I agree an installfest is good, especially for luring in the newbies. Although I believe there is a growing demand for making people aware of the applications available, and then helping them install it. For example my ratio of installed programs to downloaded packages is pretty grim. Sometimes I wish I could see a demonstration of an applications before I spend hours battling the wrong version of GTK or a conflict in libraries... So it would be ideal to gather together some of the common applications / guaranteed solutions / problems at the installfest. Examples: * I still miss a decent audio editing program like CoolEdit * (Lin)modem drivers that work. (example the cheap/common DSE modem, has a good driver for Mandrake 8.2, 9.1, 9.2 (tweaked), but not nothing works for 9.0) * hardware support issues; knowing whether the 'cheap' brands of hardware (webcams, scanners, modems, etc) will work before you buy it. (eg, anyone know whether the DSE tablet ($81) works under linux? - any good handwriting recognition for it??) In short I like the installfest concept although like it to focus more on the hardware and applications. Cheers, Synco
On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 15:40, you wrote: > On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 15:06:25 +1300 > > Douglas Royds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Christopher Sawtell wrote: > > >Mandrake virtually installs itself in 20 mins or less on current > > > hardware. > > > > ... if you know what you're doing, which I didn't. Overall, it took me > > about two weeks in what little spare time I have, plus two hours of > > Greg's time. Finally, once I had everything successfully partitioned, > > and knew exactly what to do, I did successfully install Mandrake in > > about 45 minutes. > > > > >Installfests just to get Linux installed are no longer a necessity. > > > > I'd rather have done all of that at an installfest, it's just that I > > wasn't going to wait until March. The best way to learn is to have an > > expert available to answer stupid questions. > > I wonder whether we should include full installations in our workshops, > ie a few and often, rather than one big fest a year. maybe even some > structured sessions - week one install, week two find your way around > the system etc. > > > >Forgetting the hassles caused by the shortcomings of the rpm format, > > > which have been largely worked around in various ways, installing > > > applications and their upgrades is usually as simple as falling off a > > > log. > > > > Regrettably, my track record so far is poor. I've tried installing Grip, > > Lame, Ogg Vorbis, and a modem driver. So far only Grip has worked. Back > > to that installfest. > > this is obviously distro and package specific, hard to know how to help > without details of what you have done and what the results are. > > > >Linux's very sucess has had the effect that LUGs are no longer needed > > > for the dedicated support of Linux per se. > > > > Installation is OK once you know what you're doing. The need for support > > won't seriously diminish until you can buy your Linux box ready-to-eat > > off the shelf at Harvey Norman. > > well you can, at dse anyway. there are many places selling computers > with linux preinstalled. > > >Also, I find discussions of "what's the > > best tool for a photos web-site" both useful and interesting. > > > > Douglas (first-time poster).
