When I was first getting set up with Linux, I had all kinds of great people around to help (endico, dmose, leaf, myk, and others) and that made a world of difference. Even just knowing that I could send an email to Dawn or Myk made me that much more likely to experiment with Linux and many of the tools that are available to that OS.
Well, I just ran across a great blog post that reminded me how much easier it is to make a big software transition when you know there's a friend there to help if you need it. I don't have the time to do this kind of support, but it sure is nice to read that others do. PJM, at Flashes of Panic is offering to help people migrating away from IE. What a great gesture. Maybe this can be the start of something larger. I'm sure there are lots of happy Firefox users out there who would be willing to do the same for friends and family, possibly even strangers.
I know that the mozillaZine forums already perform some of this service but it seems like something that would be good to spread around. Like those monthly Linux install events or something. Friendly people on hand to help ease the transition. Given the above-average computer skill levels among bloggers and all rave Firefox reviews I'm seeing around the blogs, there should be no shortage of friendly neighbors. Maybe we could have a blogosphere-wide, monthly "Upgrade Your Browser" day -- do it on the first Tuesday of the month or something.
What do you all think?
Posted by asa at May 7, 2004 01:22 AMI have converted some of my friends, and spent time indeed to help them work with the new browsers. This has resulted in some satisfied Firefox users. :)
Posted by: Manuzhai on May 7, 2004 03:33 AMYou could always have a look at DASDUA. I'm sure Kevin wants as much help with it as he can get.
Posted by: liorean on May 7, 2004 05:13 AMI once converted a friend based on IE not working on a Flash games site, when Firefox did. I was actually rather surprised at this (shame on me).
Posted by: Greg K Nicholson on May 7, 2004 06:38 AMOn irc://irc.mozilla.org/#mozillazine we help users migrate to Mozilla every day - but we're not doing anything proactively through IRC, ofcourse.
Most of the "regulars" there probably can't even keep count of how many strangers and family members they've converted to Mozilla, but I'm sure it's a considerable amount.
But basically, our door is always open, and people are free to advertize #mozillazine as a "migration-guide".
The more the merrier :)
Posted by: Vidar Braut Haarr on May 7, 2004 05:51 PM