Who's the Fedora user?

[Andrew Hudson]

Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote:
> This is one potential user of Fedora: Judy, from Arizona.  She sent in a 
> letter to the editor of Red Hat Magazine that makes me weep inside.
> 
> What do we have to say to her?
> 
> --g

> 
> Dear Red Hat,  I hope you will get this e-mail.  I am a single user
> computer person.  I put yes down - so I could receive your e-mails.
> To tell you the truth I do not know why.  Your main emphasis seems to
> be on business.  I switched from Windows because I thought it would
> be safer and healthier all the way round.  To tell you the truth I
> feel totally lost in your system.  I cannot use my CDs that have
> games.  I downloaded a game I had paid for.  No way could I get it to
> work.  I wrote to Linux Game.  Their directions were like Greek, and
> I only speak English.  I tried to download the anti-virus I use.
> They have a version for Linux.  No way did I get that.  I looked
> into your training, but that is extremely costly.  I have bought
> books.  It all come s down to the fact There is little I am able to
> do with Linux.  Mostly I would like to have a plug-in that works, as
> to the fact there are many things I am unable to open, including some
> mail, because I can find no way to do it.  Dear Red Hat - what are
> you doing for us little people out here?  I am no further today than
> I was the day this was installed.  Thank you, Judy D.
> 

Greg,

I feel your pain on this one - here is someone who has heard all of the 
good things about Linux and Fedora but cannot translate what she has 
heard into a useable system for her.

As Jeff mentioned, he feels that he is in the 1% tail of geekdom which 
will never be able to translate the tech speak into everyday terms.

Why don't we take this opportunity to ask Judy/Sue/whoever about the 
barriers that she actually came up against - did she go to Google and be 
over-run with the many countless options available?

One of the things people enjoy is belonging - if we could convince 
Judy/Sue and perhaps a couple of other total newbies to 'reality check' 
documentation such as the installation guide then that would be worth a 
fortune to Fedora and the FDP. Emphasise that this is important to us - 
it's obviously important to Judy/Sue to succeed in Linux!

I'm going to suggest a moving to Fedora from Windows FAQ for absolute 
newbies, but I'm going to do this on the docs-list.

Thanks,

Andrew