I have been using Linux on my system for over 15 years. I have never used the command line when using Blender. (I am talking as a user, not as a developer or debugger. Developer's will have to dive deep.)
I have never had driver problems in connection with Blender. I never use the Blender in the distro. They always seem to be badly done and out of date. I always download straight from Blender.org. I have no big problems other than the standard errors that effect other people. 15 year ago the people that were not computer literate might have had some problems but not in the last 5 or so. I biggest factor is what hardware you buy. If you want painless linux then, ya buy Nvidia, get a supported printer and don't expect the newest gismo to work without a fight. Mainstream, older hardware almost always works and that is what poor people would have, right? You can also boot off a CD, USB or dual boot to overcome issues with others in the family wanting a different system. In my house everyone uses Linux without any complaints other than gaming issues when MS wins hands down. For a normal internet surfer or artist there are very few problems. I would recommend, Blender, VLC, Digikam, GIMP, Krita, mypaint and inkscape for a good artist setup. I run KDE Sabayon BTW. I would recommend KDE Mint for newbies. My 78 year old mother installed Linux and runs it happily. She is an artist. If she can do it, anyone can. BTW I did not help here other than advice about what to buy and which distro to get. Anyway this is not the place to war about OS. I was just saying that poor people have many options open to them from using older versions of Blender to running new ones with Linux. PS Not even Microsoft supports XP! -- Douglas E Knapp, MSAOM, LAc. _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers