Welcome - an introduction

Submitted by ariadacapo on Tue, 2006-07-25 06:04.

Posts: 570
Joined: 2006-07-13

Hi !
The goal of this forum section is to discuss and improve the website GetGNULinux.org . This is a short intro so you feel a little at home... Please feel most welcome and don't hesitate to voice opinions.

I (Olivier, alias ariadacapo) am the main author behind the website for now, but really wish to open it up to a community. It is now benefiting from the help and contribution of many people. I hope you join us! Here are a few things about the spirit of the website:

GetGNULinux.org is about spreading the use of free software. We do not want to promote GNU/Linux on the basis of convenience, coolness, etc - this comes second behind the fact that it's free as in freedom.

We want to switch everyday users. Roughly said, this means "Mum", "Joe User", "Bob" : someone who probably was brave enough to install Firefox, but with little interest in transparent taskbars, and doesn't want to know what a root user or a kernel is.

We stick to two distributions and try to avoid endless debates about the best choice... See this website FAQ post[url] and some discussions ([url=http://www.nuxified.org/change_suse_distribution_for_another_one]1, 2).

We want to be a friendly website for people to learn about Linux and switching to it. As such, we are not a support forum (Nuxified.org is the place for that! =), not a large everything-Linux online reference, not an anti-Microsoft crusade guide. We strive to be short, simple, clear, friendly, professional-looking.

We're independent. We talk on Nuxified.org forums about Ubuntu, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, FSF-related issues, but aren't affiliated with anyone and are non-commercial.

And despite the severe tone of the intro, we are having fun doing this Feel at home, this is not a bizarre sect, just a friendly meeting place!

To know the website better, here are a few convenient tools:

- a site map
- a change log to read what's been modified lately.
- a zip file to download, containing all of the website pages in html format.
- the community.getgnulinux.org page with links to the various wikis in use

My idea for now is to build a very solid website while keeping the existing ideas and objectives. At this point, I will keep the control and final word on what is being done to the site for the first few months.
After that, all possibilities are open. My wish is to build a living community around the site, so that we may for example start things like translations.
In the future if it all works out, there are many things we could do, outside of the website, as a SpreadGNULinux initiative.

Above all, any kind of contribution is welcome. Simply suggesting things can help us. I hope to read you soon in the forums !

Olivier.

I apologize in advance that I often need lots of time to reply to posts - thanks for your patience!
Let's make communities really open - gender shouldn't matter

Tue, 2006-07-25 15:39 Thank you Olivier for a good

libervisco

Posts: 3864
Joined: 2006-05-04

Thank you Olivier for a good introduction. I would just like to add that the reason why the community forum for GetGNULinux.org was set up here at Nuxified.org is to take advantage of the community we are already building here as well as certain common goals that we are working towards.

In essence, this cooperation should establish GetGNULinux.org as a front page to all new users introducing them to GNU/Linux and Free Software while having Nuxified.org as a support community "backend" where they can then come to get help and further participate in that community.

You could say they're getting "nuxified" on GetGNULinux.org and then come to Nuxified.org to be with the rest of the nuxified community. Eye-wink

You can access this forum through http://community.getgnulinux.org

Thank you
Daniel

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Tue, 2006-07-25 22:40 several things

a thing

Posts: 864
Joined: 2005-12-20

1. I haven't got around to that wiki because of the XOOPS login bug, but below is pretty much all I wanted to change.

2. GNU is an acronym, therfore should always be all capitalized.

3. I think you should recommend one distro for the techies. I think Fedora or Arch would do.

4. Remind users that no matter how much free software is put on top of a nonfree OS, at the bottom it's still nonfree.

5. Don't start users off on the wrong track; free software!=open source software and GNU/Linux!=Linux.

Quote:

What is the meaning of Life ?
No idea. We keep looking. (okay, we never get asked this one = )

See freezombie's avatar Sticking out tongue

7. Since freedom is so important, this site should be targeted at Mac users, too.

8. You use copyright symbols where there should be registered trademark symbols a lot.

9. Ionno about German, but in English there shouldn't be a space before punctionation marks (? ! . ,).

Disclaimer: My posts may change (dramatically) within the first 15 minutes they're posted.

