> Hi Simon,
> I am comfortable with Windows but a good bit of my income and my hobby
> is from building PC's. I would like to use an OS that is more open.
> I understand something new would be a chalange, no problem. I just need
> some material to experiment with.
If you're building for others, then you're going to have to understand
that the end user doesn't give a wit about "freedom" and "openness" and
what have you. They want to click on an icon, open the file or program,
and do what they want to do. The best candidates for desktop Linux are
total neophytes that have no Windows knowledge or preconceived notions
about how computers (Windows) should operate. And be prepared to get a
call when the printer they buy at Staples doesn't work automagically.
That being said, I would start by experimenting with Live CDs. Most
desktop Linux distros nowadays come as a bootable CD that loads to
memory and allows you to play around. My personal preferences are MEPIS,
PCLinuxOS, and Ubuntu. The first two use the KDE desktop environment,
which is somewhat similar to Windows; Ubuntu uses Gnome, which is
reminiscent of the Mac desktop.
I also personally prefer distros based on Debian. MEPIS and Ubuntu meet
that preference. And while PCLinuxOS is Mandriva based, it uses the
apt/Synaptic package manager from Debian, which (imo) is far superior
than any of the other mainstream offerings.
--
Mark Warner
SimplyMEPIS Linux v6.5
Registered Linux User #415318
_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
BLUG@linuxfan.com
http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug
No comments:
Post a Comment