Quoting guy keren <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
> i've finally managed to get up on time to go to an installation part
> that's held in the inhuman hours of friday morning... went there, and
That was the hardest part of the insta-party...
> came back home with 'mixed emotions'. to the plus side, there were quite
Same here. I really enjoyed installing so many Linuxes in few hours...
>
> and now, to the down side. please accept this as a constructive criticism
> about things to consider for the next party.
Ditto.
>
> 1. at least initially, there was a complete administrative mess down at
> the installation tables - it was impossible to see who to refer to,
> who is an installer, who is just part of the cround, who came to get an
> install done, and who are the people from the various companies around.
Was there a mess? Between the constantly two Linux installation I had to take
care of, the questions from the crowd, and trying to get hold of a chair I
didn't notice that there was a mess :).
Whenever I felt I could not scale any more (I still have only two hands and
one mouth) I sent people to Seva and Nahum. I think we should consider
about the "sadran" thing for the next time. We should also choose people that
can answer questions, so that the installers could focus on installing.
Anyway, labels would be nice (With the name of the person, and the word
"Installer"/"Info Center" on them, or something like that.
Another point is that the installees should know that the people installing
their systems are volunteers, and installing their systems because of our good
will (and that we love Linux), and not because we owe them anything.
Another not so nice pleasant was the approx. 10 min. of electricity outage.
I was in a middle of two mkfses, and it was pretty scary... We should (somehow)
check that we don't consume too much electricity next time.
>
> 2. Media verification.
> various CDs were defective (few weren't bootable, one appeared to
> cause a problem during install, while installing the 'rpm' package and
> then dying off, unable to continue the installation), few boot
> floppies were defective, etc. i'm not sure if it's possible or not,
That is important. On one installation I had two flaw CDs in a row! I think
that over all I had four problematic CDs.
Another point is that bootable diskettes should be prepared in advance, since
it takes time to create them. Some floppies with bootpart (for people with
Win.NT) would be nice too (I know about the dd+boot.ini trick, but it is MUCH
faster with bootpart)
The people should also prepare a free partition IN ADVANCE, creating a new
partition on the fly has few drawbacks:
1. It takes time (First they have to decide what files they want to remove,
then run the defrag proggie.)
2. The people don't always know what files they don't need.
3. Even though FIPS works most of the time, I don't want to be held
responsible for data loss if something unexpected happens.
>
> 3. Hang the D.J (well, it's not his fault..)
^^^ HER
Well, I did hear some (older) people complain, but I liked it. Remember, half
of the word instaparty is the party thingie...
>
> 4. this one seems to be a starting phenomena of the way linux is being
> promoted - some people expect it to be "very easy to intall, require no
> reading of documentation, etc. this appears to stem from the way linux
> is being lately exposed in the media. i'd suggest that we all try to be
> a little more carefull in the way we advocate the usage of linux. the
> mantra should be "It's fun _because_ you need to learn about your
> system", rathern then "it was once hard to install, but now it's easier
> then win*".
Most of the people I installed the system for, already knew that
administrating a Linux machine is not a piece of cake, and were impressed by
the linuxconf in the root X. I told all of them that they should get a book,
and do some SERIOUS reading before they will get hold of the Linux system.
See you next insta-party (I _might_ even come to Haifa (I'll do anything for a
t-shirt ;-) When is the next insta-party in Tel Aviv? )
Liran.
--
__________________________________________________________________________
Liran Zvibel. | " You know, how is The Force
System Programmer, System Administrator. | like duct tape? Answer:
email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] | it has a light side, a dark
phone : 972 - 3 - 6493939 | side, and it holds the
home : http://www.math.tau.ac.il/~liranz| universe together. "
UIN: 708004 ; WHOIS : LZ615 | -- Larry Wall
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