Actually, you get a desktop that works (usually) with Debian etch as well. My personal machine (POS) is the only machine i know of which proved the exception, although that was while etch was still deemed an "unstable" release. Etch worked, but lived up to it's development status. Am awaiting my next allocation of bandwidth before trying the current STABLE etch release.
Granted one has to install etch before trying it, which is slightly less exciting than booting of o CD and trying the distro live frist, and THEN clicking "install"..... but anyways, new users get a working desktop, with most if not all of the things they may want, and either synaptic or the dead easy "apt-get install whatever" command will help a new user try new stuff with ease when/if they so choose. Lets face it, installing from the debian repository's is far easier than say, installing legitimate programs on windows box from the CD! (although slightly harder than installing windows viri) Nothing new here of course, other than Dells use of Ubuntu, suggesting that Linux will be an option for future mainstream users in the very near future. I have had an old friend of mine, an intelligent woman who works editing video and so forth use my mepis-laptop a couple of years ago to check email and the likes, and NOT REALIZE IT WAS A LINUX SYSTEM, till i asked her what she thought of it. She was under the shared misconception that *nix was exclusively mystic command line stuff. We've come a long way since then. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Thursday 03 May 2007 09:35, Nick Rout wrote: On Thu, May 3, 2007 9:14 am, Volker Kuhlmann wrote: > On Thu 03 May 2007 08:51:32 NZST +1200, Campbell McKenzie wrote: > >> Mepis and Ubunutu are great for new users because if they want new >> software >> they can use Synaptic (aka apt-get) > > New users means they'd want a "desktop". You want to put Linux on the > desktop with apt-get? Perhaps next Millennium. Until then you'd have to > come up with something better, i.e. graphical, to break the "Linux is > only for geeks" association. Well frankly this is crap. synaptic is a user friendly front end to apt-get, just as yast tries to be a user friendly front end to rpm. With ubuntu, or mepis (both apt based) you get a desktop that works. Its a fact, live with it. -- Nick Rout
