On a newer, faster machine PCLinuxOS, or *buntu is far easier to use than you assume. On older hardware, Debian Etch is more user friendly than Windows 98SE and a great deal more powerful.

The three most popular user environments are Gnome, KDE and Xfce, not a dozen choices, just three and after playing with a small collection of live CDs for a day or two the average person will have chosen one that “just feels right” for them.

We’re teaching a woman who’s in her mid-sixties and has never owned a computer to use Debian Etch and she’s having a great deal of fun with it.

Sure there are a lot of choices in Linux distros, just as there are a lot of choices in automobiles. Given a friend who’s willing to set the system up and tailor it to a specific users needs, a Linux system can be vastly more secure and considerably more user friendly than Win2K or XP, let alone Vista.

You’re supposed to be a real geek, the genuine article. Stop behaving like a dilettante, puttering about with live CDs and drawing sweeping conclusions. Scrounge up a used machine that’s over 1 GHz and got at least 256 MB of RAM (yeah, I know that’s a dinosaur, right?), install PCLinuxOS, *buntu or Debian Etch, geek out enough to make it multimedia (or run Automatix if you’ve gone with Debian or a Debian variant), give it a fair trial, let your dad play with it for a few days and then draw conclusions.

Lisa says “You know what it is?”, I reply, “What?”, “He’s afraid of Linux.” she insists.

Is that it? *grin*

In coarse vernacular; put up, or shutup.

On a newer, faster machine PCLinuxOS, or *buntu is far easier to use than you assume. On older hardware, Debian Etch is more user friendly than Windows 98SE and a great deal more powerful.

The three most popular user environments are Gnome, KDE and Xfce, not a dozen choices, just three and after playing with a small collection of live CDs for a day or two the average person will have chosen one that “just feels right” for them.

We’re teaching a woman who’s in her mid-sixties and has never owned a computer to use Debian Etch and she’s having a great deal of fun with it.

Sure there are a lot of choices in Linux distros, just as there are a lot of choices in automobiles. Given a friend who’s willing to set the system up and tailor it to a specific users needs, a Linux system can be vastly more secure and considerably more user friendly than Win2K or XP, let alone Vista.

You’re supposed to be a real geek, the genuine article. Stop behaving like a dilettante, puttering about with live CDs and drawing sweeping conclusions. Scrounge up a used machine that’s over 1 GHz and got at least 256 MB of RAM (yeah, I know that’s a dinosaur, right?), install PCLinuxOS, *buntu or Debian Etch, geek out enough to make it multimedia (or run Automatix if you’ve gone with Debian or a Debian variant), give it a fair trial, let your dad play with it for a few days and then draw conclusions.

Lisa says “You know what it is?”, I reply, “What?”, “He’s afraid of Linux.” she insists.

Is that it? *grin*

In coarse vernacular; put up, or shutup.

I need to clear away a bit of computer space and personal time to play with 64-bit Linux and virtualization, and see how all this comes out — but Linux on the desktop might be driven by 64-bit considerations more than anything else.

I need to clear away a bit of computer space and personal time to play with 64-bit Linux and virtualization, and see how all this comes out — but Linux on the desktop might be driven by 64-bit considerations more than anything else.

The ever increasing number of Linux distributions can be confusing for those who are new to Linux. Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS and MEPIS Linux are considered the easiest for new users to install and to get productive as soon as possible. I have tested all three but stuck with Ubuntu because of its light weight and the Ubuntu community.

If you think Linux is not ready for the desktop, you’ve go your head stuck in the sand. Linux is not going to take over the desktop but it is certainly a viable choice for many of us.

While I’ve been holding on to a Winlose partition as a “safety” back-up, I would indeed be backing up if I succumbed to the MS mindset and actually went back to that world. In reality, I have, as of the momentous occasion in celebration of my birth last month, totally thrown away that crutch and am absolutely Windoze free!

It all started back in the early days of RedHat and a couple of other Linux variants on an experimental basis … a learning process, I like to call those first clumsy steps. When Ubuntu came along, I again toyed with the idea of becoming a Linuxian, taking an immediate liking to the OS itself as well as the Ubuntu philosophy, and began migrating to that new world … and I haven’t looked back, currently using the not-yet-finalized (due to be released in October this year) Gutsy Gibbon version after working my way up through the previous three releases, Feisty Fawn being the latest stable version.

There are far to many positive reasons, a number of them already stated here, that Linux is indeed user-friendly and desktop-ready in several variants and can be used on a daily basis as your primary OS … far to many to enumerate here. And Ubuntu is in the forefront of that movement, being totally usable for the average user “out of the box”. Yes, gamers and geeks are going to want to tweak to the point of breaking … but even if they succeed, it’s such an easy fix to get back to normal that it’s a case of “no harm, no fowl”. And there’s plenty of support from within the Ubuntu community (check out the forums) … users ready to help other users, novice and expert alike.

And until MicroSleeze started stepping in with apparent threats to PC distributors … and in spite of that in some cases, Linux is being shipped installed on new PCs from some companies such as Dell (rumored to be capitulating to MS though).

