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[Mike <mike AT pikeaero.com>]

What about an appliance-like linux distro, whld something like that do
the trick, sort of like those firewall appliance type distros?

I don't think it would be terribly difficult to role our own linux
distro appliance thingy, eh?

But, would that be the ticket?

--Mike

On 02/19/2012 09:42 PM, Andrew Norton wrote:
> I've been on this list for 14 months now, and I've seen a lot of stuff.
> Mostly it's been "new T2's".
> 
> What I have *NOT* seen, is anything for the real audience, the everyday
> user.
> 
> I'm a fairly techie guy (used to design robots for the nuclear industry,
> currently work for a tech news site, and on a distributed computing
> project that designs particle accelerators) and yet, I'm stuck with OpenNIC.
> 
> What few guides and documents there are, are geared towards the 1000
> (estimate only) that would like to run a T2. For someone like me, who
> has VERY limited knowledge about this topic, there's almost nothing.
> That's not good.
> 
> Imagine a car. It may have the BEST engine in the world, but if it's in
> the bodyshell, and with the controls of a Ford Model T, no-one will want
> one. You will get a few enthusiasts, but the mass market will say 'looks
> ugly, and too hard to use' and you will have effectively wasted most of
> your time.
> 
> It's the same problem linux had 15 years ago. It was designed for
> specialists in that field by other people in that field. It wasn't until
> the likes of Ubuntu, with its userfriendlyness that it started to become
> a viable alternative.
> 
> It's a VERY common failing with tech-groups. Everyone you see and talk
> to has a good knowledge on the subject, so you forget about the everyday
> person that knows nothing. Instead, because it's 'obvious', you ignore
> userfriendlyness, to focus on more cool new tech stuff.
> The number of groups I've been involved with over the years that has
> done this will astound you.
> 
> The best test is to, every now and then, step back and say "that woman a
> few doors away, could she use this, if she really wanted to, without
> leaving our site?"
> If the answer is no, you've got a userfriendlyness problem.
> 
> I brought this up in the IRC chan already, but I was advised to bung it
> here as well, so here it is.
>