On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 10:18 AM, James Broadhead <jamesbroadh...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 8 December 2011 15:10, LinuxIsOne <linuxis...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckin...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> Don't take our word for it, go look for yourself. >> >>> I could give you examples of how that forum works, I could give you >>> links that show what we are saying, but NOTHING can prepare you for >>> what you really find on the Ubuntu user forums. >> >> Okay but at least Ubuntu is good for new users and Windows convert and >> for those doesn't it give a learning curve in Linux? > > That's debatable; it generally means that the amount of time that > passes before they realise that Linux is not Windows is increased. It > definitely gets them booted into a desktop environment quicker, but it > doesn't really save on the learning curve - something will go awry > sooner or later, and the fact that they've had the command-line hidden > from them until that first fateful trip to the forums won't feel like > such a benefit then. >
I got started with Linux via Red Hat 5.2. (Pre-Fedora, pre-RHEL days). I used it for only a few days before switching to Debian. If I hadn't seen Red Hat's relatively automagic setup of X, and the availability of all the tools to do things I wanted using a GUI interface, I probably would have hopped back to Windows 95. As it was, seeing that GUI and knowing that a familiar interface was what left me willing to deal with the couple weeks it took me to learn how to set up XFree86 3.3.6 on Debian.[1] Fortunately, just about every Linux distro, including Gentoo, has much better resource for getting a GUI up and running, so a modern newbie experience shouldn't be nearly so taxing on initial patience. Sure, being able to learn a system inside and out is a good thing, but you need to get past that initial hurdle before you're ready to tackle it, and Ubuntu handles that initial hurdle quite well. Give a user six months to a year, and they'll grow tired of Ubuntu constantly breaking their customizations, and they'll probably switch to Debian or Linux Mint. I've watched that leap several times now. A few of them eventually leave Debian or Mint for Gentoo. Some land on Fedora or OpenSuSE, but they're usually heavily working with RHEL or CentOS in other contexts. [1] Luckily, I wasn't even an adolescent yet; I don't think I'd have had the time or patience for that as an adult. -- :wq
