start.fpo

[meine]

I follow this list for some time now and aparently one big question seems unanswered:

what is the proper function of the start.fpo, first page when a user starts the browser?

IMO it is rather clear that the main function is aimed at the novice user, assisting her/him
- to like Fedora
- get help easily
- get background information on Fedora, Linux, FOSS

more experienced users will change the start page to a personal setting anyway...

I agree that the present start.fpo can be seen as a bit over-complete, has a lot of scary infos and links on it, at least for novice users I guess -- it took me too rather long to start using IRC ;) and indeed Firefox already has a standard search bar.

reducing start.fpo to the essential minimum a novice user might appreciate I very much like https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/File:Start.fpo-mockup-elad.png

+ not only an extended search field, but very useful options to search the package database (Fedora, can I do the things I want to do with it? how is it called?) and wiki (backgrounds)
+ links to the user guide, ask.fedora and a place to join
-/+ the announcements Fedora weekly are rather techish, but a new Fedora user can also be a techie

the bears I don't know but they surely underline what is in the balloon above and they probably look beter than a rough drawn Tux.

novice users might have questions about what software to use. they simply don't know the names of open source alternatives. pointing to a website like www.osalt.com might help them converting. 

on the help-thing I'd suggest linking to ask fedora as well as to fedoraforum.org because this is an excellent place to get help and be treated with respect (in all 3 years with stupid questions I never got flamed). the only problem here is that fedoraforum.org is officially not affiliated with Fedora, but when no one has a problem with it...

on the search engine on start.fpo I argumented some time ago to use DuckDuckGo instead because it doesn't track you and Google has some strangish policies regarding privacy and openness. not directly something Fedora stands for. on the other hand if Google lowers the threshold maybe we should skip politics...

for further background reading and exploring Linux i'd suggest links to fedoraproject.org (you can get a new/different version) and www.linux.com because it has some good pages on software and support (http://www.linux.com/learn)

BFN

-- 
//meine