Installfest

Pavel Zaitsev pavel-XHBUQMKE58M at public.gmane.org
Tue May 10 01:33:31 UTC 2005


> As Leah  pointed out in response to my general call for post-install 
> support, the wiki is a good place to start. I should think that as far 
> as support is concerned, there exists enough information that can be 
> easily compiled into a list on the wiki. There is no need to charge for 
> additional support. I think that the whole idea of an installfest should 
> include post-install support through already existing channels, such as 
> the wiki or forums (I'd be happy to donate if it would help out). To 
> simply dump Linux on someone's box almost guarantees that they will need 
> support - to then charge for it seems, IMHO, a little underhanded. In 
> fact, I'd say that having some form of support is really in keeping with 
> the FLOSS ideal and that to charge for it, especially for some kindly 
> "housewife kine that types a recipes on her computer and makes 
> scheduling for grocery runs in her outlook."

I think its fair to have installfest for companies and individuals
alike, free.
Individuals can receive support for free, if anyone volunteers their
time,
to come out, or have someone show up at their place. If individual is in
the
office however, I'd rather charge the company then not. Whole bit about
gtalug
is that is mosly hobbyist linux gathering , as I see it. If companies
want free
labour .. I think they will have to provide something in return.

> Why not support someone like this? I'm willing to do it, even with my 
> limited abilibty. Sure it may be below some people, but I'd say an 
> effective way to encourage people in large numbers to switch and stay 
> with Linux is to offer ourselves up as role models. To be willing to 
> embrace all levels of users instead of treating them to the elitism and 
> haughtiness that they think we have when it comes to Linux is a 
> necessary component of getting the word out there. I for one am quite 
> willing to help out with a late night ssh session.

There is no elitism, just meritocracy.  Someone must want to learn. They
must grasp every bit of knowledge as a diamond and refine upon it.
Experiment with it. If they want an equivalent of toaster, a computer
appliance they can get ubuntu, we'll even install it for them. But if
they
expect things to work out of the box.. like digital cameras, usb sound
cards
that they add later, they have to go through some learning pains...
Pain is growth right? They can bring the box to next meeting, and us
have
a whack at it. (which brings me to think about the new gtalug needing
net
connection for the meeting room in case something like this happens)

> If people want to charge for support, well then I say FOR SHAME! I think 
> that for your average individual user, especially those who are being 
> targeted for the installfest, who may or may not be a college/university 
> student at that, the cost for support from any one of a group of 
> professionals such as we have here would be prohibitive and not in 
> keeping with the spirit of maintaining a positive profile for Linux 
> users and Linux in general. Especially so since many people will be 
> drawn to the installfest for the very fact that Linux is free to begin with.

I don't think this is being suggested. Many of us however are coming
home
tired from beating computers into submission, to compile, link and
execute
our codes... I think support is more of exception then the rule. We
shall have
a framework, and if someone from gtalug wishes to help a user with a
problem
they can ask for phone support or have ssh being set up on their box so
it is
accessible from outside. There is an issue of data loss/corruption, and
generally upset people if something does not work. Do they sign a waiver
for support? Should such support be available only from gtalug members
to gtalug members? There should be generic waiver to sign for people who
sign up
for gtalug and may want support form gtalug members. I don't mind fixing
apache vhosts
over ssh for some chap, but if they going to sue me because I misspelled
their site name ...
FIXME: For installfest make generic waiver for computers that are coming
in...
and for future support.

> It might do us well to go back and try to remember what it is like being 
> a newbie. What would you expect in such a position? What might your 
> needs be and what would you be willing to pay for support when you could 
> just as well go back to Windows and be done with the entire affair?

Really nothing beats RTFMing. Seriously, along the way of reading man
page
you find out other tricks the command can do... one by one knowlege
collects. If you aren't interested no one else will do that for you.
Having man & info tutorial on site is great idea imo. Have list of
commands
be printed and off they go.

People take risks, thats life. If they can't grasp linux they probably
shouldn't be using it... They should be able to understand Ubuntu,
however. We shall not worry that other people don't understand linux.
We can just give people tools to be persistent with and them run with
it. We can help out along the way.  We can't be persistent for them.

later,
Pavel

things to do:
* make a waiver (vlug has one, maybe we should use theirs?)
* room with net access for meetings ( have some people show up 20 mins
early to help victim of not standard hardware )
* installfest tutorial on man, info and core command set
(bash/zsh/tcsh).
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: ??? ????? ????????? ????????? ???????? ????????
URL: <http://gtalug.org/pipermail/legacy/attachments/20050509/ef43ac57/attachment.sig>


More information about the Legacy mailing list