New Idea

[edwarben89]

I was looking at distros on Distro Watch and most of the top ones were user-friendly (of course).  What if we made another version that catered to that type of user.  I am not suggesting anything radical.  I am only suggesting maybe a short video be put on the desktop that walks a user through screenshots of using VL.  Maybe we could include a small script that would delete them for disk space later.

[caitlyn]

Pardon me, but...  I'm of the opinion that VL is designed to be a user-friendly distro based on Slackware.  What isn't terribly user friendly is the installer in 5.9 and prior.  Have you tried the new GUI installer in 6.0?  Another area where it isn't exactly user-friendly is localization/internationalization.  The latest 6.0 Standard beta has gdm so you can choose your language and locale in the GUI at boot.  I think the main issues are being dealt with already.

The main problem with a video presentation is that it would require significant space on the iso that is now used for apps.  I think you're idea isn't a bad one but it should probably be implemented on the website, not in the distro itself.

[wcs]

I never know what user-friendly means, because it depends on the user.
I suppose for a newcomer to Linux, VL will indeed not be that friendly.
Vasm and VasmCC take a big amount of "unfriendliness" from system configuration, but there will always be instances where one needs to go to the command line...

Partly this might be because some of the "friendly" gui tools out there are integrated in kde and gnome. The cost of using a lighter and less bloated environment will be that some things will be missing. Not impossible to add, though. You might be able to install these frontends, if you also install the dependencies (this comment does not apply to the SOHO version, of course).

As an example, I just ordered a bluetooth dongle, and when it arrives I'll have to fiddle a bit with some commands and files to get it going. There are bluetooth managers for kde and gnome, but you might not want to install the dependencies, and they might not even be in the repositories.
A similar thing might apply for 3g-modems. I suppose a new user might prefer to have the system pop up some notification, and open up a gui frontend along with some instructions and tooltips, instead of looking at /var/log/messages.
Another example might be when you should put a line in /etc/rc.d/rc.local to get something going at system startup. I suppose a new user (to Linux) will go to the "Autostarted applications" setting in xfce. Which might not work...

But I wonder whether these things are so much of a problem... I guess the "new user" just has to learn a couple of new things (like we all did). Which really do help in the long term. Personally, I think I prefer typing "hcitool scan" for searching bluetooth devices and "wvdialconf" to get a 3G-modem going than having a bunch of running daemons, system tray icons, and pop-up notifications. Same for the "autostarted" applications, where I can have all the fine-grained control in the world, and start something in rc.local, or before that, or in .xinitrc, or in .bashrc, or in xfce, etc, etc...

I guess my point is I don't see anything wrong in users having to learn new things, even if these things aren't plain obvious. Even if they need to read the docs and discover the logic of the system.

At the same time, I agree with you that VL is more "old-user-friendly" than "new-user-friendly". It can be daunting in the beginning, and sometimes you just want your work to get going and not worry about what to type in a terminal to get a device working. And I guess it takes a certain type of "curious" personality to see the challenges as interesting and not as hassle.

So I think the video is a great idea, with some sort of guided tour, perhaps not just of the gui, but also of the most used commands and system files.
But as Caitlyn said, I think it would belong in the website, and not in the distro.

EDIT: Ok, this turned out to be huge... sorry for the rambling.

[edwarben89]

Yeah maybe we could embed a YouTube video.  A link on the desktop too.
c
I have had the least problems with VL.  Maybe because I already took computer programming and CET classes.

[StrayBit]

I suppose I might be considered somewhere between new-user and old-user as I have worked on-and-off trying to get Linux to work on one of my PCs.  Most of my attempts have been Slack - dating back to Slack 4 which was supposed to have run on 8MB ram but found that installation required a bit more   I was able to get a couple installed but then was lost: didn't know what parameters my old monitors needed (and scared of blowing them up???). man whatever always got me "Sorry Charlie! No tuna for you." or some such.

