Doing an Ubuntu Presentation! Ideas for subjects!!

[Dragonbite]

A while back I came up with an idea for a presentation at our computer club's General Meeting, having 3 computers side-by-side (Windows 7, Mac OS X and Linux) and go over how to do a series of fairly common actions.

I figure this will be a benefit to non-Linux users to see how easy it is to do things they likely do on their own system, as well as an introduction to how to do things in Unity to those Linux users who are hesitant to give it a try.

This isn't in-depth or complicated actions either. Some of the ideas are like
"Customize your desktop" or which can include
Change background wallpaper
Change icon themes
Change colors
Add shortcuts


Or another is "Productivity" which could show the Office offerings (MS Office for Windows, iWork for OS X and LibreOffice for Linux).

Or "Multimedia"
Playing a movie
Import and manage digital photography
image editing
movie making
play music


The biggest limiting factor is that each person will have only 2-3 minutes per subject to go over as much as possible (though there will be time to set up the system beforehand... I'm thinking lots of virtual desktops).

What subjects do you think would be interesting for an audience of general users to see as a side-by-side comparison on "how to" do something?

[Copper Bezel]

I would not waste 2-3 minutes with desktop customization. Replace it with package installation (for Ubuntu, the Software Center.)

Office productivity is a definite necessity. I see you're avoiding the browser since it's the same across platforms, and I get that, but a lot of real work happens there, too, and the way it interfaces with the desktop is different between platforms. You might bring a browser in during the "productivity" bit.

What's your audience? (It predicates questions like, would web design be a possible topic? Would your "making movies" bit be about home movies, or promotional videos? Is your audience likely to include a lot of students, who are going to be taking notes or annotating .pdfs?)

[2F4U]

Maybe sharing files, for example, with the Windows machine could be an interesting topic.

[Lars Noodén]

+1 for package installation

Most people do not believe how easy and fool-proof it is until they actually see it themselves. Telling them is one thing and then the Microsoft Effect kicks in: Windows is hard, therefore all other OSes are hard too. But actually showing it or having them try themselves really makes the point.

It is very easy to find and install packages for Ubuntu. It's one of the strong points of Linux in general. Play on it.

[Dragonbite]

Installing (and removing) programs was one of the programs and I fully intended to display the Software Store for all it's GUI glory! :)

If not, I would use it to show "alternative" programs for a particular subject, like music players (point to Software Store and show the number of music players available, and how easy it is to install one).

The audience is generally older users, some of whom are willing and interested in dabbling in Linux (which I hope this gives them added confidence to really try it).

Sharing files is a good one, both sharing a local folder and accessing a shared folder on another system.

[Dragonbite]

This is my original list of ideas. Unfortunately the meeting is only about 1 hour (maybe 90 minutes) long and if each person takes 1-2 minutes apiece then we can cover 10-20 subjects only.

That's why I thought of bundling like subjects together, so if one takes :45 seconds and the other takes 1:15 we don't loose time switching to the next person and then have to come back.

My original list:

LIST OF POSSIBLE SUBJECTS
How to ...
... change the wallpaper background (pre-installed and downloaded images)
... find your files (or navigate the system)(e.g. Explorer, Finder, Nautilus, Dolphin)
... run a program (sounds funny, but like in Macs, I haven't a clue, could also show how to use shortcuts, etc.)
... write an Office document or presentation (like MS Office, iWorks, Office for Mac, Open/Libre Office and their compatibility)
... add a printer
... install a program (downloaded, CD, repositories)
... play video (what video players)
... listen to music collection (like WMP, iTunes, Banshee)
... manage pictures (like Picasa, Live Photo, iPhoto, Photoshop Elements, Shotwell, F-spot) import pictures
edit capabilities
upload pictures to a web album
... edit an image (dedicated applications like Paint.NET, Photoshop, Gimp)
... get email (like Outlook, Live Mail, (whatever macs come with), Thunderbird (now Ubuntu's default), Evolution)
... backup the system (like Time machine, Deja Dup, Back-in-Time, etc.)
... find and play Solitaire (you laugh, but there's a reason it's included by default ;) )
... develop a simple web page (like FrontPage, Expression, Dreamweaver, Kompozer, Bluefish)
... monitor system and resources (like Task Manager, System Monitor)
... rip and burn CDs
... use a basic text editor (something lighter than Office word processors, like Notebook, Notebook ++, Gedit)
... share a file with other computers locally
... use online storage (SkyDrive, iCloud, UbuntuOne)

[Lars Noodén]

This is my original list of ideas. Unfortunately the meeting is only about 1 hour (maybe 90 minutes) long and if each person takes 1-2 minutes apiece then we can cover 10-20 subjects only.

