I did it!

[Debbie Deutsch]

Paul W. Frields wrote:

> I would tend to agree if the user experience were not so much improved
> from release to release, or if usability were directly related to the
> number of bugs in a release.  Many of the bugs in each release are
> subtle and go unnoticed by new users; only a few standouts achieve wide
> notoriety from the time of release, and each release has them.  Most are
> fixed, some are simply shrugged off until the next release because
> development has outpaced them in such a way that fixing them would be
> more painful (for developers and users) than waving people on to the
> next and better release.
> 
> FC5 is probably the most user-friendly releases to date, so I would be
> loathe to recommend FC4 in its place, *especially* to a new user.  The
> addition of a working GUI update tool, and the easy point-and-click
> installation of new myRepo-release packages from the web alone is enough
> to recommend FC5 over FC4, not to mention faster OpenOffice.org, a
> nautilus Windows network browser that actually works, etc....
> 

I agree with you in principle.  Here is what is on my mind.  The
expectations and expertise of Linux users and Windows users are so
different.  (Yes, Apple users are out there too, and they are yet
another breed.)  We who use Linux expect to see changes in our system
very frequently, and take it as a matter of course that every so often
something will be (temporarily) broken.  In exchange for this we get a
lot of choice in how we use our systems to do whatever we are trying to
accomplish, up to and including changing the source software and a
greater pace of innovation.  A Windows user is used to a much slower
pace of change.  It takes several years between new versions of
Microsoft applications and even longer between releases of the operating
system.  Even more important, very few Windows users expect to  ever
have to install or configure an operating system.  It comes already
installed on their PC.  So installing Fedora and dealing with
configuration issues is unfamiliar territory and apt to be intimidating
for non-technical people (and maybe some technical folks, too).

My own experience building two Linux systems in the past few months has
been that one can encounter problems that are not obvious to solve even
on a simple system (one disk drive, no unusual chipsets or chipsets that
require proprietary drivers, normal amounts of memory, etc.).  On that
system for some mysterious reason the 64-bit version of FC5 could not
boot past the first boot code.  Change to the 32-bit version and all was
well.  This sort of problem could happen to anyone, alas.

One of our goals should be to attract and keep as many people as
possible as new Fedora users.  Problems during installation could easily
discourage folks.  While there are plenty of helpful people monitoring
the Fedora main mailinglist, it is very high volume and the subjects can
be intimidating to the newcomer.  In a perfect world I would suggest a
marketing program in which people who were new to Fedora (and probably
Linux) could get paired up with experienced folks who were willing to
act as one-on-one mentors.  Even better, what if the mentors could be
nearby geographically (or at least timezone-wise)?  The logistics boggle
the mind, alas.

Anyway, that's my reasoning.  I should probably stop, now.  :-)

>>>> - what configurations are the easiest for a beginner.  We all would like
>>>> to say that FC is easy to install right out of the box.  It certainly is
>>>> for some configurations.  However some features and drivers are more or
>>>> less baked than others.  For a novice I would recommend no RAID, 32-bit,
>>>> no nVidia drivers.  There's probably a lot more that can be said on this
>>>> subject.
>>> As a side note, we wouldn't include anything about nVidia or ATI
>>> closed-source 3D drivers anyway.
>> We might mention that some vendors have not yet joined the open source
>> movement and their drivers are not included with FC because they are
>> proprietary.  People should know what to expect.  It may even help them
>> choose their hardware accordingly. :-)
> 
> This is a great idea.  I asked Sam Folk-Williams to connect with you
> about working on this.
> 
> 

This afternoon I added a very rough cut at an outline to the wiki.  It
is incomplete and uneven in its coverage.  People may want to change its
emphasis or point of view.  That's fine.  However it is something that
anyone might usefully add to or alter in a few spare minutes.  I expect
it will change a lot before all is said and done, but felt a starting
point would be useful.

Debbie