Re: LiteStep and Linux themes as paired tools to help folks move to Linux?

...
> Yes, this is quite feasible. I doubt it would be very popular though.

What I have in mind is not a "permanent" theme: Perhaps more like a 
12-step approach to Windows users. So I'm thinking that someone who 
wanted to move to Linux could easily set up this pair of themes; use the 
first in the pair until the theme felt quite comfortable, then switch to 
the second (Linux-based) theme.

Once the user gained enough confidence (in the "hey! I'm really running 
Linux! and the world hasn't ended!" sense) they would move on to some 
sort of more robust Linux theme/graphical theme/command line/whatever.

So this pair of themes would typically be used in one way, ordered in a 
specific temporal manner (we would not expect anyone would use the Linux 
theme in order to switch to Windows, after all!), and would be designed 
really not as a long-term theme on either side, but rather as a 
transitory or transitional phased system.

One goal: To provide a safe and comfortable way Windows users who wished 
to change to Linux to make the move without a cold turkey experience.

One imperfect analog would be learning to ride a bicycle. You might 
start on a trike. Once entirely comfortable with that mode, you move up 
to a small bicycle with training wheels. This is certainly not any sort 
of permanent option--in many ways it captures the worst of both worlds. 
But it is a way through the transition.

Then, perhaps you try the bike without the training wheels, with a 
parent or capable adult holding the bicycle upright. At some point you 
realize that you have left the "transitional adult/aid" behind and you 
are, in fact, riding a bicycle without training wheels and without 
direct help from anyone else!

You certainly would not want to stick with the tricycle or the training 
wheels, and there is certainly a shared expectation that the assistance 
of your "human training wheels" is both transitional and transitory.

Point is, bicycle riding may *look* scary if you haven't experienced it 
(how do those people keep from falling?) but you don't really have to 
study the physics of momentum to be able to ride a bike capably. Once 
you have internalized a couple of rules (e.g., "if you stop moving, you 
will fall!"), experienced riding for yourself, thus collecting your own 
sense experience, you are ready to tackle more useful and exciting 
bicycle riding.

I'm envisioning here a pair of themes distributed together, and designed 
to be used (1) install and run Windows theme, (2) install Linux theme, 
and begin to use it (3) gain sufficient personal experience with the 
Linux theme to feel comfortable with the idea that you are now a Linux 
user, (4) replace the Linux theme and don't look back. . .

> We could probably make an installer that would install LS plus
> a minimal cygwin and would really mimic a unix system.
> This could be distributed with tutorials and stuff.
> 
> 
> I think the Linux experience is not defined by the organization of the
> menus. The menus change much from a distro to another and from a window
> manager to
> another. We could make a LS bundle that would mimic some particular
> Linux distro and offer that as a promotional/educational tool.

exactly. Not a theme that would somehow capture all there is to using 
Linux--not even a tutorial (in the traditional sense) about how to use 
Linux.

This would instead be a step beyond the "try the Linux distro" 
experience. My own experience has been that while the distro might be 
fun, it is more like riding on the back of a bicycle being powered by 
someone else (or perhaps the "training wheels" sort of thing).

I believe much of the (unwarranted) fear of potential Linux users is 
that once you make the switch *something important* won't work and 
you'll be stuck. Not in the "not possible to do, here" sense, but in the 
"I don't even know how to start to figure this out" sense. For people 
who rely on their computers, moving to Linux is a bit like jumping out 
of the window because people are yelling for you to jump and they say 
there is a net below (which you cannot see because of the smoke).

There is no shortage of people offering glowing testimonials about 
computing with Linux. Very few users (if any) believe that good Windows 
support is available from anywhere. Yet if all you've ever done is to 
ride that trike (perhaps even like a little daredevil) the bicycle looks 
like an accident waiting to happen.

In theory the bike is better by far. You might even believe 
wholeheartedly in the adult helping you learn to ride. Yet it is 
painfully and dramatically obvious to you that even if you should be 
able to ride a few meters, you should not trust this bicycle-beast-thing 
  to get you to the ice-cream truck. . .or home again.

So I am suggesting an intermediate step to or through the "try it 
out/live boot distros." I'm suggesting that people be able to use Linux 
(through this crippled theme--at least from the perspective of a 
long-time and entirely comfortable Linux user). I believe that if people 
could gain confidence in a particular Windows theme that, while not at 
all the best theme in the world, will allow you to get your work done, 
it will be easier for them to switch.

Especially if they switch to a Linux theme that looks just like the 
Windows theme they have been using. . .

So after they work through their fears about the thing crashing on them 
at any moment and building up some personal experience of working *in 
Linux* on a day-to-day get your work done experience, they will find it 
much easier to start making some changes to their Linux theme--changes 
that will make their computing life much easier.

 From then on, we have another successful Linux disciple.

