[nos-bbs] The *marketing* of JNOS 2.0 - new banner page ...

[Jay Nugent]

Greetings Maiko,

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 maiko at pcs.mb.ca wrote:

> Good morning to all,
> 
> In the interests of better *marketing* the JNOS *product*, I have put
> a banner page on the main JNOS 2.0 site, so that first time visitors get
> a much better idea of what this stuff can be used for.
> 
> Comments / Criticism more than welcome (fire extinguisher is ready)

   Looks very good!  We all need to be better "cheerleaders" and get the
word out about JNOS.  We have been promoting it pretty heavily here in
Michigan, and it has been the one tool that has managed to tie a number of
small networks together into one larger more usefull one.  It does just
about everything.  JNOS is the "Swiss Army Knife of Packet"!


> The next step is to create a more user friendly "install.exe" process
> for those that have NEVER used any of the NOS variants before. I actually
> have a document from last September 2004 that gives a complete runtime
> environment for new users (check my NOSaprs page if interested), but even
> that document and environment gets a bit too technical for first time
> users. The idea is to have an install process that will do *everything*
> for the user, such as create the directory and file structures, prompt
> user for key configuration parameters, and then build all the files
> automatically. The whole idea is to get first time users away from
> the need to 'vi autoexec.nos' and that other *complicated* stuff.

   Excellent idea.  I always hear about how hard it is to set up.  
Personnaly I find it FAR easier than MSYS and other systems.  Sure there
are a large number of features to configure, but the user needs to think
about them one function at a time (identification, interfaces, routing,
BBS, forwarding, bulletins, NetROM, fileserver, POP3, etc.) and in most 
cases only needs to edit one file.

   I'd be glad to assist in any way I can on the DOS version as I have a
couple DOS-based JNOS test boxes here that we can try out different
install versions on.  I've written a simple HDINSTAL.BAT that simply takes
a bootable floppy version of JNOS and builds the directory tree on a hard
disk and copies over all the files.  Pretty primative, however that simple
process has helped to get more people interested in trying/running JNOS.
As the tools improve that get the new user over the learning curve, the 
more people we will see on the air!

   Welcome to the Packet RE-revolution!

      --- Jay Nugent  WB8TKL
          Chair, ARRL Michigan Section "Digital Radio Group"
          [www.MI-DRG.org]

"Those that sacrifice essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
 deserve neither liberty nor safety."  -- Ben Franklin (1759) 
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