InstallFest FAQ Wordings

[Victor Odhner]

Here is a preliminary FAQ on the InstallFest.

We should invite questions to contact@plug.phoenix.az.us --
 Jim or I can answer them or forward them.  (Jim has been
 taking care of this but I'll cover it if he asks.)
 I think that "contact" is currently an alias for Jim and me.

Suggested wordings follow, subject to refinement.  For
example, if we know we'll be ready for Macs and PPCs,
then we'll fix the wording accordingly.  I incorporated
JF's offer.  Check my wording everywhere, some of what
I'm saying below may be just plain wrong!

----- FAQ: -----

"My computer is a [whatever].  Will Linux run on THAT?"
 The answer is, it runs on most kinds; BUT, Non-Intel
 Computer Owners, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.  (You can ignore
 this if your computer came with Microsoft Windows installed,
 for example:  Windows only runs on Intel-type computers, and
 we're prepared to install Linux on ANY such machine.)
 If you would like to bring in your S/390, Macintosh,
 or Sparc; or any kind of system that is not an x86,
 Pentium, Athlon, etc., and you know it can't run Windows;
 then just <strong>please let us know ahead of time</strong>
 so we can be sure to have the right "flavor" of Linux on hand.

"Can I use Linux in my Business?"
 The answer is YES, but please don't expect to bring home
 a full business solution from the InstallFest.  We'll be
 happy to discuss SERIOUS computing issues with you,
 and set you up with a great office desktop system -- word
 processing, spreadsheet, e-mail, etc.  You can take this
 back and use it in your office, and this might be a good
 first step; but as a serious business owner you will want
 to keep an eye on the big picture.

"I need to connect my Linux box to my Home/Office network."
 Maybe we can help with this, but please contact us in advance.
 We can't check connections with networks we haven't seen,
 but it might be practical for you to bring us the boxes you
 wish to connect and we'll see what we can do.  But it is
 probably best to clear up networking problems at your home
 or office so that we can be sure it is working, and we can
 probably find someone to help you with that.

"Can you install FreeBSD for me?  NetBSD?  OpenBSD?"
 We hope to have an expert to be on site who can help with
 FreeBSD version 4.5-RELEASE installs on X86 hardware.
 We could probably install other BSD variants, but we'd like
 advanced warning so we can be ready and so we won't be
 wasting your time.  Various BSD systems have have notable
 reputations (even above Linux) for security and stability,
 and are especially popular in professional web-server,
 database and firewall applications.

Vic