Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Ubuntu begginers guide

[allcoms]

Hi Anna and list

On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 11:55 AM, MJ Ray <address@hidden> wrote:
> Anna Morris wrote:
>> I was thinking of running a ubuntu for beginners workshop in the new year,
>> something to explain the *system and the philosophy* to some average
>> windows/mac users. I think that the key audience would be those who are
>> quite political, generally a bit rebellious, or
>> anti-capitalist - but people who didn't know about ubuntu before hand. [...]

I'd be up for helping out with that.

> I don't think I can be a practical help, but wouldn't the
> not-for-profit democratic-association-led Debian system be a better
> fit than the for-profit corporate-led Ubuntu one for such an audience?
> OK, both are rebellious and neither are anti-capitalist or very
> political, but there are small differences in philosophy between them.

I agree with Mr Ray in that there is certainly nothing anti-capitalist
about Ubuntu nor free software as a whole- RMS has always maintained
he has no problems with people making money off free software and so
its good for Red Hat, Canonical, Novell etc. that this is encouraged.
We're not targeting anti-capitalists rather people who'd like more
choice, control and freedom to use their computer as they please
whilst saving a few quid on licences as a bonus.

As for Debian being a better choice I'd disagree- certainly if we're
talking vanilla Debian rather than a desktop-orientated Debian
derivative such as Mepis, sidux or Mint Debian (the latter I'll admit
I've not tried yet but intend to soon). I'd certainly always pick
Debian over buntu for server deployment but I think we're targeting
average desktop users here rather than admins.

There are a few reasons why Ubuntu is better for Linux noobs than
Debian but the main one for me is definitely the jockey hardware tool
which greatly simplifies the installation of non-free drivers for wifi
and graphics devices, the proper functioning of which can make or
break a desktop users Linux experience. jockey is missing from the
Debian repos.

Dan