Making the switch easier fo newbies

[Franz Waldmüller]

Hi Amichai,

Amichai Rotman schrieb:
> Hi All,
> 
> I sometimes go to my friends and family for a visit and they take advantage
> of my PC Tech skills to fix all those pesky errors, slowness and Spyware
> they get on their 3 yeard old (or older) Windows XP PCs....
I try to refuse to care for windows machines.
> 
> 
> I would like to be able to convince them to switch to Linux (namely Ubuntu).
> As we all know - humans fear any change....
as the others mentioned convincing is always difficult and may lead to 
frustration.

If you have a laptop with ubuntu installed take it with you when you 
leave home for windows-maintenance. Seeing ubuntu in action is sometimes 
very convincing.
> 
> So I was thinking it could be nice if I had a little free app I download to
> their Windows PC. This little app would scan their PC for all apps installed
> and the Web browser's History (after displaying the proper disclaimer, of
> course) and then produce a list of suitable Linux distributions for the
> specific needs of that computer user.
> 
> Maybe even generate a selections list we can use to install using apt-get
> after a vanilla Ubuntu install, in effect - creating a 5 click Migration
> Assistant...
> 
I have created a textfile with a long list of packages which allows me 
to setup a new ubuntu box with all extra packages I need.
If you want I can share this file with you.

Additionally I created a customized version of ubuntu with a huge 
software-selection (ubuntu customization kit)
I created this live dvd for several reasons:
-) as a live demo for friends
-) as a live environment if my harddisk fail, I can continue working.
-) to be able to install all needed packages without or slow internet 
connection.

I can share this 4GB-DVD with you as well (if I find some space to host 
the image). But be aware: I could try to offer you a dvd with malicious 
code on it (maybe you can use rkhunter to verify that all packages are 
unmodified ubuntu packages). And this I have several different 
applications installed for a single task (e.g.: rhythmbox and amarok, 
gthumb and digikam).
applications and codecs which are due to legal restrictions missing on 
the original ubuntu live cd are included on my disc (flash, mp3 
codecs,...).
But you can try to make a customized version of ubuntu on your own, too.

> Any of you know of such an app in existence?
> 
> Imagine the following scenario:
> 
> I go to my Aunts house, run this little app, it even downloads the proper
> ISO, I burn the ISO to disc and  use it to revive her slow, buggy PC...
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
> .:====================================================:.
> 

Franz