I installed Radio in three minutes and was posting to a weblog. It doesn't get much easier than that.

So why have I written a simple installation guide for Radio that is much longer than Userland's?

Because most intelligent potential Radio users that I know - your average doctor, teacher, fireman, mom -  find even simple installation of software programs intimidating and maddening. When we add a surprisingly large number of required online concepts (hosting, servers, browsers) to the modestly well-understand process of desktop installation, not to mention the controlling concept of a weblog, eyes glaze over.

(Most human beings have still never downloaded an application from the Internet itself, amazing though this seems to me ...).

Sure, Radio is making progress among current bloggers and computer weenies of all species. This is no inconsiderable number.

But I would like to see Radio used by everyone who turns a computer on and clicks an Internet link. So sue me.

A verbose installation guide is, strictly speaking, unnecessary for Radio. But it does provide an extra bit of comfort level for 'mom' and the beginning of a background tutorial on the whole nature of 'writing for the web'.

Like any online doc, you can get to everything by linking from the first page of the guide above. Or, you can browse the list of stories here.

I can and may do more for the simple-minded writer like myself and mom.

For instance, how do writers navigate the wonderful but tangled and incomplete sources of documented help and community forum groups in the Userland world?

What are the simple techniques for downloading new versions, updating Radio.Root and, while we're at it, understanding the broad relationship between the desktop browser page and the underlying desktop application - not to mention Radio weblog(s) on multiple personal computers (desktop and laptop) and, perhaps, hosts (mine, ISPs, Community Server)?

When folks get up the nerve to fool with Prefs, what do they do to restore their comfort level and maybe their data when things get a mite, say, peculiar?

Will I write up some more stuff like this for newbies as a base for helping them move on to use a meaningful fraction of Radio's awesome power to manage 'knowledge'? I mean, to have fun?

Dunno.

feedback:   6:33:04 AM