There is lots of good solid information in this document which deals fairly with many objections to using Linux.
Unfortunately, it contains some outdated information as well. The section dealing with distros refers to outdated information. Mandrake is now Mandriva, for example. Corel is mentioned, as well. These references should be changed. Suse is now owned by Novell and has gone mainstream. There is also a bias to the article in favor of RPM based distros which many Newbies find more difficult to use due to dependency problems. Debian based distros are far and away easier to use for a Newbie. Someone migrating from a Windows background can be easily frustrated by dependency errors. Simplicity is the key for Windows users. Linspire has made software installation dead simple and is ideally suited to the Windows user with its Click'n'Run Warehouse. This is freely available to Linspire and Freespire and will soon be available to Ubuntu based distros, such as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xbuntu, Edubuntu and Mepis. Freespire/Linspire also uses the familiar Windows drive designations. Ubuntu is the fastest growing distro and many Debian based distros have switched to an Ubuntu core. Freespire, Linspire and Mepis being three recent converts. This is not to disparage any RPM based distro. I have used Mandrake/ Mandriva and Suse for years. They are better suited to established Linux users. Yast has made management of Suse very straightforward, but dependency issues continue to be a problem. Suse is one of the most complete distros out there. One RPM based distro deserves special mention. PCLinuxOS is a fork in the Mandriva distro. Like Mepis (Ubuntu based), it installs from a live CD and its installation is dead simple. It is an easy to use distro and it detects hardware very well. It runs well from the CD and installs well to a pen drive. Mepis is to be recommended for its simplicity and its hardware detection. Unlike Ubuntu it does not use sudo which is confusing for a newbie. It boots faster than most distros as well. I have an out of the box HP Pavillion computer which comes with preinstalled Windows XP Media Center Edition. Some distros just will not boot on this computer. Fedora, PCLinuxOS and Mandriva just balk at the pre-installed hardware. HP is of course no help. Other distros such as Linspire, Mepis, Ubuntu and Suse have no problem with it. For this reason, it is best to keep an open mind and choose a distro which best suits your needs and works well with your hardware. For a newbie, I like the idea of using a distro that works from a live CD. This allows them to try it out without worrying about messing up their system. If it does not boot easily then it isn't with the hassle for a newbie to try changing boot parameters, etc. They would only be frustrated with such a system. Finally another option exists for a Windows user to try out Linux. They can install VMware and run Linux inside Windows as a virtual machine. This will allow them to practise installing Linux without fear of messing up their computer. They can try as many distros as they want. Once they find one that install well and they like the look and feel then they can install it on their hard drive. Thanks for your well written article. I will use it combined with my own experience to try to get others to consider using Linux. --- In [email protected], [email protected] wrote: > > > Hello, > > This email message is a notification to let you know that > a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the LINUX_Newbies > group. > > File : /lnag.html > Uploaded by : larkguit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Description : Linux Newbie Guide > > You can access this file at the URL: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/files/lnag.html > > To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit: > http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/files > > Regards, > > larkguit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To unsubscribe from this list, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] & you will be removed. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
