[aklug] Fwd: Re: FOSS users group

Why not eliminate some of those initial "fears" by using a live distro? I already have a few on hand: sabayon, fedora, ubuntu and dsl. I wouldn't mind burning a few disks in exchange for hanging out and learning a thing or two.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Royce Williams <royce@tycho.org>
> Date: March 14, 2011 7:50:38 AKDT
> To: aklug@aklug.org
> Subject: [aklug] Re: FOSS users group
>

> barsalou said, on 03/09/2011 11:29 PM:
>> Quoting Dale Rooney <dale.rooney@gmail.com>:
>>
>>> Well then I guess the next question is, who wants to get involved in
>>> promoting FOSS out in the community. I feel we need to be more active in
>>> reaching out to computer users in general by posting flyers, handing out
>>> discs and perhaps holding get-togethers in coffee shops to demonstrate
>>> software and answer questions.
>>> Who's up for that?
>>>
>>> Dale
>>
>> This seems like a fantastic idea. Anyone else?
>
> Sounds great - with our limited cycles, we need to home in on some solid
> next actions with high leverage to make this happen.
>
> I see the big barriers to FOSS entry for Windows folks as:
>
> * Fear of breaking existing systems and processes.
> * Fear of breaking something with the *new* system.
> * Lack of confidence that the same activities are possible with FOSS.
>
> The most powerful way I know of to help people learn and transition is
> to have the "safety net" of their existing system and processes intact,
> and a way to put their "learning" system back the way it was if they
> shoot themselves in the foot.
>
> So next actions might be:
>
> * Call for older laptops, and a mechanism for checking them in and out
> on Fridays, perhaps by having someone leave a deposit.
>
> * Ask for volunteers to put appropriate distros on them, and come up
> with a "restore" partition method that works similar to Dell's.
>
> * Prepare a couple of one pager "Rosetta Stone" docs with "here's how
> you do it in Windows, and here's how you do the same thing in Ubuntu",
> and "here's how to put your system back the way it was" and "So you have
> a spare system, here's how to FOSS-ify it the AKLUG way."
>
>
> In this way, by having a few "learning" systems at the ready to loan,
> and make it easy for folks to create their own, both such that they can
> be easily be reset back to the "AKLUG factory defaults", we lower those
> barriers.
>
> Royce
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Received on Mon Mar 14 12:25:37 2011