You have some points there, but not all. I am fine with the things are just now, but I am afraid also that Red Hat would gradually loose wast ground he was built upon, and that's a community, all those john does that use the certain OS, feel good with it. and recommend it to their bosses, friends, coleagues. I am working within Windows surroundings, and hence I should know what I am talking about. The story is simple: Q: I want to try Linux, what I should do? A: Install it (partitioning, boot loader, that all was not a problem). Q: Can you give me CDS? A: Yes, 3 + DOCS. Q: Wow, that's a lot (comparing to one Windows CD + Office), do I get the whole thing? A: Actually no, you will have to get the rest from the Internet. Q: Is there any easier way of trying Linux? A: You could try some other distribution. Q: Okay, give me that. Another possible Red Hat user bites the dust. Or it can go the way it is, but this way I am obliged to give a full time support for those people, and I don't have so much time. On uto, 2003-05-27 at 11:16, Matthias Saou wrote: > Igor Nestorovià wrote : > > > I am talking about newbies, from the Windows world, who used to have > > programs for playing audio and video files INCLUDED in the OS. > > Huh!? Don't tell me you can play DivX, ogg, RealAudio on Windows _without_ > downloading any additional software? I haven't actually used a Windows > based computer since the Windows 98, and at that time it wasn't possible to > play _anything_ with the base OS, not even uncompress .zip files... people > have told me it has since changed, but when I see people complaining about > the lack of "out-of-the-box" features for a GNU/Linux distribution > _compared_ to Windows, I find that almost insane. > > > I am saying the following: can we strech a bit and give help to people > > like Matthias to compose that EXTRA ISO to be downloaded, not from Red > > Hat, so they can stay clean, but from somewhere else? > > I've been thinking of doing that for some time, but as my packages evolve > quite a lot, and constantly, ithe ISO image would be quickly mostly > obsolete. > > > Red Hat should do two things: > > 1. Include the information that this CD exists, but that they have > > nothing to do with it, etc, both on the site and in the Desktop > > somewhere, like they issued that "Red Hat Speaks On Multimedia" for the > > Psyche release. > > Hmmm, I don't really like that idea. Red Hat Inc. supports already _all_ > the bundled applications of their distro, and including such information > would have some users expect full compatibility, ease of use and support of > the same level... which isn't the case. > > > 2. Present something like yum or apt bundled in the Control Center (it > > could be called "More Programs", or something), Internet oriented, with > > wast database of all sorts of programs, ready for download from > > we-all-know-which-sites. Nice warning "We don't have nothing to do with > > the following steps, and it is not supported in any way." notice would > > have to be included here. > > Then some day a disaster occurs, and 3rd party packages blow up some users > systems... then blame Red Hat Inc. claiming they installed everything from > within the distribution itself and thought is was part of Red Hat Linux. > For me this feature is a clear case "no", and I support the current > situation. > > > The point is: when newbie, or Windows convert tries Red Hat, he/she > > would not go away scared/frustrated because it doesn't have this or > > that. He will have an EXTRA ISO to choose from, just insert the CD and > > pick programs (audio, video, etc.). Advanced users (and newbies) can go > > also to Control Center and pick more programs, unsupported by Red Hat. > > The important thing is that the choice exists! > > See my comment above. IMHO you get much more to play with when you install > GNU/Linux than Windows. Put a newbie (_computer_ newbie, non techie) in > front of Windows... and watch... you'll get nothing. At most you'll see a > game of solitaire. Many people don't realize how used to Windows they are, > just like many of us don't realize how used to GNU/linux we are, and just > know where to go grab this and that in order to watch or listen to > something or achieve a certain task. > > Matthias > > -- > Clean custom Red Hat Linux rpm packages : http://freshrpms.net/ > Raw Hide 20030526 running Linux kernel 2.4.20-20.1.2002.nptl > Load : 0.21 0.62 0.93 >
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