Since your audience is a bit older, I would recommend to increasing the time budget per item and decreasing the number of items.

[lisati]

The Live CDs used to have an "Examples" folder. The Feisty CD had a video clip there, "Experiencing Ubuntu" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7iOKZe9oN8) featuring Nelson Mandela. Yes, some of us still have access to the .ogg file... :D

[Megaptera]

How about some live CDs for people to take away if they are interested?

[Dragonbite]

How about some live CDs for people to take away if they are interested?

That's what I used ShipIt! for before it was closed down. Definitely will have some CDs for people to take home.

I was hoping I could push it off to April or May so I could demo and share 12.04 LTS! At the least I'll be making a mention of it.

[Rubykuby]

Here's a good one: How to install Ubuntu.

[Dragonbite]

Here's a good one: How to install Ubuntu.

Not enough time to cover that. Plus, there are so many tutorials on that already.

Before I got into Linux, I was a little nervous about the command line until I went to a class for PICK (our mainframe environment). That was command-line only and got me past my initial fear of command line interfaces.

I also like seeing what CAN be done, and after seeing a few pieces I suspect people will be able to poke around a little easier, and explore it on their own (which is half the fun :lolflag:)

Plus, what does the Mac and Windows person do for their part?

[keithpeter]

Hello All

This may sound daft but how about demoing workspaces as a feature specific to GNU/Linux as well as newly added in Mac OS?

I find (as an 'older' user :twisted:) the combination of workspaces plus hibernate amazingly useful on my desktop. I just leave my mess at the end of a session and pick it up next time. See the Sensible Guide link in my signature.

[Dragonbite]

Hello All

This may sound daft but how about demoing workspaces as a feature specific to GNU/Linux as well as newly added in Mac OS?

I find (as an 'older' user :twisted:) the combination of workspaces plus hibernate amazingly useful on my desktop. I just leave my mess at the end of a session and pick it up next time. See the Sensible Guide link in my signature.

Something like that, I would think, would work well as showing it as part of another demonstration instead of a full subject on its own.

Mac has something similar, you are right (wonder where they got the idea ;) )

[Lars Noodén]

Hello All

This may sound daft but how about demoing workspaces as a feature specific to GNU/Linux as well as newly added in Mac OS?

I find (as an 'older' user :twisted:) the combination of workspaces plus hibernate amazingly useful on my desktop. I just leave my mess at the end of a session and pick it up next time. See the Sensible Guide link in my signature.

I've found the virtual desktops absolutely essential for productivity. You can group application windows by one project per desktop, for example.

However they're virtually unknown outside of the open source / free software communities.

[Dragonbite]

One thing that is going to be interesting is that I haven't much experience with Unity. I have Ubuntu 10.04 on my desktop, and moved to KDE on my laptop.

So I have between now and the end of December to learn Unity, and rehearse the subjects we ultimately decide on.

[Lars Noodén]

When you've decided the topics, it would be fun to see an outline of the talk.

[Dragonbite]

When you've decided the topics, it would be fun to see an outline of the talk.

So far, this is what we are looking at.

"About" (about us, hardware specs, version)
"System" (where files go, where programs are, file manager, running applications, shortcuts, installing, removing, backups)
"Look and Feel" (background, icons, themes)
"Productivity" (printing, email, calendar, contacts )
"Digital Images" (import, cataloging, editing, publishing)
"Networking" (accessing shared folders, sharing a folder, online shares)
"Multimedia" (playing, editing, music)
Questions (for individual systems, or all systems)

Should we start off the meeting as "Hi, I'm a Mac", "I'm PC", "and I'm Linux" with the cheesy music?

I've got Ubuntu 11.10 installed and updated on my eSATA drive to hook up with my wife's new laptop, and we'll be doing a "trial run" later this month.

The presentation is January 3rd., 2012