[gNewSense-users] Promoting gNewSense to GNU/Linux newbies

[Michael Fötsch]

Hi all,

On January 6, Brian Brazil wrote, in a thread titled "The name":

> For some reason I doubt many newcomers will be using this distro
> [gNewSense]

I don't think it has to be this way. Up to now, I used to hand out
Ubuntu CDs to anyone who asked me for an alternative to Windows (and
sometimes even to those who didn't ask ;-). I wouldn't hesitate to do
the same with gNewSense.

But maybe I'd also tell them to go to ubuntu.com for support, because
gnewsense.org is still in need of (at least) some polish. Just to give
you an example, when gnewsense.org was promoted as an alternative to
Windows Vista at badvista.org, someone commented saying (I'll
paraphrase), "you call this an alternative to Windows? I visited the web
site and it says I need 35GB disk space for gNewSense." (A
misinterpretation of the Builder discussion, of course.)

This shows that the web site is not accessible to (potential) GNU/Linux
newbies yet, although gNewSense itself has real potential, being
user-friendly and offering practical advantages, and at the same time
having "plenty of freedom talk too" (as RMS said in an essay).

And I'd like to contribute in order to change this.

I'm thinking about having material to showcase gNewSense's capabilities
(many people wrongly assume that it's as ugly as the web site; my
apologies to the designer of the site! :-); to rebut GNU/Linux myths; to
offer help with switching from Windows or the Mac; to provide pointers
to the free software philosophy; etc.

But before I start writing material, I'd like to hear your opinions:
 * Do you think the time would be well spent?
 * How should we go about this, technically?
 * Who'd like to help me?
 * Any opinions welcome

Kind Regards,
M.F.