Comprehensive solution required...for feel, lookand usability

[futureal2032]

Hi,
first of all let me declare few things..before i incur wrath from many fellow Ubuntu users..

1. I hate to post this requirement as i am a proud Ubuntu user for last 3 - 4 years...i have completely switched to Ubuntu for last 1 and half years.

2. I require this out of necessity ....and because lot of people (specially Windows users) are not willing to take efforts and spend time for doing things differently than what they are used to.

3. And finally because in my 10 years of experience as a windows IT support guy... i have come across many computer users (Many of them IT professionals) ..who can not start a particular software they are using if you just delete it's shortcut from Desktop.

Ok here is the deal..
i am setting up a Ubuntu based Internet Browsing center (first in my city) in a 100% Windows based customer base market.

and although Ubuntu does everything ..in many cases better and faster than windows, I want to have few things which will make customers used to windows like the center.

I have already configured Ubuntu to look mostly like windows xp.

1. MESSENGERS: Although Pidgin, Empathy etc.. serve the purpose well. Windows users are used to having different messenger window for different clients. i.e. they open google talk, Yahoo messenger and msn seperately.

Is there any Ubuntu based messenger which has that facility? I mean I don't want the buddy lists from different messengers shown in the same window..as all multi protocol messengers do.

2. I have tried to install windows messengers on wine but they just don't work smoothly.

3. So i want a comprehensive solution ..where people have all these icons of desktop for different things and messengers (like windows).
Currently i have made the look like xp and have Opera, Firefox, aMsn, Word, Excel icons on Desktop (I have changed the icons for open office writer and spreadsheet to look like MS Word and Excel)

The main problem is havving different clients for yahoo messenger and google talk as they are the most widely used messengers. So as aMsn is a dedicated msn client are their any dedicated clients for Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger which i cna use on Ubuntu?

4. Has anyone installed ie7 or ie8 on Wine on Ubuntu 9.10?

[BenAshton24]

ie7 & 8 under wine are pretty nasty, I have ie7 installed for testing my websites but other than that it is pretty much unusable. I know this is pretty cringe-worthy but you could always just make another copy of the firefox shortcut and change it's name and icon...(I feel sick just thinking about that :P) I mean, people who use IE aren't really going to notice the difference.

As for messengers I would recommend "emesene" over amsn... it's much more user friendly in my opinion.

as for all this changing open office icons and things; I personally couldn't live with myself having to do such things to an Ubuntu installation. :P

[Locutus_of_Borg]

those IT professionals ought be fired from their job



what you are doing is trying to use a screwdriver like a hammer

just use Windows if you are catering to a demographic so computer illiterate that if the icon has different colors on it they get lost and scared, i assume your potential customers would be utterly boggled if they sat down and the mouse was on the left side!?


its good that you want to use linux, but if you're target audience is abject morons such as you describe, dont set your self up for trouble/failure

[futureal2032]

those IT professionals ought be fired from their job



what you are doing is trying to use a screwdriver like a hammer

just use Windows if you are catering to a demographic so computer illiterate that if the icon has different colors on it they get lost and scared, i assume your potential customers would be utterly boggled if they sat down and the mouse was on the left side!?


its good that you want to use linux, but if you're target audience is abject morons such as you describe, dont set your self up for trouble/failure

Hi you and BenAshton24 both are right.. Thats why i declared that what i hate what i am requesting.

I have decided to not install ie7 because people by now know Firefox. I downloaded a good app "Play for Linux" and have managed to make a system which won't confuse dumb windows users.

As for firing such professionals.. you would be either shocked or go and if i told you some of my experiences. (One example.. one senior developer at a company i give support to dis not know if his laptop had usb ports and did not know what port is called a usb port. he also did not know that you can share and give internet connection wireless. I can tell you his exact words when i asked him if you need ps2 or usb mouse: "I have one small round connector with 6 small holes in it and there are 4 rectangular slits at the back side of my laptop.")

Anyways thanks for the reply.

[BenAshton24]

Hi you and BenAshton24 both are right.. Thats why i declared that what i hate what i am requesting.

I have decided to not install ie7 because people by now know Firefox. I downloaded a good app "Play for Linux" and have managed to make a system which won't confuse dumb windows users.

As for firing such professionals.. you would be either shocked or go and if i told you some of my experiences. (One example.. one senior developer at a company i give support to dis not know if his laptop had usb ports and did not know what port is called a usb port. he also did not know that you can share and give internet connection wireless. I can tell you his exact words when i asked him if you need ps2 or usb mouse: "I have one small round connector with 6 small holes in it and there are 4 rectangular slits at the back side of my laptop.")

Anyways thanks for the reply.

I love reading about people that are supposed to be knowledgeable but are actually completely lost most of the time and baffle you that they actually have qualifications in computer science.

http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_stuptech.shtml very good website that has saved me from hours of boredom :P

Anyways, back on topic, I hope that everything goes well and that you can help share Linux with a community who otherwise probably wouldn't ever hear about it :D

Ben.