[Speakers] Transitional/Introductory Presentations

[Bruce Smith]

> > I'd say the system should be already booted at the login prompt.  Most
> > modern distros boot with just a splash screen, and our projector can't
> > show the boot screen due to the changing monitor frequencies anyway.
> 
> I'm talking about a presentation, not a demonstration - demonstrations
> are bad - and not easily repeatable by other people.   Of course the
> presenter can always drop out of the presentation to demonstrate
> something if they wish.

The one time I winged it, it was more of a demonstration, in the sense I
had no slides and was showing it live.

I think this needs to be a mix of the two.  Slides, plus dropouts to the
real word-processor/browser/desktop/etc., so the newbies can see it
works in real life, not just in theory.  IMO these live demos will serve
to captivate their attention more than the slides.  They can see
pictures of the stuff on the SuSE box in Bestbuy.

We don't really need to get into the details of the browser/WP/email/...
just enough to show them it really exists, this is what it really looks
like, and it really works.  Just showing some of the pull down menus is
probably good enough.  (see, it has a spell checker here ...)

I would even go as far to start the presentation at the login screen,
login, start OO-impress, open the slides, and continue from there.
(providing that logging in doesn't screw up the projector)

> As far as showing a boot-process screen I can capture one easy enough in
> VM-Ware.  Might be nice to at least say what all that noise is and not
> to let it elevate one's blood pressure.  And that all this IS happening
> when you boot M$-Windows you just don't see it at all.

SuSE, Fedora, and probably others boot screen are nothing but a splash
screen these days, unless you press some key to see the actual boot
messages.  It's fine with me if you want to show them one or both.

> So presentation #1 -
> 1. Booting
> 2. Logging in
> 2.1. Segway into a brief explanation of users, homes
> 4. Logging out
> 5. Shutting down
> 5.1. Segway into a brief explanation of 'runlevel'
> <log back in>
> 6. Basic desktop stuff
> 6.1 Removable media
> 6.2 Formatting a floppy
> 
> ??

Show them what they want to use.  Browsers, email, OpenOffice, chat,
file browsing, desktop stuff, other available programs and utilities
(calculators, image viewers, etc.).  Showing all the programs listed in
Gnome/KDE menus is as impressive as the start menu in Windows.  Show em,
but not necessarily start them, except for individual requests.

> I think we don't have much choice but to SuSify this since some of these
> steps are specific.  Someone is always welcome to 'translate' the
> presentation to another distribution. ?

If we plan on using the LTSP box for these demos, and if the LTSP box is
running SuSE, and we give some live demos, SuSE'ify'ing it is a must.

We can also talk a little about the differences and similarities between
SuSE and other distros in general.

 - BS