The Ubuntu Installation Handbook: a working group of Ubuntu Toronto

[C. Martens]

As I said in the meeting, I'm in, and not too bad at proofreading (other people's work, not necessarily my own), grammar, punctuation, editing...Old English major here. And while someone said a section on partitioning is necessary, I would add 'mount points' and dual-booting as crucial topics for a winblows refugee. Here's why:

Last August I thought I wasn't that bad with tech cause I'd built a multimedia pc before from scratch, understood/hand-edited registries, used partitioning and imaging tools regularly, had the Linux Bible as a reference, etc., but after that I started with ubuntu and ended up ditching it to take a month-long detour into Mandriva because no, I didn't understand mounting. A windows user has some legitimate gripe when s/he gets impatient with mounting, although that's like entering your passwords over and over again: we do get used to it, especially once we understand that winblows mounts partitions, too, and it's just hidden from the user (only becomes evident if you have a total pc crash and have to cold-boot...and get dropped into safe-mode with the message that "system partition was not dismounted properly" or something like that.

As for dual-booting, it adds a safety net, and I wasted weeks trying to follow certain howtos about how to "fool windows" and things like that. With Ubuntu on a separate drive the grub will fool windows to think it's on the first drive for you, and I found that out by accident when my son did it while I was away. If we come right out and say, "Partition Magic/BootMagic, ntloadr, grub and lilo all serve the same function: choosing between different operating systems at PC startup", a windows user is much more likely to understand. 

In other words, constantly comparing linux to their comfort zone (windows), and using the windows equivalents, will help the reader. You might even insert the comforting line that learning Linux will help the user better understand Windows, too. It did for me.
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