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Linux SIG
by Jim Holder, caholder@surfbest.net - December 23, 2001 at 19:30:47:
The December 2, 2001 meeting was a restart of this SIG. No topic was indicated in announcing the meeting.A theme of the meeting was provided by the SIG leader, Making Linux User Friendly, where "User Friendly" means someone without either Unix or Linux experience or a programming background.
A sample of beginner's guides representing what seems to be available at no cost (downloadable from the Web) was past around the SIG members to call attention the need for better installation and fundamental use guides for beginners in Linux.
Attention was then given to the known distributors (some 40 at this time) and which of these are considered the top 10 distributors. It was also noted that both Mandrake and SuSE have matured their installation scripts to such a degree that in almost all cases the installation seems to proceed to completion without errors.
The problem of support and compatibility was discussed. It was mentioned that rather than listing what is now supported, the compatibility list presents those items (hardware) which are either not supported or are being worked on, but not available
Two documents were noted as to the problem of installation and booting: The Linux BootPrompt-HOWTO and the Control-Escape: Alternative Software discussion of configuring LILO. The purpose was to see the need for a more user-friendly description.
As a measure of the state-of-the-art in the Windows vs. Linux development two software products descriptions were passed around the SIG: DragonLinux (a version of Linux that runs in the Windows environment) and Win4Lin (a software package that allows running Windows applications under Linux (Games seem to be an exception).
The meeting closed with a voiced need for several of the SIG members to look at existing beginners publications (free off the Web), and published hardcopy (Linux for Dummies, Unix for Dummies, etc) to assemble a user-friendly guide that the SIG would support. Also, voice is the need for several SIG members to begin a completion of "useful" links for the beginner. Patricia Bunning (bunningp@yahoo.org) volunteered to begin a search and compilation of firewalls and antivirus software that runs under Linux.
The next meeting, January 6, 2001, will begin to look at the format and content of the mini HOWTO, HOWTO and man documentation, where user friendly guides might draw on the contents, but the information would be translated to a beginning user's needs. The improvement of the installation scripts by the top Linux providers will be considered and how this will affect the information needs of a user.
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