Start from the information that is important to the user about how the computer works and then move on to describe the individual tasks that the user does on a day to day basis.
I would start with a basic description of the bare bones system and what each part means in very general terms (The video card tells the monitor what to display, keyboard allows you to input information that your computer can use, etc.) and leave them at these simple explanations until later chapters where each part is discussed in a bit more detail. Also talk about the structure of inputs and outputs and how they relate to the rest of the computer (in simple terms).
I have to agree with other posters that most basic users who are simply curious don't want to know everything, just enough to get a general understanding. If they want to know more they can find out on their own or you can put the greater detail in later chapters and refference them in the basic descriptions.
After talking about the basic system I would move into individual tasks within the computer and a general idea of how it works. Everything from word processing to browsing the internet and playing a 3d game. Organizing the information in terms of common everyday tasks keeps the reader interested because explaining by concept is far less important to a basic user than explaining the things they do with a computer one by one. For example, no non-nerd wants to read 5 chapters called "NTFS and FAT32 File Structure" "3D Rendering" "Video Codecs" "Text Encoding" and "TCP/IP Protocol" (Although I admit those sound rather interesting to me ^_^) but they would easily catch on to "Saving Information" "3D Gaming" "Watching Movies" "Word Processing" and "Surfing the Internet" which would contain all the same information in a different "How ______ works" sort of format.
Slashdot Mirror
Start from the information that is important to the user about how the computer works and then move on to describe the individual tasks that the user does on a day to day basis.
I would start with a basic description of the bare bones system and what each part means in very general terms (The video card tells the monitor what to display, keyboard allows you to input information that your computer can use, etc.) and leave them at these simple explanations until later chapters where each part is discussed in a bit more detail. Also talk about the structure of inputs and outputs and how they relate to the rest of the computer (in simple terms).
I have to agree with other posters that most basic users who are simply curious don't want to know everything, just enough to get a general understanding. If they want to know more they can find out on their own or you can put the greater detail in later chapters and refference them in the basic descriptions.
After talking about the basic system I would move into individual tasks within the computer and a general idea of how it works. Everything from word processing to browsing the internet and playing a 3d game. Organizing the information in terms of common everyday tasks keeps the reader interested because explaining by concept is far less important to a basic user than explaining the things they do with a computer one by one. For example, no non-nerd wants to read 5 chapters called "NTFS and FAT32 File Structure" "3D Rendering" "Video Codecs" "Text Encoding" and "TCP/IP Protocol" (Although I admit those sound rather interesting to me ^_^) but they would easily catch on to "Saving Information" "3D Gaming" "Watching Movies" "Word Processing" and "Surfing the Internet" which would contain all the same information in a different "How ______ works" sort of format.