https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewUserEducation

getting started and tutorials

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index

http://www.relevantive.de/Linux-Usabilitystudy_e.html

One is open source software that run in both Windows and Linux. Anyone already running Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice can switch to Linux and be able to do 90% of what they do now with no difficulty.

Two is don’t forget the web, web 2.0, ajax, air and such. Google apps like Google Maps, Gmail and Google Docs run right in the web browser. These apps are cross platform, retain the exact same look and feel and lower the cost of the digital divide.

This of course is why Microsoft fears the web browser and spent from 2001 to 2006 NOT improving it. To help keep the cost of leaving windows high.

This is also why Google is creating these apps. Microsoft has vowed to destroy Google. Anything that lowers the bar for the cost of leaving windows AND can rob Microsoft of it’s two cash cows Windows OS and Office. Is a good thing for Google.

This is the perfect opportunity to education and inform the public that Linux is a viable alternative. And exactly why I am making an effort to switch all our pc’s at home and friends to Unbuntu, Mint, SUSE, Fedora etc.

But unfortunately I am finding that there is always one sticking point for established Windows users from making the move over at home and the office, And it’s almost always 3rd party apps or they don’t know anything about where Linux is today. Not how complex the system is.

In my case at work we have to run Autodesk 2D/3D design software. Can’t run it in Linux with out still having Windows through VMware. Same at home, my son wants to play his favorite games or I need to run my Sony Vegas 8.0 but they are buggy in Wine or won’t run at all. My wife’s webcam won’t port the sound through correctly which she uses all the time so she won’t use it. So we still are dependant on Windows until those issues are resolved with a simple solution.

And for many of those that have no 3rd party app hangups they are still unaware that Linux is even out there, and if they have heard of Linux, they don’t know how user friendly it can be.

For many windows users they don’t know the few simple commands they can execute in “run”, or DOS let alone more complex tasks in a terminal on Linux. Which I have already had to do on numerous occasions to fix things. Many with agree that the Linux community doesn’t think the way 95% of Windows users do in regards of computing. Much more don’t mind having to do a little or a lot of work, finding that work around or solution to accomplish tasks that 10-20% of the time it’s needed. Windows users don’t want to deal with that at all.

Yes, I may be biased because that is where I got my Linux start. That is because I found this book at the library when I was looking for something else. And it had disks from which I installed RH7.0. So, OK, this was a few editions ago. I fault the book for its orginization and some ommisions, but I don’t really fault it for being step-by-step w/o getting the bigger picture.

Now maybe I can’t really objectively evulate this because my use of computers started with punch cards and from there went to a mini and a number of microprocessor based systems. Fortunately I had used multiple operating systems for small systems before I encountered Microsoft. And before I got out of the `80s I was fairly familiar with VMS from a user perspective. (Never delved into its inards.) So rather than needing to learn about computers, all I needed to know was what made *nix different from all the other systems I had used. And the _Linux for Dummies_ book did a plausable job of starting me in that direction. Including discussing permissions, runlevels, and startup scripts.

Maybe you could start referring to the books you wish to criticise (or at least question) as the “10 step books” or some such.

Sorry for the rant.

I give 3-4 users a fortnight, a 20-40 minute newbies course. They have never had or used a Linux computer before. After they have grasped the basics they either sit down and practice or shutdown and take their new system away.

They have a contact email in case they need help. The only time they use it is if they have a hardware fault, about two users a year out of 400.

The 30 minute hands on experience is so quick, easy and extremely effective for users from 10 to 90 using a modern distro. A book would confuse and in my experience be out of date within 3 months.

Computing is a hands on experience. How would readers like to learn how to drive or fly via a book. No way. But give them the controls and a good visual simulation environment and that’s much more effective.

Maybe a special newbie interface that switches to experienced as each task is learned. Like the buttons are relabeled, with Applications saying “Click Me for Applications” until the user has launched 3 applications, Places saying “Click me for document places”, “Click me for changing the system” and so forth. I reckon that would work better than a book.

Screen movies are no good either. It all happens on screen and there is no room to practice on the real application and its gone before you have time to remember.

Actually a web page and two desktop work spaces, switching back and forth between them has worked best for my refurbishing trainees, who are generally informed users.

The style needs to be primarily pictorial with succinct explanations and explicit examples.

A book is not the way. Books are for using with horizontal desk media like pens and paints, i.e. at the same eye level, with one hand flipping pages and the other writing, drawing or painting.

Linux with XWindows work spaces keeps the eye at the same level and the primary key board and mouse tools work for both spaces. I’m lucky enough to have two screens side by side, so its just an eye flick, but work spaces are probably better health wise as the eye gets a rest refocusing on the next space.

If there was a Linux howto central library that only hosted or linked to pages like I described, with inbuilt googling of course, I and all my students and clients would love to use it.
I’ve got a few (hundred) pages at cool solutions I can donate.

1. Linux needs to be easily installed [less and less a problem, it seems, except that the average Windows user
won't either know about, or consider doing, a partitioning of his C drive, for fear of data loss [Wubi is a huge help here!!]]

2. Will be put off if Linux can’t connect to the same hardware that Windows will connect to.

3. Information must be easily made available about Windows application counterparts in Linux.

Squaring away these items seems much more important than whether the desktop if KDE or Gnome [what's all that about?, asks the Wondows user?]. I mean, most users do Applications, not gaze at the Desktop!

If you take the roadmap approach to learning, Linux is quite a bit easier than Windows, because in general it is simpler from a design perspective and fairly consistent (to say nothing of open). Windows is quite complex under the hood, and only getting more so with Vista. Things are fairly obfuscated too (compare your typical registry entry to anything under /etc), and because it combines so many acquired technologies, it seems to lack consistency in its metaphors and approaches. It’s harder to learn the roadmap.

Something I have found while converting people to Linux over the past two years (I’ve been using it for 3+ now), is that it is important to emphasize that Linux is not a replacement for Windows, but an _alternative_ to Windows. I often use the comparison that the learning curve for switching from XP to Ubuntu (what I use) is similar to that of switching from XP to Mac, which is often considered the easiest OS to use. I’ve always had problems with people when I forget to emphasize that point.