<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#0000ff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">The InstallFest held at DeVry on Feb 12 was a booming success -- Lab 341 was filled with Linux enthusiasts. The hosting and assistance were facilitated by Dusty, Dave, and Gus. From my point of view, as I took a break from work, dashing in, then out of the lab with a bunch of snacks for the crowd, all participants appeared to be content, productive, having fun, and communicating.<BR>
Joanne Y.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><BR>
<BR>
In a message dated 2/12/2005 10:23:33 PM Mountain Standard Time, crichey@gmail.com writes: <BR>
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On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 21:27:43 -0700, David Anselmi <anselmi@anselmi.us> wrote:<BR>
>Crawford Rainwater wrote:<BR>
>>Folks:<BR>
>><BR>
>>I received this last evening. I plan on responding to her to clarify<BR>
>>that InstallFests are meant for the novice/newbie to attend and try out<BR>
>>Linux to some degree. However, I do see her point as well since<BR>
>>typically I have had myself and several Linux ETC members there to<BR>
>>assist people out with a 1:4 ratio sometimes of savvy/guru:newwbie.<BR>
><BR>
>I know Liz from one of the CLUE installfests (years ago). Here are my<BR>
>thoughts.<BR>
><BR>
<BR>
[ snips ]<BR>
<BR>
>Perhaps for her students, CSU could do a HOWTO that gets them the same<BR>
>system as they use in the lab. <BR>
><BR>
>Perhaps the people who set up the CSU lab can do their own installfest<BR>
>around that theme (during work hours if they aren't motivated enough to<BR>
>give back to Linux). Or they could come with students to our<BR>
>installfest and help bridge the gap between what we do and what they<BR>
>want. I'd be happy to help students follow the CSU lab HOWTO.<BR>
><BR>
>Perhaps CLUE or NCLUG can sit down with Liz and/or a few students and<BR>
>see how we can align our skills and their needs. <BR>
>Perhaps her students need some kind of instruction in this. I've<BR>
>thought in the past about teaching an intro to Linux class (more than a<BR>
>day long)--maybe this is the audience for it.<BR>
><BR>
>Perhaps Liz should recommend (for extra credit?) reading a sysadmin book<BR>
<BR>
><BR>
>To me "help a newbie get Linux installed" is problematic. What then?<BR>
>Can they get anything useful done with it? Can they keep it running<BR>
>(patches, install new software, fix config issues when they come up)?<BR>
>(Shoot, my minimalist, open community preferences probably don't fit<BR>
>very well with most newbies, much as I wish it were otherwise.)<BR>
><BR>
>I'll be interested to see what others say, and I'm really interested in<BR>
>continuing the discussion.<BR>
><BR>
<BR>
Lots of good suggestions, but we're all speculating about the nature<BR>
of Liz's problem, and I would like to hear what exactly prompted her<BR>
complaint.<BR>
<BR>
Just some random comments on Dave's post:<BR>
<BR>
1. I have yet to encounter anyone at an installfest who was not<BR>
willing to learn and who had not made some attempts on his/her own.<BR>
<BR>
2. Most newbies appear to be thankful for the help and capable of<BR>
persuing Linux on their own with a certain amount of handholding.<BR>
<BR>
3. Nothing wrong with walking a newbie through a Debian install. I had<BR>
perfectly good results doing a gentoo install with a newbie who later<BR>
installed a half-dozen other distros on his own, and at today's<BR>
installfest he was working his way through Debian after his SUSE<BR>
turned up with unusable media.<BR>
<BR>
4. Nothing wrong with a minimalist system if that's what the newbie<BR>
prefers. OTOH, nothing wrong with KDE or GNOME either.<BR>
<BR>
5. Typically there are enough gurus or wanabes at an installfest to<BR>
cover topics like "my printer won't work."<BR>
<BR>
A little OT here. I worked with a user at today's installfest who came<BR>
with Linspire installed and wanted help getting a modem to work. We<BR>
made some progress, but no phone line was available, so he left with a<BR>
homework asignment. Meanwhile, I was shocked to learn that Linspire<BR>
does not install man!!! I guess Windows refugees only want to push<BR>
buttons and don't care about learning commands.<BR>
<BR>
6. An Intro to Linux class offered on a recurring basis is not a bad<BR>
idea, Dave. I'm sure others would be willing to help if you put<BR>
together something.<BR>
<BR>
-- <BR>
Collins<BR>
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