On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 at 08:16:48AM -0400, Joe Takacs wrote:
> Robert/all,
>
>
> 1. My desktop in my office
> 2. My wife's desktop - in another room connected via ethernet cable from
> a (wire only) router in my office. A second router (wireless) is
> located in this room.
> 3. My laptop (connected via wireless) which I use around the house.
>
> All have windoze xp home (sp3) installed. I update whenever patches are
> released. All have run fine (only very minor problems) for about 5
> years - they have not ever "stopped working".
>
> None have ever been "owned by the next zero day bit of malware". I use
> AVG anti-virus (free), Zone Alarm firewall (free), Spyware Blaster
> (free), and Spybot Search and Destroy (free). I update and run these
> programs regularly.
You probably also use reasonable caution. Unfortunately, many people
don't. :)
>
>
> If I successfully install Linux ??? on all 3 computers, will they be
> "maintenance free"?
It's possible. If you take reasonable precautions, as you apparently
do, and they work for you, you can avoid most updates--actually updates
are usually, on many systems, easier and more maintenance free than on
Windows.
> I am not lazy, but I just don't want to re-invent the wheel by investing
> a lot of time and effort to learn a new OS and to get everything
> running smoothly - I am 75, BTW, and a retired EE.
>
This makes a lot of sense. It's one reason I don't distro hop
anymore--each one has its own quirks and I don't feel like taking the
time to learn them. I'm busier than I used to be, too.
>
> While most seem to favor Ubuntu 8.04, there are certainly many different
> opinions on other distros.
>
> Some say - don't use RPM - it breaks too easily - I don't want anything
> that breaks too easily.
It's possibly less robust than the Ubuntu packaging, but actually, that
seems to be more a result of Fedora's philosophy--Fedora is, when all is
said and done, a testing ground.
>
> It sure seems to me that if I decide to make the switch from what I have
> (it ain't broke - don't fix it) to something else, I might spend a whole
> lot of time getting back to where I am right now.
That is quite true, and I don't have a good answer to that. It depends
how much fun it is for you. The closest thing to Just Works(TM) distros
are probably Ubuntu, Mint, possibly PCLinuxOS, and as Robert mentioned,
Vector. Vector would probably require a bit more work than the others.
--
Scott Robbins
PGP keyID EB3467D6
( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 )
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6
Buffy: I didn't jump to conclusions. I took a small step, and
conclusions there were.
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