Including OO templates in fc4

[Rodd Clarkson]

On Sat, 2005-03-05 at 16:51 -0500, Jeff Spaleta wrote:
> On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 18:50:51 +0100, Kyrre Ness Sjobak

> In fact.. i regard templates as being similar to something like a
> theme or a skin or a background. The vast majority of these things
> should not be in Core... the vast majority shouldn't even be in system
> packages at all and probably should be installed into a user's home
> directory as user data instead of system data.  The thought of
> downloading all possible templates in one package disturbs me as much
> as the thought of having seperate packages for each template makes me
> ill.
> 
> A dialog box on how to get templates is something that you should talk
> to upstream oo.org about implementing.

This is fine.  As long as these things are available, because while they
might be an annoyance for experienced users (who generally know what
they want and don't want) they are an expected part of a 'new users'
desktop.

almost the first thing a new user does with their 'operating system' is
have a look at the different backgrounds and look what games are
available.  Having things like this available, but not installed isn't a
great way to sell the virtues of Linux or Fedora Core to them.

Personally, I don't ever recall using a template for anything, but I'm
amazed by the number of people who look for template almost immediately
on opening OOo to see what it can do.

It's also worth noting that many of these users aren't connected 24/7
(they aren't that interested in technology, they just want to type a
letter and print it) and the hassle of having to 'log onto the internet'
just to get a template is going to be a huge negative to them ('Word
just comes with these templates by default', they'll think, ignoring the
fact that Word also comes with a $400 price tag because they think that
it's just a small part of the price of their computer).

I don't think that things like backgrounds, themes and OOo templates
should be installed by default unless the 'Desktop' option is install,
but the desktop user should be able to have them installed and will most
likely expect it.  Keep in mind, most users are more concerned with the
fact that there is 'no solitaire' installed on their computer than that
fact that their operating system might be a bug riddle, security hole
ridden pile of crap.  And these same users are going to far more
concerned about the lack of templates for OOo than the fact that they
don't NEED to run virus and spyware detection software.


Rodd