[PLUG] Linux Expo/Demo/whatever

[Steve Bourland]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2000, Matt Wallace wrote:

> I could be wrong.. but it seems to me that you guys are missing the
> point.. 

Entirely possible for me at least.  My impression of the point is to get
people to want to move away from the Evil Empire, towards a better
solution for them.

> Yea.. it's true that Linux might be .05% faster at task X than

I am not talking about 0.05%, I am talking about can do it vs. can't
handle it...

> Windows.. but the thing about performance comparisons is they are SO many
> factors these days that they start to become meaningless.

Agreed 99.99%, but there are still meaningful things to look at (ie, can
handle 4 mp3 encoding jobs and play mp3s vs. can't do more than one thing
at a time).

> What we should
> be showing off about linux is flexibilty, customization, stability and
> and the fact that it's free and open.  Also I'd be careful about showing
> emphasizing how much Linux can be like Windows.. Why is this a good thing?

This is a good thing in that it will allow people to make a relatively
painfree transistion (okay, I am smoking my crack pipe now, there is no
such thing as a painfree transistion).  If you are trying to get Mr. (or
Miss) General Public User to change their OS, you need to make it look
easy.  What are their motivations for changing, other than to get better
performance (a loose term) from their machine?  They can start out looking
like Windows until they get comfortable and can then start to change
things around to suit their desires.  That first step is the hardest one
to get them to make.

> Sure it's cool that you can share files with Samba.. but how about showing
> off single sign-on capabilities with SSH.. You have to realize that making
> the switch to Linux is more about the UNIX paradigm in general than the
> particulars of Linux.  Anyways.. that's my 2 cents..

I'd say we definitely got more than our monies worth, many good points to
think about.