[wlug_org] Installfest suggestions

[JP]

Hi folks

This might be too specific for this early stage, but I
wonder if we need to plan for:

1) People with older machines.  Anything less than a
P300 will run like a dog with OOo on it (and no those
machines aren't obsolete!).  We could either offer an
alternative "low-spec" install, or make it clear in
any promotion that a certain minimum spec is required.

2) People who have WinNT/2K/XP monopolising their only
HD partition.  Most of the distros I have installed in
the past (RedHat 7, Debian 3.0, Knoppix) weren't able
to repartition the drive without wiping existing data
(FAT is no problem, but NTFS is).  I understand the
latest version of SUSE does a good job of co-existing
with XP.  Otherwise, someone could bring a legal
version of Partition Magic?  I think the qtparted
people have also been working on relocating NTFS
partitions.  We need a solution anyway.

Finally, I think it's probably important to set
expectations reasonably low.  I have all the
peripherals but one (Winmodem) working on my main
machine at home, but it took a lot of work, including
kernel patching.  People should come along realising
that they are going to get support for
HD/CD-ROM/Network cards/Modem (unless unsupported
Winmodem)/USB devices with common drivers and probably
not much else. Things like TV-Out, TV cards, wireless
cards, video cards with DRI support are likely to be
iffy at most.  Even printers could be tricky.  As for
laptops, don't even get me started.

Perhaps on the advertising we could put something like
"come along to find out about [wonderful OS | free OS
| non-buggy OS | ... ] and let us help you put a basic
Linux install on your computer without touching your
existing Windows programs."  (I'll never be a marketer
with long sentences like that, but you get the idea --
a /basic/ install).

Happy to help out where I can with burning CDs,
downloading (only dial-up but I'm still happy to do
downloads of anything as long as it's obviously legal)
etc.  Just let me know.

Cheers
Tony

________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! India Insurance Special: Be informed on the best policies, services, tools and more. 
Go to: http://in.insurance.yahoo.com/licspecial/index.html