My own issue with Flidas turned out to be nothing more than lack of sleep, lack of imagination, and too much stress in other areas of my life to focus on tech right now. Granted, having the default desktop not load correctly would be a deal breaker for my ex-husband, my octogenarian mother, and other "average joe" types who would have no trouble with T7 and a helpful friend or relative for informal tech support, but I completely agree with Jodiendo that, since this is the only way I can contribute to this project at this time, I can report back that T8 is coming along nicely and the project of providing an easy to use 100% free distro for "average joes" and people who don't have but so much time to spend on tech is more important than ever.
As an "Average Joe" user with no formal IT training, I may have had the spare time and the hand holding to progress beyond "E-Z 4 Average Joes" type distros thanks to my time on the Trisquel boards, but as a human being I fully intend to spend at least part of my valuable computer time giving back to others what was given to me one post, one fifteen minutes of explaining something, one kind word from a stranger at a time. Maybe my priorities would have been different if my kid's experience with paying tuition for IT classes had turned out differently but nah, I'd rather spend my time on this earth helping people on this forum if I can and quietly listening and learning if I can't. Nice to see you posting more, Jodiendo.
