[openbeos] HaikuPedia / One hour challenge
- From: Zenja Solaja <solaja@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:41:25 +1000
PROBLEM
Computers are difficult to use.
SCENARIO
When Haiku first becomes widely distributable, we can be assured that
there will be over 1 million enthusiasts who will want to try the Live
CD / distribution (based on R5PE stats). These curious individuals
have already tried one of the many Linux/BSD distributions available
over the years, and cursed at how difficult said systems were to use,
and within a hour or two went straight back to Windows (and repeat the
cycle every 6 months). The challenge, therefore, is to answer any
question these potential users may have which will pop up during the
first hour of usage. Haiku WILL be different from what these curious
individuals are used to, so if we can provide a simple '20 top
questions' guide, we just might take these users over the 1h
threshold. They just might continue tinkering with the system for a
week or so, and (as we all know from personal experience) thats how
long it will take them to 'get' the system, and fall in love.
SOLUTION
We need a HaikuPedia, with 2 sections. The first section is the
'Quick start', which will explain the most common questions a new user
may have, and the second section is your normal 'user guide'. The
HaikuPedia will probably be in HTML format, and it would be great if
we can integrate it with BeHappy (http://www.bebits.com/app/430) or
similar for search capabilities. So what are the most common
questions newbies will have?
1) How do I change screen resolution?
2) How do I adjust my sound settings?
3) How do I mount my other disks?
4) How can I make a program start automatically on powerup?
5) How do I kill a misbehaving application?
6) How do I search my disk for files?
7) In which directory does the 'Desktop' live?
8) How do I change system fonts?
9) How do I configure networking?
10) How can I rearrange all icons to fit a window?
11) How do I kill a misbehaving application?
12) How can I move my Deskbar? How can I add items to it?
13) Why cant I view thumbnails of images stored on NTFS partition?
14) Where can I download applications from?
15) How do I install applications?
16) How do I remove applications?
17) A new driver crashes Haiku - how can I remove it?
18) How do I change settings in the boot manager?
19) How do I change ALT-C/X/V to CTRL-C/X/V
20) Where are my preferences stored?
21) What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything else?
(n) others???
PROPOSAL
a) Create a new SVN directory for the HaikuPedia.
b) Mirror the contents of these files on the Haiku website (online
documentation).
c) Provide an email link on the Haiku main page for documentation
submissions (from volunteers without SVN access), ie.
submit_docs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
d) Have the Creative Design team modify the style of each submitted
page so that it adheres to a common standard (style, colour,
background pattern, fonts, image borders etc).
e) Invite volunteers to submit pages. We need to fill the both
sections of the HaikuPedia.
f) Distribute the HaikuPedia with Haiku
...
z) The HaikuPedia MUST be fun to read.
CLOSING COMMENTS
It takes roughly a week before new users start sending emails to
hardware manufacturers and big software companies asking for OS
support. The bean counters in these companies might ignore 100K
emails, but they'll definately notice >1M emails. So the challenge is
to get these potential users past the 1h hurdle, and closer to the 1
week hurdle (of course, hooking these users for life is also a worthy
challenge)
Signing off.
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