Reader's Letters
Letters to the Editor:
Dear editor, first of all I'd love to congratulate you on your amazing distro - It beats most commercial distros by quite a large distance. Secondly I'd like to thank you for this magazine, as it has helped me understand many things about Linux.
I am a 3rd year student at my high school, and I recently had a solo-talk (basically a presentation) on Linux in front of the class. By the end of my solo-talk I gave out copies of PCLOS TR3 which everyone in my class took home with glee. I also gave them instructions on how to start up the disk and install. My class has 20 pupils, 19 of which own a computer. A couple of weeks ago I asked how many people had tried PCLOS out and 18 out of that 19 raised their hand. I asked how many people used it weekly and I am proud to say that only 1 person put his hand down. That means out of 19 people who have computers in my class, 17 use PCLOS weekly. Is that success or what?
I was thrilled to see my English teacher ask how to install PCLOS over his windows XP install. I think Linux will be a big hit in years to come. A lot of my friends hated Windows vista so much they reverted back to XP... While there is a need for an alternative, the Linux community has a chance to go main stream. First things first though, we need to get rid of jargon and make Linux more friendly. When I say friendly I do not mean so that the average newbie will understand. We must remember that newbie knew how to search Google. He/she also knew how to post on a forum. Many people I know don't even know what a forum is. I also know many people who just use their OS for Runescape. Linux must stay powerful, but become beginner OS friendly. - John
Thanks John for your kind words. I wish I could take credit for PCLOS, but of course, that honor belongs to TexStar and the Ripper gang. My staff of volunteers on the magazine work hard all month looking for articles that are clear and simple enough for the complete newbie to understand and derive something valuable from, as well as articles for the more technically savvy.
I'd like to extend an offer to publish your story, if you would care to flesh it out a bit. It's always great to hear about such successes. Doesn't need to be very long - 1 or two pages would be great. Use most any editor/word processor you wish and send to me at trobins2006@google.com
Don't worry about spelling or grammar too much. You seem to have that aspect firmly in hand. Looking forward to hearing more from you.
Tim
Dear PCLinuxOS, perhaps you can find someone who can write an End-Users Guide to Beryl. I find there are hundreds of variables and totally unknown features of Beryl. I can not get any of my screens to look like the ones in the sparse Beryl documentation such as this: http://www.desktoplinux.com/files/misc/beryl-cube.jpg
Thanks for any help you can get an author to write. - Ken
Thanks Ken. You're right, Beryl is a huge application with enough variables to choke a horse. I've already put out some feelers for exactly what you have asked for. In the meantime, please feel free, as you solve little problems, to document them as tips and submit them here to me at trobins2006@gmail.com. We'd be happy to have anything you generate.
Tim