That's a PC User Group meeting, not the GNU/Linux variety.

I'd known for most of the past year that there was a local PC user\r\ngroup. There was apparently once a GNU/Linux users group in the valley,\r\nbut all traces have disappeared.

So...I manage to remember the existence of the group, track down the\r\nmeeting date, and location (realizing it was the same day), ran some\r\nerrands, and still managed to show up mostly on time...

I walk into the banquet room expecting to find a half dozen 30-50\r\nsomething guys drinking beers.

There were 80 people in the room, by my count. Most of them in the\r\n50+ range, and quite a few pretty clearly retired. All of them earnest.\r\nThe topic for the evening was "Microsoft Windows Shortcut Keys". The\r\naudience took copious notes.

The presentation (and pre-presentation) discussion covered a number\r\nof topics. I walked in on a presentation of using the MS Windows\r\nExplorer to view graphics files. Questions included "how do I know what\r\nsort of file I have" (YT bit his tongue on the suggestion file\r\nfoo). Demonstration of enabling file extensions in MSWE.

I realize that This Is The Great Unwashed. This Is Who We Are Trying\r\nTo Convert.

The Distinguished Speaker appears. There's a ten minute break, and\r\nhe begins. He writes the weekly computer column in the local paper, and\r\nhas published a few books (non-technical, it turns out, they're light\r\nfiction instead). As emerges over the course of his presentation, he is\r\n103% Microsoft. His attitude to the audience borders on patronizing\r\n(discussion of proximity and side of border, is left deliberately\r\nobscure). The audience, OTOH, appears to be somewhat used to these\r\nantics, and some backhanded commentary is heard in the galleries.

He begins with a survey of operating systems. Win98 and WinXP split\r\nabout 75% of the users, the remainder are a mix of 95, ME (lots of\r\nthumbs down), NT, and 2K. Conspicuously absent from the survey are\r\nMac (well, it is a PC user group), GNU/Linux, BeOS, or the\r\nBSDs. In a rare and trying show of restraint, I avoid obvious mention\r\nof this fact. Talking with several folks afterwards, I find that some\r\nhave experience going back to CP/M days and before -- this isn't an\r\nentirely inexperienced crowd, and some have seen systems prior to\r\nlegacy MS Windows and WIMP.

Talk begins. The content is...pretty fundamental. Things like\r\nwindows+R == run, windows+F == find, windows+E == Explorer.\r\nAutocomplete options in MSIE. I note that people are listening\r\nattentively and notes are being taken. It's also interesting to note\r\nthat the answer by advanced users to pointing and clicking through\r\nmenus is to find (clearly intuitive) keyboard shortcuts to cut through\r\nthe cruft. And command lines with tab completion and history search are\r\nless useful how?.... Don't get me started.

As the discussion turns to MSIE and hot keys -- specifically alt-F4 to\r\nkill popups, I finally can't keep my yap shut, and mention that Netscape\r\nand Mozilla have a popup killing option (tabs, I figure, are something\r\nthat needs to be broken to these folks slowly). Remembering advice I'd\r\nbeen given recently, I decide to shut my yap from here on out (tongue\r\nbitten on the matter of PowerToys, the replacement to TweakUI, how to\r\nadd My Computer to the WinXP desktop, and a few other items). This\r\ndoesn't save me though, as the speaker calls on me to answer a\r\nquestion. Twice.

But the popups discussion, and other issues -- the crap release that\r\nwas ME, software upgrades or system failures that required OS upgrades\r\nthat required replacing HW wholesale. There's an undercurrent of Not\r\nBeing Quite Happy.

The Natives Are Getting Restless.

There's a strong current of There's Got To Be a Better Way. Some of\r\nthe hoi polloi remember a time before legacy MS Windows. And while they\r\ngrant that it took some knowledge to figure things out, Things Worked\r\nBetter. Several iterations of crap product shipments, often upgrades\r\nmasquerading as the Emperor's New Clothes (NT, ME, 2K), data locked into\r\nproprietary formats, browser annoyances, and a constant mental haze\r\nwhich they don't yet realize is a symptom of using the anointed tools,\r\nrather than some personal failing (aside to Ross: one of the major\r\nadvantages of Debian, BTW, is that this immense fog lifts, as you See\r\nYour System As It Is). Several complaints about personal data locked\r\ninto obscure, opaque, proprietary formats. Annoyances (both the website\r\nand in general), and the awareness that they, as The Public, are being\r\nlabeled The Consumer.

They're ready to try something different, based on a different\r\nmodel.

At the same time, it's painfully clear that the alternative has to be\r\nVery, Very, Clear. I don't think that the command line is\r\nanathema. But it is symptomatic of a problem -- a lack of uniformity or\r\nconsistency of core tools and user configuration. Specifically:

\r\n
• Installation.
\r\n
• Network configuration.
\r\n
• Fonts and localization Should Just Work™
\r\n
• Copious, concise, and clear systems documentation should be\r\navailable (launch with an <F1> keypress?).
\r\n

Knoppix may be an answer, or at least the path to it. It's\r\ndefinitely a compelling demonstration, and I'd love to spend an hour and\r\na half in front of this crowd showing what a single disk and a minute's\r\nboot cycle can make available. You certainly can't beat it for ease of\r\ninstallation. As a next step, a pushbutton "transfer this distribution\r\nto the local HD" option might smooth over the whole getting started\r\nissue.

Still you are then left with the issue of dealing with an awful lot\r\nof people who are, if not actively afraid of computers, very much\r\nbaffled by them. They operate at a low level. GNU/Linux may\r\noffer them a better platform (I can still use tools learned a decade and\r\na half ago, and am in fact doing so as I write this document), in that\r\ntools tend to exist for a long time, aren't replaced wholesale, and are\r\ndeveloped incrementally rather than in swell foops (this was my answer\r\nto the Parental Unit complaining she'd have to learn a whole new way of\r\ndoing things).

A challenge. Worthwhile?