Hello,
there are a couple of issues I want to raise about the campaign that comments made about the article I wrote on linuxfr.org arose to me.
We are all agreeing that this campaign aims at targetting the average user, informing him/her of the existence of Free/Libre software to read PDF documents that aren't only Free/beer. In this respect, we can assume that those people are mainly using windows with few technological knowledge.
- In the windows column of the pdfreaders.org page, the first offered software is Okular. It seems that the KDE installer is not a bad thing, but it leads to a complex operation for the user : two softwares to install. OK there's a little note explaining it, but..
- If we take a look at the simpliest : Sumatra, you arrive in an also complex page where just under the binary installer commes a zip with the sources => if the user is reassured by the zip which may be less scaring than the exe, he'll be downloading sources !
- And another big concern is that none of the related pages are translated, so pdfreaders.org may do for english speaking people, but will be a showstopper for all others !
Things we could do to bettern the campaign :
- Present the software with a special first line with the simpliest ones to install, for each platform (win and mac) - get in touch with the site maintainers of the related projects to help them : - ease the presentation of their download page, maybe by making a new page "download for dumbs" - translate those pages !
Michel
Hi Michel,
On Donnerstag, 5. Februar 2009, Michel Roche wrote:
- In the windows column of the pdfreaders.org page, the first offered
software is Okular. It seems that the KDE installer is not a bad thing, but it leads to a complex operation for the user : two softwares to install. OK there's a little note explaining it, but..
I've heard that some KDE people will push for a stand-a-lone installer of Okular.
- If we take a look at the simpliest : Sumatra, you arrive in an also
complex page where just under the binary installer commes a zip with the sources => if the user is reassured by the zip which may be less scaring than the exe, he'll be downloading sources !
- And another big concern is that none of the related pages are
translated, so pdfreaders.org may do for english speaking people, but will be a showstopper for all others !
Things we could do to bettern the campaign :
- Present the software with a special first line with the simpliest
ones to install, for each platform (win and mac)
- get in touch with the site maintainers of the related projects to
help them : - ease the presentation of their download page, maybe by making a new page "download for dumbs" - translate those pages !
All good points, thanks for the summar!