SupportPoints
Support point volunteer manual
- Where do I register as a support point?
Als Nederlandstalige kan u zich inschrijven als steunpunt op http://vrijesoftware.be/steunpunten/formulier.html .
As FR_BE, you can register as a support point at http://vrijesoftware.be/steunpuntenfr/formulier.html . Yes, this is mostly in Dutch, sorry. We are working on it.
Please report any difficulties you might have registering to mvdborre@gmail.com. Thank you.
- What do you expect me to do as a demonstration point?
- What do you expect me to do as an installation point?
- I'm only a beginning Ubuntu user. Do you even want me as a support point? Every even sporadic Ubuntu user can help as a distribution point. For giving a demonstration, it's up to your judgement. Please look at the manual for demonstration points. Do you feel comfortable enough with the things you're expected to demonstrate? Then you're ready to go!
- I see there are five users in my town already. Do you still need me as a support point? Yes!
- Why would I register myself as a support point?
- Why this commitment period?
Distribution point
As a distribution point, we expect you to hand out an Ubuntu installation set to whoever asks for one, for the time you committed yourself.
- I have no installation sets, but I received a request for one. What should I do?
Check https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-be/ . If there are pressed CD sets available, recent list postings should tell you where to get them. If not, ask the list!
- If you can't get a pressed installation set, burn one yourself. Always check your burned installation set using the CD's builtin checksum utility before distributing it!
- Some hints:
- Do not ask your guest to bring a blank CD. It's not as if you'll starve from donating a burned CD, and receiving a gift from you will make your guest feel good. If he's well mannered, he will undoubtedly offer you his gratitude in some way or another.
- Try to meet your guest in person. He's making the big jump. No matter how short or seeminlgy insignificant, personal contact will reassure him.
Demonstration point
As a demonstration point, we expect you to give a demonstration of the basic concepts behind Ubuntu and daily Ubuntu use. You should also hand out an Ubuntu installation set to every demonstration visitor.
What to show ?
- Talk to your guest(s). Ask him what tasks he uses his computer for. Show him the Ubuntu way of accomplishing these.
- Program installation:
- Show your guest how to do it, and intersperse this with the underlying logic:
Applications->Add/Remove...
System->Administration->Package manager Synaptic
- Contrast the Ubuntu approach of modular packages and repositories against Win32 .exe monolithic installers.
- Show your guest how to do it, and intersperse this with the underlying logic:
- There is a new directory with examples of documents, simply show them
- + productivity files (oo-about-these-files.odt, introducing all files) + Office files : rtf, odt (texts), odg(graphics), doc (Microsoft files), ods, xls (spreadsheets), odp (presentations), + Web pages (book-toc.html) + Movies (experience.ogg) + lectures (fables_01_01_aesop.spx) + sound (ubuntu sax.ogg) + Images (gimp-ubuntu-splash.xcf, *png for promotion)
* Show the Net
- + Firefox (their favorite site, Ubuntu Site (in your language) for support), see below and bookmark good pages. + if they're not webmail users, show them Evolution + gaim (if they're not im users, inform them about jabber (belnet or gmail?) + xchat ( #ubuntu-be as a support channel!) + online banking?
* Show defaults games, people like games 
- + If you can install a game _you_ like from the 'officials' repository, just do it. + If you have something totally useless (like Geyes), install it, your visitor will probably ask you what it is and you'll be able to show him applets.
* Multimedia : If you have "non-free" codex installed (Easy Ubuntu maybe : http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/), why not to try the trailer of the next blob busters ? You can even say "It's not sure it'll work, problem of DRM"). ???TODO???
What to say ?
http://www.datasync.com/~rogerspl/Advocacy-HOWTO.html especially http://www.datasync.com/~rogerspl/Advocacy-HOWTO-5.html
Prefere to show default app's, like that, if they want to do the install themselve, they won't have to search how to install "your" application.
The best is to have a "demo" account, with a clean desktop. Have a computer/partition correctly installed, with the original distribution and not a mix of Debian/Ubuntu, ...
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Presentations
What not to show ? + Use a command line at a single moment. Show them that it's not needed. + What you don't really know + Start with an hour of (technical|philosophical) talk. Just show them, they'll ask for the rest
Don't be afraid to say "I don't know that part of Ubuntu", but ask it on a forum or tell him to ask.
Read the Ubuntu Code of Conducts...
How to show "Security" ?
Make installations
Dual boot is complex to maintain... Just make poeple aware of that + Win reinstall (MBR disappear) + Share data's + Maintainance (keep data structures, ...)
Best is a cheap machine to try Ubuntu... + Ask for hardware + ask for backups if they want really dual-boot
Other questions ? [en] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Installation [fr] http://wiki.ubuntu-fr.org/installation
Help people "geek" way
Our mailing list [https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-be] is not intended to help people with Ubuntu problems. See [en] http://ubuntu-be.org/index.php?page=Support [de] http://ubuntu-be.org/index.php?page=empfang [fr] http://ubuntu-be.org/index.php?page=supportfr [nl] http://ubuntu-be.org/index.php?page=ontvangst