Hi!
That guy has Firefox installed in his systems, but that is not much of use. I
am in a remote and most backward part of India. The people who go to cyber cafe
are mostly students. And there is a significant number of those who have done
some simple a-b-c-d type computer courses. These are the people who make
Internet explorer their priority and thus that cyber cafe guy. Well, people are
becoming aware and I have seen many using FireFox. I also keep on informing
people about the differences between IE and FireFox. But we have got to do a
lot of work. There is a majority of people who wouldn't believe when you say
that there is something similar to and better than IE.
The networking is the simple LAN. But, as he is learning the thing, he just
says that everything is very complex. Setting up a LAN would be easy for you
and me, but not for him, for the time being. I shall take care of this matter.
You said 'The printing menu is actually much better than Windows once you
get used to it.' This guy is actually not doing much to get used to it.
Actually he feels this whole idea of switching crap. Its only my persuasion
that is holding his resistance.
There is nothing much Indian connection with the IE. Yes, there are few
nationalised banks' websites which allow only IE for the transactions. Well,
nobody does banking in a cyber cafe, if at all anybody knows about it. lol Your
idea about running IE is great too. IE can be run using Wine too. But I shall
make sure that I throw IE out that cyber cafe, and off course bring FireFox in
its place.
You have asked about the specs and what people demand here. Please keep it in
mind that people here have just a few basic needs. Most of the users come to
cyber cafe for surfing internet, and majority of the time they surf either
social networking sites or educational sites. People Youtubing are seen a few
times. There are also few regualr users who use their computers, not for
internet but for spreadsheet or document works. So, in a nutshell, a computer
with an office suite, a browser and an OS is enough for the users in my
locality.
On Windows the main applications used are IE, MS Office, Yahoo Messenger and
Google Talk. If you wish to add some more to this list, you can add Google
Earth and Nokia PC Suite. Gaming is kinda uncool in my place. So, cyber cafes
have nil demands for games. Also we still haven't got any gaming culture and
game parlours in my city.
I shall force him to make FireFox the default web browser in all his systems.
Also, I shall keep you posted about my failures and successes.
Regards
Ankur
http://ankurwidguitar.blogspot.com
________________________________
From: Bryan Quigley <[email protected]>
To: Ubuntu India Local Community <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, 19 July, 2009 5:35:29 PM
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-in] Introduction, Ubuntu member from NJ Loco Team in Delhi
Hi Ankur!
Thanks for the welcome and glad to hear you are
already trying this approach. I would start small, does his web cafe
already have Firefox installed? What kind of complex networking does
he do? The printing menu is actually much better than Windows once you
get used to it. Just System - Administration, New -> Printer and it
usually detects all/most network and local printers. Then it is just a
wizard (although there are some printers that have issues).
Depending on the power of the computers using Ubuntu and
VirtualBox,etc might be useful to give people access to IE, etc. If
they really need it. (And they can automatically be restored to a virus
free state!) Btw, are there some key Indian web apps that still
require IE6?
More specs on the computers will be helpful as well as what is installed on
Windows (or demand for, like more games, etc).
So
my first suggestions is push Firefox 3.5 (alternatively wait a little
while longer <1month for 3.5.2) and see if he likes it.
Regards,
Bryan
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