I would certainly want to make it clear to anyone considering starting with Linux that unless they are already online with another machine (I am using a beat-up old sony running WinXP) it will be absolute hell for them to find anyone who can help them get started. I could not possibly have figured out what my problems were unless I had been online, and I spent altogether about a week picking people's brains online (on this and two other lists, in addition to talking to the suppliers) before I really felt that I had the problems identified. I couldn't have done it using an online terminal at the local public library, it would have been insane, because you keep getting sent back to the machine to try suggestions. I hope that explains my ready recourse to offering money - it's a reflex from not really expecting to be able to deal with it except as a well-defined commercial contract, which I could book and rely on. That sort of contract you can set up with one phone call - assuming there is a commercial outfit in your town that you can locate for such tasks ,which is probably not the case anyway, but you see what I am getting at - I was looking for a one-stop solution I could just dump the problem on, who could provide a hands-on engineer rather than just advice. That would be a good angle for some commercial software service outfit: they should advertise as "linux newbies' rescue centres".
Jon Reynolds wrote: > Hi all, > > I would like to add something to this, although not entirely relevant to > Rowan's case, but it reminds me of a lot of people thinking when it comes to > adopting Linux. > > I have tried, half-heartedly, to get family members to switch to Ubuntu, or > even just try it out for a while, thinking once they've used it for a while > they will convert. My father, for example, seems genuinely keen to give it a > go; he isn't a 'why would I want anything but windows' person, he is quite > open minded to the open source community, but as a basic user has a bit of > fear of the unknown. > > His reason for not trying is support. Now for most of us that's not an > issue... we have a problem, we go on the web and find a solution. He is not > like that, not capable of that and not inclined to want to do that. How he > works at the moment and how he wants to continue to work, is that if > something goes wrong with the computer, if he can't solve it over the phone > with me, he just drops it into his local computer shop and says 'fix it'. > > I am not sure on the capabilities of the local computer shop, but assuming > they are Windows people, then he is right in as far as what does a new linux > user do when things go wrong? I think this puts off a lot of people even > trying.. because of the 'what if something goes wrong'. > > Perhaps most local computer shops are full of linux buffs anyway and they > would be happier to fix his pc if it was linux rather than windows...? > > Jon Reynolds > > > On Tue 24/02/09 21:02 , Rowan rowan.berke...@googlemail.com sent: > >> Thanks but I shall wait until someone is able to reinstall the driver, >> install DKMS, and give the thing a general once-over, as discussed >> earlier.Please understand that although I appreciate the 'open source >> philosophy' I do NOT regard myself as competent to fix this. >> > > > -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
