Hi, First to introduce myself. I have been lurking on this list since 14 June 2002, with the occasional reply to the list. I'm currently running Mandrake 9.2 (having dabbled with a couple of RedHat distributions and Knoppix for disaster recovery), with a networked Windows98 machine originally for my other half but now is another Linux convert. Living rurally the best speed we can connect at is 33k (can't justify the expense of satellite yet). Having dabbled with a wide range of open source software I have decided to specialise in OpenOffice.org (OOo). I have almost completed a manual for converting from M$ Office to OOo (currently almost 80 pages) and have come to grips with OOo's API so can write macros reasonably easily.
Now to get to the point. Yesterday I was phoned by an MP who would like to convert to using open source software. As I understand it their computer is an elderly pentium connected to the net via Jetstream. Finding out other specs will need to wait until I get there Friday 20 March. >From discussions on the list Gentoo is a popular distribution for those with broadband access (just not an option for me so haven't tried it). I do not wish to start a "distro war" - but here is my question: Is Gentoo suitable for an extremely busy person with limited computer knowledge? I would really appreciate reasons for and against in your replies. Secondly as I haven't set-up a Linux machine to use Jetstream before could someone either point me in the direction of a URL with advice or failing that give advice. I see this as a great opportunity to help in getting the government to change to using open source software so I don't want to stuff it up. So any advice will be most gratefully received. Thanks in advance, Ian Laurenson
