Computer geeks for computer meek

[az]

A friend of mine was ridiculed by a salesperson when he asked to buy some SDRAM.
"Thay don't make that anymore - you need DDR"
He was told to spend $300.00 on a new motherboard.

My friend knew better and left the store. I am tempted to name the store here, but I shall restrain myself.

I think a lot of people would not have known better and spent the money, or just gone home feeling hopless about their situation. It made me think that there needs to be a place where people with almost no computer knowledge can ask really basic questions.

Ubuntu aims to target the everyday user. Perhaps there could be a forum to make computer illiterate people get more informed? To not use the word bloat, I know the Ubuntu forums are pretty fat - That would be a good argument against my suggestion. There does seem to be a great user base here, though.

Here is my suggestion for the forum name and description:

Title: Simple computer questions:

Description: There are no dumb questions.



Perhaps this forum can be marketed to attract non-computer geeks to Ubuntu.

[J. S. Jackson]

A friend of mine was ridiculed by a salesperson when he asked to buy some SDRAM.
"Thay don't make that anymore - you need DDR"
He was told to spend $300.00 on a new motherboard.

$300 for a mobo, alone?! Should be able to get a top of the line motherboard, decent cpu and a 512 stick of some value RAM for that much, easy.

[dare2dreamer]

I don't how you'd advertise/market such a forum, but I do think a "general computing questions" area on this site wouldn't hurt. Nice thing is, most of the more seasoned users here would be able to help moderate it.

[Lynx]

The problem is that even the most computer illiterate person who comes here is still more literate than the people who generally need a place like that. Perhaps we could develop a web site that is geared towards that userbase and make it affiliated with Ubuntu, but accessible separatly. The sole intention being to help people become more computer literate in a friendly, free, way. The site could have it's own forums etc. Personally I would do anything I can to contribute to a place like that. (I can write articles and I also have experience in moderating forums etc). This is just my personal idea... it may be a bit too big for what you are thinking.

[jensyt]

I think both ideas sound fairly reasonable, and I, too, would be willing to help if needed.

[az]

I guess the marketing would have to be the glue between the excellent ressources we have here and the user who is just starting to look for answers.

I was thinking of an article pointing out the excellent community support and highlighting the low level of expertise needed to run Ubuntu. A kind of "Don't be afraid of your computer anymore - use Ubuntu."

"Let's help you explore your computer!" kind of campaign.

For such a thing to happen, realistically it would happen in a few steps:
0- The forums comes into existance.
1- A slashdot, OSnews, $news_site article that only computer geeks read, but they can refer others to.
2- The forum becomes successful, leading to more articles and exposure...

[Lynx]

As I said I have experience as a moderator and article writer (though I haven't written any computer articles), PM me if there is any way I can help.

[Quest-Master]

This is actually a good idea; I have some friends wanting to get into Ubuntu, and I'm sure they'd benefit from this. I've modded various forums for a while now as well, so give me a heads up in case anything is needed.

[dare2dreamer]

When I began playing with linux, the thing I kept running into was "will this piece of hardware work under this wacky new operating system?"

Now, in my case, I was just goofing around on a spare machine. If it didn't work, burst into flames or opened a dimensional portal into the nether realms it really didn't affect my day all that much...well, except for maybe the last one, but I am fortunate enough to have some experience in dealing with that sort of thing.

In the case of a more typical, dimensional-rift-fearing computer user, a piece of hardware that is found to be nonfunctional (or requiring more than autoconfiguration as is usually the case) under linux is probably located in the only computer they have access to. In essence, if it doesn't autodetect, it's likely to be their end of their dancing with the penguin.

Having information at the ready about common, and maybe not so common, hardware has always seemed to be the most helpful thing I've found in playing with machines. Because I'm a natural born tinkerer, my motto is generally, "If I can find documentation, I can make it work."

All this adds up to the fact that, as a general rule, people are really only inclined to play with linux if all of their components work 'out of the box'. Regardless of the level of "almost there" an installation or live cd offers, most people will simply walk away if every little widget isn't working perfectly on installation.

Never mind that, in truth, this level of perfection isn't the case on any operating system. Most of the people who are playing with linux as a potential alternative to Microsoft Windows are likely to have not installed their operating system in the first place.

So, we as linux advocates are up against it on multiple levels. We have to meet the existing expectations, and in some cases like hardware detection ultimately exceed them.

The only exception to this rule is the community concept.

We, as an already existing userbase, have an opportunity to turn it all around by acting as mentor, guru and sage where appropriate. If autodetection gets them just far enough to be able to get to the internet, they can point their web browser to something like this forum.

At that moment, we have a chance to replace the "last mile" of the myth of magical autodetection by offering a little advice and encouragment as a welcoming gesture. This in a nutshell is what makes the linux community different...generally speaking, we are willing to help if you've shown the tenacity to get far enough along to ask a specific question.

Of course for all of this to really work, we need those piles of documentation, that nearly mythical "it works, or how it can be made to" hardware list and the type of people willing to play community mentor from time to time. Fortunately, we seem to have a fair amount of those things to work with here.

I remember my early experiences with linux, and it was the community that sold me. My first software compile was performed successfully thanks to the developer's willingness to walk a newbie through the process in a chat room. Things like that changed my perspective on computing. The idea that someone was willing to spend their time to help a total stranger who had no idea what they were doing blew my mind, and ultimately led me to strive to do the same sort of ad-hoc support where I can.

Now days, I administer a few boxes for charity projects. I build computers out of other people's leftover parts and give them to families in need. I'm not a programmer writing software, but I contribute where I can.

Most of all, I'll lend a hand to anyone trying to get their machine through that mythical "last mile"... so long as it happens to be running linux.