Demoing, plus The Good and The Bad

[Michael Hicks <hick0088@tc.umn.edu>]

> I forgot to add this to my previous post.
> 
> If you were going to do a Linux demo for somebody, what would you do to
> impress them? I've got a Pentium 233 running RedHat 5.2.

Demo things:

 * Prove that Netscape runs.
 * Set up XDM if you can..  You should be able to easily do this in
RedHat
   by editing /etc/inittab, and change the line:
     id:3:initdefault:
   to:
     id:5:initdefault:
   This can show that people using Linux aren't forced to see the
command
   line..  Well, they won't be forced to see it in the future, at
least..
 * Virtual Desktops in X
 * Multiple X sessions
 * Install Gnome or KDE to give users a nicer desktop.  Mention that
many
   distributions already ship with KDE, plus RedHat will (most likely)
have
   Gnome 1.0 in RedHat 6.0..
 * Get WINE and show off a few Windows apps.  If you have a game (or
access
   to one) that works in WINE, prove that at least _some_ Windows
   applications will work.
 * If you have two computers, do some FTP transfers..
 * Remote execution of X apps (you could even try and set up a
compression
   scheme to run a program over a modem..  But that could be tricky..)

Good points about Linux:

 * Distributions like RedHat and Debian have package management -
generally
   considered to be better than Windows' "Install/Remove" system, since 
   _all_ files (except those in your home directory) can be traced to
   packages..
 * Many great things for students in college 
   * students can access files from home
   * share files more easily between each other (You'd be amazed how
often
     people were using e-mail to send 20-Megabyte files back and forth
in
     my dorm last year..  I'm amazed people didn't get messages from
crazed
     sysadmins about it all..)
   * Resistant to Denial-of-Service attacks
   * Makes a great Quake server ;-)

     I firmly believe that there is a significant group of students that
need
     PCs with XWindows and other robust networking capabilities.  Here
at the
     U, many students need access to programs for Mathematics, Computer
     Science, Mechanical Engineering, and other courses - largely served
from
     Unix boxes.  They could access these programs via XWindows on their
own
     computers, instead of trying to get into the, often crowded,
computer
     labs (I use it for my programming courses, and my roommate uses it
     for his Mathematics class that requires using programs like
Mathematica
     and Maple.)

     When computer manufacturers finally start pre-installing Linux, I
think
     they should initially target the "entering college" market.

     Of course, maybe the U is just weird, and therefore I'm biased..

Not-so-good points about Linux:

 * Default configuration can have security problems - Most normal people
   don't need an IMAP server running on their box...
 * Package management is not easily done by GUI..
 * All Linux (GUI) file managers suck (Mine sucks the most, since it
doesn't 
   work ;-) KDE probably has the best one right now..
 * Version confusion - We hate to admit it, but people get confused
about
   Linux versions.  I was talking to someone recently who had trouble
picking
   out the right version of RedHat Linux to get at Best Buy (They had 4
or
   more different versions of _just_ RedHat 5.2!)

Well, I think that's all for now..  Hope I didn't steal everyone's
ideas.

-- 
.------ ----- ---- ---- --- --- -- -- - -  -   -    -
|               Mike Hicks | Linux User Since: 1.2.13
: http://umn.edu/~hick0088 | mailto:hick0088@tc.umn.edu
`              icq:6883760 | Current Kernel: 2.1.131