Re: New possible user

From: jpd (read_the_sig_at_do.not.spam.it)
Date: 05/03/04 

Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 18:32:38 +0000 (UTC)

On 2004-05-03, me <gregatwork@SPAMFILTERhotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I see what your saying, what I meant is that most people are familiar with a
> Windows type environment

I know that is the general assumption. I'm saying you may be (you don't
tell, but you do want to know this) dealing with end-users that don't
have prior experience, for which the _requirement_ it looks like it's
from redmond can easily be dropped. Even for people that do have prior
windows exposure, given the right atmosphere (I mentioned that, sociable
meetings, good places to talk and let them help each other) and some
explanation the switch or the extra learning can be made fun and easy.

The software just has to look nice. You could save yourself a lot of
trouble by exploiting that fact.

IE, if you present it as different, you won't get moans and bitches that
it doesn't look like /teh latest from redmond/. Just have an explanation
ready that /this/ system is different from /that/ OS, when asked, and have
an alternate method that accomplishes the same, possibly better and faster.

> and I was simply asking what distribution do people
> thikn woudl be best for new users to be happy using, I mean non tech savvy
> and yes the mouse click and few keyboard strokes type people, and possibly
> also access teh internet and so on.

Those people tend not to administrate their own systems, or at least should
not be expected to. Note that this goes for windows systems, too. In a
community setting you'll have one or a few ``admins'' and a lot of users.
Hence, the users only ``see'' the end-user bits, and distributions tend
to make their difference at the admin level. Conclusion: Use whatever can
run the apps and is comfortable for the people that admin it. So don't
ask strangers, ask the admins.

For me that would be FreeBSD or NetBSD, or maybe I'd give gentoo a shot
if it absolutely has to be linux-based. For others that might be debian
or even *gasp* redhat or *gasp* suse.

> Possibly also use a word processor or
> spead*** program and so on

Well, there are a few of those Out There. Some distributions even support
multiple. I can think of OpenOffice, gnome has a spread***, there's LyX
for an advanced word processing thing, probably more. Most if not all of
that runs on the big linux distributions and most of the *BSDs as well.

Browser, I'd say firefox, also available for all. Mail app, well,
thunderbird or one of the ``integrated'' (with gnome, kde) offerings.

Make a list of tasks to be accomplished, and find software suitable for
it. Use, for example, freshmeat.

> - it really was not that big an issue of a
> question Iasked, I was simply asking for recommended distr,s i.e. Debian,
> Suse, Linux......

A user that doesn't admin his or her box won't notice the difference
unless the screen-saver tells them. And even then... So, pick apps that
do what your users want. Pick an OS that runs them. Many do, so use
whatever is most comfortable for the admin. Who will maintain those
boxes? Ask there, not strangers on usenet groups.

> what is better for this purpose and what woudl run on the
> PC's I mentioned - again no biggy and your tone and unhelpful asnwer is
> unwarranted - great community - not!

You got far more than you asked (your question was rather botched), but
understanding the answer is of course not mandatory. How do americans
say this... Ah yes, ``you get what you pay for''.

[snip]
> Thanks for your little help anyway - anyone else able to be a little more
> helpful?

Ok, so I didn't spell out, slice and dice and and spoon-feed you my
answer. So sue me. What did you expect? Free on-site consulting?

If all this is really too difficult for you, the answer is even simpler:

Lindows. 

-- 
  j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .