[vox] Installfest?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Timothy D Thatcher (daniel.thatcher at gmail.com):

> Haha, yeah, I guess that's the flipside of it, huh? I've never really done
> an installfest before, so I fully admit that may have misperceptions as to
> the reality of it. :) I'm sure there's somewhat of a line between "i have
> this older machine I'd like to resurrect and I would like some help" and
> "this needs professional help and/or tossed in the bin."  Nobody wants to
> get caught up in a case of the latter, certainly. That's not only
> unproductive, but unfun, too.
> 
> I super love the idea of the installfest server. That's much, much tidier
> than messing with a stock of physical media. Think a raspi would be up for
> the challenge? I've got one or two laying around not doing too much...

Most of the RPi models have enough oomph.  Mostly they utterly lack a
real interface for main mass storage, i.e., I do not consider USB a decent 
solution for main mass storage.  _And yet_ that is certainly good enough
for a machine with this sort of casual, occasional use.

> What I was really trying to think of was a way to maybe make the whole idea
> of an installfest a little more relevant, since many people have broadband
> and can just download a distro pretty easily at home.

They can, but many people don't.  They are unclear on what to get and
what to do with it.

The real value-add that LUG people bring is an extra layer of
handholding and advice.  A lot of newcomers immediately set out to do
really crazy sh** because they picked up a bad idea somewhere.  Some of
my best help has involved questioning the newcomer's assumption and
making an entirely different suggestion.  Like 'Excuse me, I'm not sure
that dual-booting is is a good idea, here.  Is there something that
makes that necessary, like being extremely short on RAM?  If not, you
should consider having your less-used OS running in VM.'


> The thought I had was to make it into a sort of sneakernet hub where
> people come and either try some out on-site, or quickly pick up a
> whole pile of distros in at least marginally less time/hassle than it
> would take to download every single one at home. They maybe try one or
> two on-site, talk to other people who have tried at least some of
> those distros, and go home with one or more to try at their leisure. I
> especially like the idea of having some options that aren't just
> redhat/debian/ubuntu available. But again, I haven't done an
> installfest before, so maybe I'm a bit off-base. It's certainly more
> work and adds expense, too, which are both definitely valid concerns.

Lately (this past ten years or so), seems like the newcomers all arrive 
self-propagandised to want only Ubuntu.  And then they act confused when
exactly zero of the veteran users have any idea what they're talking
about when they describe a problem solely in terms of this-icon and
that-menu on the Unity desktop.