On Jan 15, 2009, at 10:14 AM, Brett Alton wrote:
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9667184 This girl in the United States ordered an Ubuntu-loaded Dell laptop by accident, expecting it came with Windows. She was confused due to Ubuntu 7.10's inability to load her Verizon Internet CD (which she doesn't actually need) and that Microsoft Office was incompatible with it (even though she could use OpenOffice.org). Now, Ubuntu has already come a long way from 7.10, but I am posting this to the ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-education and ubuntu-website mailing lists because I believe this story's message is important: How do we ensure that previous Windows users are comfortable using Ubuntu? Maybe post some information on the Ubuntu website how OpenOffice.org can save/edit/read Microsoft Office documents?
That probably wouldn't have helped Abbie since she couldn't connect to the Internet at all, but it would help others considering switching to Ubuntu in the first place. (Compare the first question on
<http://www.apple.com/getamac/faq/>.)Canonical's Design team is planning a redesign of the Ubuntu Web site sometime this year, and this is one case we'll consider. We look forward to working with the Web Presence Team in that redesign process.
What about a wizard for
installing the Internet (DSL, dial-up, etc.)?
...
That would also help, along with smarter behavior from Firefox when you aren't connected to the Internet. (That is, it shouldn't say "Firefox can't find the server at www.ubuntu.com"; it should say "This computer is not connected to the Internet", with a button for setting up your connection.)
Cheers -- Matthew Paul Thomas http://mpt.net.nz/
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