It was refreshing to be able to install VL 5.9, get almost every thing running with very few questions.  Some times I can even get a sensible (to me ) answer from man   Most of the time, however, I don't even know what to ask it

I'm still looking for a tutorial on setting up my local network with protected access to Internet.  Some one scared me off of trying to use one PC as the router, local DNS, Samba server, and firewall.  Finally dusted off my Linksys Wirelss router with 4 port switch which provides me with DHCP as well as connects my wireless broadband - I just don't know if it is protecting me.  I found out the hard way that the so-called anti-virus programs don't

I'm very impressed with VL and the support provided in this forum and all of you deserve humungeous kudos.

Now, how to figure out how to get streaming radio to play...

[caitlyn]

Start a new topic on the streaming media issue in the Multimedia section of the forum, please.  It works for me but without knowing the specifics (version of VL, what app you're trying to use, what kind of problems you are seeing) it's impossible to help.  I listen to Israeli radio with VL regularly, mostly through a web interface.

[edwarben89]

Sorry everybody. I was just so busy with school and every thing else at the end of the semester. My computer is limited in processor and RAM so I used screenshots of VMWare player and Festival for text-to-speech. The YouTube channel is http://youtube.com/edwarben89

[edwarben89]

Can someone give me feedback via PM, Reply, or a comment on Youtube?

[kidd]

I like the idea, and the video shows installing VL is not difficcult at all.

Festival gives a kraftwerk-y 'retro' taste .   I don't know where we could promote that video though...

I suppose that focusing to vl 6 , we could try another video with GUI installer (I never used it myself) .

Very nice idea

[rbistolfi]

They do look very nice. I am sure we can find the way to promote them in the net or make them part of the VL resources in some way.

[edwarben89]

OK. I am doing the research. Youtube is apparently being modeled into a networking site, like MySpace. So I searched for people who uploaded Linux related videos and e-mailed them. From here we can start a Linux group on Youtube and up statistics.

Also, Youtube tries to sell a service to promote your videos, of course. I did ask some questions on the Youtube forum about how to raise stats without having money. Since its a webpage, links to the pages could help. I am not sure but anyone making a group of subscribers (you get updates on someone's channel) or friends could raise ranking.

The bottom line is: How much time can we put into producing quality videos? I would definitely point people who know how to use VL and want to contribute in the direction of resources.

[Macdaddy]

I never know what user-friendly means, because it depends on the user.
I suppose for a newcomer to Linux, VL will indeed not be that friendly.
Vasm and VasmCC take a big amount of "unfriendliness" from system configuration, but there will always be instances where one needs to go to the command line...

Hey, I'm an admitted Linux idiot, well, indulge me please, slightly smarter than idiot...
I had some hardware issues, but I got great help from VectorLinux support.
Once I listened, and understood, I though the 5.9 SOHO install went really well.

I have to confess I let some linux fans at work attempt to steer me to other distro's so I have some experience...

o.k. VL's install is not as slick as OpenSuse, but VL is understandable, useable, and fairly powerful for a neophyte to use.  OS paints a pretty picture but takes some of the options out of your hands.  Don't ask me about grub.....

"pssst: hey buddy try this" landed me a set of Fedora discs.  I really, really wanted it to work.  My daughter is at NC State and there is Red Hat all over the campus.  So I'm either paying for it or it's subsidizing NCSU, I found either to be an attraction.  Something didn't work right, I can't remember now, either Fedora or OS wouldn't work with my wireless adapter and by searching I found that I was a linux bufoon for attempting to use that card.  Funny how VL picked it up no problem, no attitude.  I'm really not a fan of the linux attitude that exists in alot of the distros.  Not much of fan of the african flavor names/color schemes/socialist attitude distros either.

You guys have a good product.  I like the way you leave the politics of operating systems off the site (in the forums, that's o.k.).  I think you have a pretty good future, you just need to somehow break away from the hundreds of other linux distro's.  I wish I could tell you how to....

Sorry about the length.........once I get on a soapbox I tend to have a hard time getting off of it.