switch distros???

[jack at coats.org (Jack)]

My vote is for Ubuntu.  I have even seen folks move from Mandrake/Mandriva
to Ubuntu.  Not that all is rosy with it, but for a desktop Linux it seems
to support just about any hardware I have seen it thrown on. ... Setting up
a wide screen display was problematic and needs more expert help than just
running some Wizard, but that is what user groups are for! :)  All else has
worked pretty easily for me.

Ubuntu does not keep you from running software they have not 'approved'.
But it is most stable for the un-initiated if they stick with the normal
install set of programs and add from the 'fully supported' group of
additional apps when they want something.

For the Linux aficionado, the full Debian suite is available.

Is Ubuntu/Debian "best"?  I only ask a question like that as bait to start a
flame war.  In my experience, Ubuntu has worked well for me, and even my
employer (switched from using Mandriva to Ubuntu after finding that some
hardware was just to hard to support with Mandriva, and it just worked under
Ubuntu).  Of course all this can change in 'the next release' as we all
know.  So far it has worked well.

The criticism I have heard of Ubuntu is mainly 'it is to hard to tweak
stuff', and 'I want to use XXX software, not the YYY junk those boneheads
chose, just let me chose at install time'.  I can sympathize with these
folks, but a different distribution is probably better for them, IMHO.  If
you just want a 80+% solution to a solid supportable desktop, I go with
Ubuntu.  Others distributions are great too, but this one is proven to me.
As we know, all distributions focus on a particular audience.  The Ubuntu
subset seems to be the 'newbie', and 'desktop' users that 'just want it to
work' without a lot of effort.

That's my 2E-02 bogo-MIP opinion points.  And I'll stick to it, at least
till the next 'best thing' comes along. :) ... Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at blu.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at blu.org] On Behalf Of
Bill Mills-Curran
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 4:00 PM
To: Worcester Linux Users Group; BLU Discuss
Subject: switch distros???

I have an opportunity to get my wife to consider switching from
Windows to linux, but I don't think Fedora is the right distro for
her.  I'm wondering about Linspire/Freespire (Freespire is to Linspire
as Fedora is to RedHat?)  or Ubuntu.  (I've been using Redhat & Fedora
since '98.)  I've also been frustrated at some of the compatibility
problems (like wireless) with Fedora, so I'm considering switching,
too.  On the other hand, I like being able to get some of the newest
apps, like the newest gnucash, on Fedora.

Eric Raymond's recent piece on Slashdot was pretty convincing, too.
He argued that it is good for the linux open/free community to get
linux in as many places as possible, even if it means mixing the
distros with commercial drivers, because linux needs more market share
in order to succeed against windows, particularly as 64-bit comes on
the scene.

The "family license" of Linspire seems pretty attractive, too.

A big win would be to get my 17 yr old son off windows.  He's forever
infecting the windows box with junk from his web surfing.

My most-used apps:
Open office
Tetex/latex
ps utils
gnucash
mutt
VPN (compatible with my work, which uses Cisco)
wine
perl
firefox
USB devices: scanner, drive, camera
code development utils
multimedia (not so good on Fedora)
gpg

My wife would like to use Publisher (windows).  She might be able to
use Scribus (I haven't used it successfully).
Her favorites:
AOL (I can't break her loose of this)
MS office apps

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Bill

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