Looking for new business oportunities

[Darryl Moore]

Thanks for the info about GOS. One of the other selling points for
not-for-profits, especially ones that use donated hardware, is that it
is much easier to get common look and common functionality with a Linux
distro then Windows, when there is large differences in the hardware
being used across the organization.

Kenneth Hawkins wrote:
> Howdy Leslie
> 
> FWIW, one of the best desktops I ever saw for a newbie/"don'twannalearn"
> was made by Compaq, as an alternative to the Windows 3.1 desktop. It
> featured large, colorful, easy to understand icons for Email, Internet,
> Word etc. I think there was maybe 8 large icons on the desktop, and
> access to more was available from a launcher/taskbar similar to what
> came out on Win95/98. The developers has investigated what the easiest
> way was for people who knew nothing about computers to "git 'er done",
> and didn't overload them with extraneous crap they didn't want/need.
> They even used the File cabinet/drawer/folder/file metaphor, rather than
> the spectacularily stupid "My Computer" approach. Its second nature now,
> but when MS brought out the '95 interface, it caused a lot of retraining
> grief (not that 3.x was a shining example of usability mind you).
> 
> Any desktop solution for the general public, has to perform the CURRENT
> essential tasks, and will be different for the home user vs the office
> user. In an environment where the employer can make the call for staff,
> you don't need the multimedia, the chat, the photoviewer, or
> youtube/flash. For the home PC, no matter how stable, or how great for
> the essentials, if you can't do youtube/flash/messenger (with
> audio-video), make a DVD appear ON THE DESKTOP (rather than "mount
> /dev/sdc1 mydvd" or such), you will never get the enthusiasm of "jane
> public"
> 
> The funny thing is, there are a number of distro's that provide this,
> but (speaking as a compulsive distro-hopper myself) they often run into
> installation or hardware issues that are work for people like us, let
> alone a newbie. FWIW, I recently threw GOS onto an older PIII-600
> Toshiba Portege I have, that just never dies. I had trouble with XP,
> even after I roto-root the septic sludge they force on us. I did not
> have high expectations, as the max RAM on this thing is only 384MB, and
> it has no special graphics chip. I confess that I was TOTALLY blown
> away! Every component worked by default, including every PCMCIA wireless
> card I have thrown at it so far. Best of all...it is WAY FASTER than XP
> was on the same hardware in its DEFAULT config. Youtube worked without
> having to bitch-slap flash onto the machine, I can watch ripped videos
> if they are not too compressed, stream audio/MP3/ogg right out of the
> box. Now if they could just do somehting about the crappy default
> desktop theme........If you are rebuilding PC's for people, try GOS (its
> ubuntu based, so sources work)
> 
> HTH
> 
> Ken
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Leslie Lewis <lesliel8 at gmail.com>
> *To:* The Canadian Ubuntu Users Community <ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, February 23, 2009 11:27:34 AM
> *Subject:* Re: Looking for new business oportunities
> 
> Thanks for this interesting discussion, guys. I have nothing to offer
> but have had a few Aha! moments reading your responses - especially Ken's:
> 
>     The biggest barrier to the general adoption of linux has been, IMO,
>     the fact that most of us who have adopted it are naturally curious
>     and willing to endure some frustrations and problems to have a
>     better end experience, or even just for the new experience, and we
>     cannot grasp why everyone else doesn't feel/behave the same way.
> 
> 
> I volunteer for a non-profit organization that gets by with donated
> (crappy) computers and illegal copies of M$ software. I'd love to
> convert them to FOSS, but I'm guilty of expecting them to be as willing
> to learn as I am - and they simply don't have the time for that, let
> alone the interest. They might be able to buy some hardware of their own
> soon, and I know they're going with Windows if they do - damn, damn,
> damn! I hate to see them waste their scarce resources, and I just don't
> know how to help. So keep on talking, and maybe I'll get some ideas.
> 
> Leslie
> 
>