Looking at the situation from a rhetorical (in the sense of "speaking 
persuasively" rather than the "only talk/no action" pejorative modern 
sense), one ancient (pre-Socrates) aphorism about trying to convince 
someone of the truth of your position can be summed up:

"Meet them where they are, not where you are. They will be convinced by 
their experience, not by yours."

So in our quest to better the computing world by making it easier to 
move interested in Linux/disgusted with Microsoft folks, it makes sense 
to meet our potential Linux users where they are now: Windows.

This should be an easy step for someone. Perhaps more accurately, any of 
our Linux-to-be users aren't able or willing to try and tinker with some 
shell settings within Windows, chances are slim they will ever 
voluntarily switch to Linux.

So after personalizing a few basic things on the Windows theme (keeping 
in mind that this particular theme was *created* with the purpose of 
transitioning to Linux always in the forefront) the nascent Linux users 
start to "live with" this theme, running on Windows. No problems.

Then, once these Windows users are entirely comfortable with this 
Windows theme, they take the next step: Move to the "paired" theme 
running on Linux.

Because we have constructed the two themes in a way that will enable 
both to work well with the different environments (i.e., no 
only-in-Windows or only-in Linux items) this part of the transition 
which is the scariest, will be the least obvious change. So the day in 
which our users turn off Windows and turn on Linux they should feel a 
bit silly for fearing the change this much.

As they build up their confidence-building experiences with Linux, they 
will be tempted to venture a bit further from home. Sometimes these 
explorations will be unsuccessful (yet not catastrophic--they always 
have the comfort of the familiar shell to which they can always return 
home).

Sometimes, however, these explorations will turn up a wonderful and 
exciting new find--some aspect of Linux which quickly is set as an "I 
don't want to give this up--ever!" feature. Each time this happens, they 
are moving farther and farther from Windows, and making it 
harder--because of all the nifty new features--for them to return to 
Windows in the future.

So eventually, depending on their specific experiences, access to 
helpful experienced Linux users, and their own capacity for taking risks 
these users will pull the plug on their limited Linux theme, and move on 
to a full-featured theme or perhaps even the command line. QED

In retrospect I guess I'm talking about something that would benefit 
Linux more than it would LiteStep per se. Yet if it results in bringing 
experienced LiteStep theme authors back into active LiteStep 
development, it would be a big boon.

So laying it out more specifically, in more of a step-by-step fashion, 
does it seem worthwhile?  If this is the sort of a project that a 
skilled theme author might find intriguing, how might we best set up a 
way to collaborate? (I'm assuming that the requirements underlying this 
theme-paired task would make collaboration helpful).

Are there themes in existence that might lend themselves--with a bit of 
upgrading and tweaking--to this situation?

Finally, let me clarify that as I am writing of "paired themes", I am 
envisioning multiple pairings, based on a number of theme sensibilities. 
It would be counter-productive to refer a high-tech/fantasy/goth theme 
to a Windows user interested in making the switch to Linux if they 
absolutely detested dark/techie/goth themes!

While they are inherently crippled because of their position of 
straddling the line between Windows and Linux, themes intended to ease 
the transition by reassuring their users as the switch is made would be 
at a considerable disadvantage if they were despised on general 
artistic/sensibility grounds by the users.

Useful? Worthwhile?

It is quite easy to try a Linux distro nowadays with VMs and LiveCDs
> but presenting a functional preview of the interface would be
> something.
> A preconfigured Gnome on cygwin
> would do a better job at this but would weigh many megs and be long to
> install compared to LS which can be small and quick to install.
> 
This makes sense. Would the much longer install/simpler design be an 
issue if it were designed to be a one-time package? That is, rather than 
being accustomed to switching among a set of themes, this pair would be 
designed to be a download once/read once experience. After all, there 
shouldn't be much need to periodically reinstall training wheels on your 
20-speed mountain bike!
> 
> After I am relatively calm and confident about my new computer, I would
>> delete the Linux side of the pair (not having used the Windows machine
>> with its half of the pairing for awhile) and finish the transition from
>> XP to Linux.
>>
>> Is this a worthy/doable project? (hope it's not my third strike, unless
>> it's bowling and not baseball)
> 
> 
> Doable : yes
> Worthy : I don't know, maybe
>
sound any more worthwhile now in greater detail? (I hope)

> 
> Is that some king of fish<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagabond_butterflyfish>
>  ?
Actually it's Latin for "wanderer." The butterfly fish, butterfly, 
spider, et. al.
use this as an adjective in their name.

Hence the English term, "Vagabond" while not a perfect description 
(primarily bed-bound) it does fit my typical online behavior. . .and I 
think it sounds somewhat mysterious--or at least eccentric. Not a bad 
thing, to be sure.

Vagabundus
Roy Gathercoal

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