they really get started. Therefore >> I want to make the entry level as low as anyway possible. The live DVD is a >> wonderful way to make more people use Koha. The people that I am dealing >> with are typically having small school-libraries (with max 10.000 items). >> They have never been working at a terminal (not even in Windows). >> > > This is definitely a problem. However... > > >> Suggesting that they should make a manual installation of Koha - because >> that is better in the long term, is pure theory without ANY connection to >> reality. It simply will not happen. The only thing you may accomplish that >> way, is preventing them from using Koha. > > > This would be unfortunate. However, there is another side to the coin, > which is why the developers are practically unanimous in condemning using > live cds in production: using the live cd in production (*production* not > "for testing," which is a different beast) is going to result in people > being dissatisfied with Koha, in a "Koha sucks I hate it way" rather than a > "well, that was too hard so I guess Koha isn't right for me" sort of way. I > would prefer neither be the case, of course, but if I have to choose, I'll > go with option B every time. > > When someone sends a message to the mailing list, they are saying, in > effect "I want several hundred people to donate their free time in order to > solve my problem." And we're happy to do it. Otherwise, we wouldn't bother > reading the e-mail. However, things change a bit when you've installed the > system in a way that very few (or none) of the developers does. We can't > help you. That's all there is to it. Any time I see an e-mail that says "I > am using the live cd," I say "oh, well, no point in reading further." And I > don't. For proof, consider the fact that I have no idea what the question > that started this thread was, despite having opened the message. The reason > I ignore the e-mail is because any advice I might try to offer will almost > certainly be wrong and counter-productive. I want to help. Above all, I > want people to be happy using Koha, and that's just not going to happen if > they're using it in an unusual way. > > That said, I think a live cd is a great idea, absolutely perfect for > testing, demoing, and generally seeing what the big deal about this "Koha" > thing is. I've recommended it to many people for just that purpose. But if > you run a small library, and you run into a problem that takes your ILS > down, you need to know that someone can fix it, regardless how small your > budget is. If you want that someone to be someone other than you (the > general you, not Lars, obviously), that is absolutely legitimate. There are > vendors. If you want to rely on the kindness of strangers (keeping in mind, > of course, that strangers may not have time to help in the middle of finals > week when you have 400 students asking you why the OPAC doesn't work > anymore), that's fine too. What's a problem is when you want to rely on the > kindness of strangers, even though none of the strangers are willing to > help with the system you've set up. > > This will be my final contribution to this thread, but one thing I am > missed when I skimmed through it (when the conversation is busy enough, > eventually I'll get curious and actually read live cd-related messages) was > a clear explanation of why a live cd in production is a problem not just in > a theoretical sense but also in a "strongly connected to reality" sense. > > Regards, > Jared > > P.S. My cat would like to say the following: " vcb cd34 > " > > -- > Jared Camins-Esakov > Bibliographer, C & P Bibliography Services, LLC > (phone) +1 (917) 727-3445 > (e-mail) [email protected] > (web) http://www.cpbibliography.com/ > _______________________________________________ > Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org > [email protected] > http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
hi Folks i think this topic still needs a little more discussion, so i added it to the agenda of the next Koha meeting http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/General_IRC_meeting,_5_June_2013 _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org [email protected] http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
