[sf-lug] Another victory...

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Lx Rudis (lx_rudis at sbcglobal.net):
> js:
> > What from 'the other OS' do they need from a public terminal!?
> 
> nothing.  i don't think that's what the problem is, though.

Bingo.

> set the machines up dual boot.

Again, solving the wrong problem.  Systems set up as dual-boot pretty
much inevitably end up running one of the two OSes almost all the time;
that one gets set as the default and the other one is ignored.

Aunt Tilly doesn't want a more-complex machine that has multiple
operating systems.  Adding a multi-OS bootloader makes the computer
_less_ like what she wants, and the extra capabilities will get ignored
in the name of simplicity.

> "oh - you don't like linux?..." 

Please see The CoffeeNet's pages:  The workstations there were set with
the Web browsers configured to open to the cafe's own information/help
pages, as their home page.  Considerable usability-study effort got put
into making obvious how to do the common tasks that the workstations
were intended to address, and the help pages concisely explained those
things without running on at the mouth or wasting time on advocacy.

If you're serious about this, you _don't_ just dump a default installation 
of some distro (Ubuntu or any other) onto the box, plunk it down in a
corner, plug it in, and say "Here.  Enjoy."