Subject: Re: Speaking of Guides...
From: Paul J. Lucas (pjl@barefooters.org)
Date: Wed Mar 08 2000 - 17:38:10 MST
On Wed, 8 Mar 2000, Reid Anderson wrote:
> ... but what about a Guide for setting up some stuff?
I think it's not only a good idea, but a necessary one if Linux
is every to be a serious OS competitor to average (non-geek)
users. Windows may suck, but a non-geek can install and
configure it.
IMHO, Yellow Dog, which is, in my perception, a "value added
package" of Linux, should do everything possible to make YDL a
"one-stop shop" for Linux on PPCs.
Sure, there are mailing lists, archives thereof, FAQs, Usenet
(comp.os.linux.powerpc and Deja.com), but it becomes a major
hunting expedition to actually find anything that isn't
outdated.
Making such information on the YDL website does two things:
1. Makes users happy because they can get the answers to their
questions quickly. Happy users means word-of-mouth
recommendations. That translates into revenue for YDL.
2. Attracts new users independently. If available on a web
site (in HTML form so it's easily indexed and comes up in
search engines), it will attract other Linux users who are
doing a lot of head-scratching tryin to get their systems
configured. Upon seeing a wealth of how-to information on
the YDL site, they think, "Hey, YDL must be pretty good."
In the biz, this is referred to as "branding." This also
translates into revenue for YDL.
A key is to KEEP THE INFORMATION UP TO DATE. There are plenty
of web pages out there that talk about X or Y on, for example,
Linux on PowerBooks, but a lot talk about the ancient
PowerBooks and not the '99s. Additionally, most of the Linux
information out there is for the Intel architecture, not the
Mac.
Personally, I'd *LOVE* to see a web page for configuring stuff
for PowerBooks (or Mac laptops in general), e.g., how to get
power management to work.
- Paul
P.S.: Once I get my PowerBook the way I want it (getting a
working battery monitor is top on my list), I will create a
page for it myself to share the knowledge. YDL would be free
to incorporate any/all of it.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Sun Apr 02 2000 - 21:09:30 MDT