Thu, 2006-07-27 19:58 Tried to addressed the points

ariadacapo

Posts: 570
Joined: 2006-07-13

a thing wrote:

1. I haven't got around to that wiki because of the XOOPS login bug, but below is pretty much all I wanted to change.

Ah, that's why I couldn't find what you were talking about = ) I feel less stupid now. Smiling

a thing wrote:

2. GNU is an acronym, therfore should always be all capitalized.
[...]
GNU/Linux!=Linux.

That's a difficult issue.
I am juggling between two extremes here.
One is the FSF/GNU website, which should be what everyone points to when speaking about "Linux". It's very clear and precise about what is wrong and right, what an operating system is, what freedom means, etc, etc. But it's just not what I need when trying to get someone to discover GNU/Linux.
The other is the getfirefox website / spreadfirefox campaign. It's very neat, incredibly good at marketing, clear, simple - but it misses the point completely about freedom in software.
My intention is to be neither a website about "how cool Linux is", nor a repeat of the FSF website.
So, I took the following shortcuts:

Both Linux and Gnu/Linux terms are used, because people who heard about an alternative to Windows proably just heard the word "Linux" (I tried to explain the correct wording in an FAQ post)
To quote myself in an email I wrote:

Olivier wrote:

For many people, including most of those that work all year round on GNU/Linux, GNU/Linux is Linux. As much as I regret that and perfectly understand the FSF's position on that ("I am not asking you to call it Stallmanix"), I live with my world and recognise that in a world of iPods, googles, Vistas, Trusted Computing and more, we need to be a bit stronger marketing-wise and pierce through. I hope that visitors really wondering and looking for information will find the Linux FAQ and more information from there on.
I didn't capitalize the GNU, because in my (personal, I agree) experience, it is more readable, has a better visual appearance (for example, website title graphic), and contributes to avoiding people spelling the word ("G - N - U")

a thing wrote:

3. I think you should recommend one distro for the techies. I think Fedora or Arch would do.

Good idea, I think we can do this as soon as we simplify/split/re-arrange the "Get it!" page. For now, since we mostly target average users, I think it better not to add extra weight to this already long and bloated page.

a thing wrote:

4. Remind users that no matter how much free software is put on top of a nonfree OS, at the bottom it's still nonfree.

Right. I will do this in the "Free Windows" within the coming week I hope.
EDIT: done

a thing wrote:

5. Don't start users off on the wrong track; free software!=open source software

Agree perfectly. This will be done in a page I am working on, "Freedom in software explained", that will be in the Linux section.

a thing wrote:

Quote:

What is the meaning of Life ?
No idea. We keep looking. (okay, we never get asked this one = )

See freezombie's avatar Sticking out tongue

Smiling Thanks for the suggestion (I had read all about it), but it doesn't seem to work for me... I hope no-one minds this brilliant piece of late-night mediocre humour. Smiling

a thing wrote:

7. Since freedom is so important, this site should be targeted at Mac users, too.

That's true, but it's a lot, lot harder (see FAQ post). It's difficult to adress this without overloading the "freedom" pages (which I think are already too long).

a thing wrote:

8. You use copyright symbols where there should be registered trademark symbols a lot.

I corrected this a week ago. It's actually a difficult job finding out which is which (see MS's guidelines) but I think it's right now.
Technically none of these mentions are mandatory (especially the copyright symbols), but I like to associate them with MS products, both to avoid any risk of legal threat, and to keep in mind that it's all proprietary (even though it's not even related).
EDIT: after some more comments, corrected entirely.

a thing wrote:

9. Ionno about German, but in English there shouldn't be a space before punctionation marks (? ! . ,).

True. I really thought only 20 people would ever read the site, so I wrote it the way I like to see it Smiling In German it's just like in English, but in French (my mother language) we like to space things up.
I will correct this in the coming weeks. EDIT: done
Should I also put two spaces behind dots? (I have seen some people write like that).

Thanks for all the remarks !

Olivier.

PS: maybe it would be a good idea to move these two posts to a new thread in the forum, so as to keep the introduction as it is.

I apologize in advance that I often need lots of time to reply to posts - thanks for your patience!
Let's make communities really open - gender shouldn't matter

Thu, 2006-07-27 15:03 I've continued this thread

libervisco

Posts: 3864
Joined: 2006-05-04

I've continued this thread here. I'll leave the two posts above where they are, but you can continue the discussion there.

So this thread is locked. Smiling

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