And so there you have it … as you asked for it: my 2.5 cents worth. And I would welcome you to the world of Ubuntu … check it out, my friend (can I call you “my friend” … again taking the tact of our fearful leader’s reference to Vladimir?)

While I’ve been holding on to a Winlose partition as a “safety” back-up, I would indeed be backing up if I succumbed to the MS mindset and actually went back to that world. In reality, I have, as of the momentous occasion in celebration of my birth last month, totally thrown away that crutch and am absolutely Windoze free!

It all started back in the early days of RedHat and a couple of other Linux variants on an experimental basis … a learning process, I like to call those first clumsy steps. When Ubuntu came along, I again toyed with the idea of becoming a Linuxian, taking an immediate liking to the OS itself as well as the Ubuntu philosophy, and began migrating to that new world … and I haven’t looked back, currently using the not-yet-finalized (due to be released in October this year) Gutsy Gibbon version after working my way up through the previous three releases, Feisty Fawn being the latest stable version.

There are far to many positive reasons, a number of them already stated here, that Linux is indeed user-friendly and desktop-ready in several variants and can be used on a daily basis as your primary OS … far to many to enumerate here. And Ubuntu is in the forefront of that movement, being totally usable for the average user “out of the box”. Yes, gamers and geeks are going to want to tweak to the point of breaking … but even if they succeed, it’s such an easy fix to get back to normal that it’s a case of “no harm, no fowl”. And there’s plenty of support from within the Ubuntu community (check out the forums) … users ready to help other users, novice and expert alike.

And until MicroSleeze started stepping in with apparent threats to PC distributors … and in spite of that in some cases, Linux is being shipped installed on new PCs from some companies such as Dell (rumored to be capitulating to MS though).

And so there you have it … as you asked for it: my 2.5 cents worth. And I would welcome you to the world of Ubuntu … check it out, my friend (can I call you “my friend” … again taking the tact of our fearful leader’s reference to Vladimir?)

Yes, a faster machine would be very nice with my broadband connection and it will be here by the end of summer. But I have paid Microsoft for the last time for their less than stellar software and legacy free planned obsolescence bs.

I’ll be taking a close look at Ubuntu now unless someone has a better idea. (Yeah, i have done some programming - back in the dark ages. The reactions I get when I mention Fortran sometimes border on the hilarious.)

Ubuntu 5.10 and 6.06 LTS were quite good. Ubuntu 7.04 is MUCH better for me, and with every update it improves slightly. I can do anything I want on Linux (web design, word processing, photographic editing, sound production … and more), and it easily configures itself for a dual boot with Windows if you want that. Windows has to be installed first, though. Developers of Ubuntu (and Debian Linux, its core) are making the right moves, because it’s getting very easy to do a full installation that simply works on almost any PC. I think that will be the acid test. Dell has announced they will join the ranks of manufacturers shipping Linux PCs, too.

Some of the software compiled for Ubuntu is better (by my standards) than the Windows equivalent. Some requires tweaking to work right. Overall, my tech-related headaches are less frequent with Ubuntu. It may not be for everyone, and especially not for those who are comforted by the Windows file structure, but it’s rock solid and it’s on my desktop until something better comes along. That isn’t likely to come from Redmond, Washington.

You hit the nail on the head as far as the 2 biggest hurdles that Linux has to overcome.

Problem 1. When someone tries to do something that would be a simple mouse click and “click apply” in Windows, it needs to be that way in Linux too. Now, I’m pretty good with command lines, but the structure of Linux vs DOS still gets me lost at times. And when I wanted to switch my right and left mouse buttons in PCLOS, I was told to go and modify a command line by one of their “hero” members. Problem is this person never told me where to find the line (what directory). It took me numerous attempts to convince the people on the forum that I needed to know what to do from “step 1″, not “step 6″. If I’m getting frustrated, I can only imagine that the average user will just go back to Windows. Most folk don’t want to have to go that deep into command lines, let alone make changes that may cause other problems if not done absolutely correctly.

Problem 2. After my little ordeal on mouse buttons, I attempted to give a little advice to the folks at PCLOS regarding “Problem 1″. I was polite and considerate and explained that I actually loved the OS and enjoyed working out the quirks, but the average “Joe’ might expect a little more. Big Boo-Boo. You’d think I went into a Catholic church and dissed the Virgin Mary. The “Holier than thou” attitude and comments really dismayed me. And then comes the “the command line shall set you free!” mantra. If you’re an old MS user like me who is not a software/code writer, then you tend to get tired of people trying to point out that it’s “your fault”, and those who imply that you’re stupid or a “Troll” (yes I was called that!) simply because you do not want to immerse your self in a second operating system language.

I still love PCLOS, and in general things are getting better for the less technically inclined. But a lot more folks who don’t live and breathe Linux are going to have to get on board for this and other non-Windows OS’ to really take off.

Yours Analogically,
Cliffystones