Re: [Wlug] Re: Next Meeting?
by donald vitkus
Stephen C. Daukas wrote:
> Not to trigger a full blown debate...
>
> It doesn't matter what point *we* are at, it matters what point anyone
> who decides to show up is at. It also doesn't matter what can fit on
> a flash drive... You have to ask yourself who the intended audience
> is. If it is techies who already know what a home directory is and
> might end up playing with Linux without WLUG's help, then it doesn't
> matter what you show, or if you demo more than one thing.
>
> If, however, you are trying to interest newbies who might decide to
> stay with what they already have if the alternative is perceived as a
> lot of work, then I would advise skipping the discussion about how
> cool the technology is and focus on why a standard Linux distro is
> useful. As I keep reminding my students - the technology is
> meaningless, the important questions to ask is "what can you do with
> it". If you really want to excite a lot of students, show them how
> they can save money and, more importantly time, and still turn their
> assignments in on time in a format acceptable to their professors!
>
> The reason for my initial comment in this thread was simple: In my
> experience at WPI, a non-trivial minority of students do not have a
> tremendous amount of experience with computers - even the self
> professed "programmers." Students new to WPI are already overwhelmed
> with some 30-40 hours a week of school work outside of class time. If
> they are "into computers" then they are already interested enough to
> invest their time based on the "technology is cool" camp. If,
> however, they are interested in technology as a tool, they will look
> at the demo, size up how much effort is involved (and that includes
> how readily available the necessary information is and how easy that
> info is to use), decide how helpful the venue is to trying Linux,
> assess if Linux/WLUG/whatever is worth it to them, and make a
> decision. If, as you say, the commercial distributions are no more
> difficult to install than windows, then that is what we should be
> showing, as well as OpenOffice, Mozilla, and so forth.
>
> Steve
>
> Matt Higgins wrote:
>
>>My 2 cents or less if you will.
>>
>>I think Knoppix is the way to go! The point is to showoff Linux-wares not to
>>teach about a particular distributions configuration mechanism or file system
>>layout. Knoppix is clean and impressive in many ways and does a great job at
>>showing off what Linux can do. Furthermore we are to the point were a Linux
>>install is no more difficult then a Windows install, particularly the commercial
>>distributions; Red Hat, SuSe, Mandrake, Yellow Dog, etc...
>>
>>So thats my 2 cents or less, long live Slackware!
>>
>>Matt
>>
>>Quoting Steve Freitag <Steve.Freitag(a)alum.wpi.edu>:
>>
>>
>>
>>>I've recently spent a small amount of time playing around with both the SuSe
>>>8.2 Live Eval, and Knoppix 7-26-03, so I thought I'd pass along my
>>>observation
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Both default you into KDE and have a similar selection of apps (Like
>>>OpenOffice, Mozilla, the GIMP etc). Knoppix happens to be based of Debian.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>There were a couple of things I liked about Knoppix. The first is that you
>>>don't have to go through all the YaST screens when you boot, Knoppix just
>>>boots right up to KDE and logs you on as user knoppix. The other neat thing
>>>about Knoppix is that you can save your configuration and home directory of
>>>the size you specify on a USB flash drive. With SuSE if you want to save
>>>your configuration/home dir it creates a 100MB file on your hard drive (and
>>>another 100MB for swap if you want). With Knoppix you can carry a cheap
>>>($10 after rebate) 64MB USB flash drive around with you and a Knoppix CD and
>>>boot a PC into your personal environment without touching the hard disk.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: wlug-admin(a)mail.wlug.org [mailto:wlug-admin@mail.wlug.org] On Behalf
>>>Of Stephen C. Daukas
>>>Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 4:23 PM
>>>To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org
>>>Subject: Re: [Wlug] Re: Next Meeting?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Is introducing yet-another-flavor-of-linux useful? I understand what you
>>>are trying to achieve, but one of the first questions that came to my mind
>>>was "what is the difference between Knoppix and a regular Linux distro"?
>>>(The first was actually "what the hell is Knopix"!) Will it be confusing to
>>>the people looking at is verusus what they see when they look at SuSe, Red
>>>Hat, etc.?
>>>
>>>Andy Stewart wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>On Monday 01 September 2003 4:52 pm, albutler33(a)netscape.net wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>Andy,
>>>
>>>I think a great topic especially for the new students would be "Fast Track
>>>to Linux" where you introduce the GNOME and KDE desktops and a few of your
>>>favorite tools and utilities.
>>>
>>>Al Butler
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>HI Al,
>>>
>>>My most current thoughts are centered on Linux, its origins, the GPL,
>>>WLUG/WPILA, and then segue into single CD demo distributions for folks who
>>>want to "kick the tires", as it were, without fully committing their hard
>>>drives to Linux.
>>>
>>>One such single CD demo distribution is Knoppix, which does have KDE (and
>>>GNOME?). Once Knoppix is running, many things could be demonstrated. If I
>>>go with this idea, I'd want to have copies of the Knoppix CD available for
>>>people to take home, and hopefully they would try it at their leisure.
>>>
>>>How does that sound? Do people have additional ideas? Let's hear them!
>>>:-)
>>>
>>>Later,
>>>
>>>Andy
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>--
>>>Stephen C. Daukas - stephen(a)daukas.com - http://daukas.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>--
>Stephen C. Daukas - stephen(a)daukas.com - http://daukas.com/
>
>
>
I hope you will slow down the process if you have to trouble shoot the
install of linux.
19 years, 6 months
Re: [Wlug] Re: Next Meeting?
by donald vitkus
Andy Stewart wrote:
>On Monday 01 September 2003 4:52 pm, albutler33(a)netscape.net wrote:
>
>
>>Andy,
>>
>>I think a great topic especially for the new students would be "Fast Track
>>to Linux" where you introduce the GNOME and KDE desktops and a few of your
>>favorite tools and utilities.
>>
>>Al Butler
>>
>>
>
>HI Al,
>
>My most current thoughts are centered on Linux, its origins, the GPL,
>WLUG/WPILA, and then segue into single CD demo distributions for folks who
>want to "kick the tires", as it were, without fully committing their hard
>drives to Linux.
>
>One such single CD demo distribution is Knoppix, which does have KDE (and
>GNOME?). Once Knoppix is running, many things could be demonstrated. If I
>go with this idea, I'd want to have copies of the Knoppix CD available for
>people to take home, and hopefully they would try it at their leisure.
>
>How does that sound? Do people have additional ideas? Let's hear them! :-)
>
>Later,
>
>Andy
>
>
>
>
>>__________________________________________________________________
>>McAfee VirusScan Online from the Netscape Network.
>>Comprehensive protection for your entire computer. Get your free trial
>>today!
>>http://channels.netscape.com/ns/computing/mcafee/index.jsp?promo=393397
>>
>>Get AOL Instant Messenger 5.1 free of charge. Download Now!
>>http://aim.aol.com/aimnew/Aim/register.adp?promo=380455
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Wlug mailing list
>>Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org
>>http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
>>
>>
>
>
>
i am in school now but hope to still make the meetings
19 years, 6 months