On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 4:14 PM, Always Learning centos@u6.u22.net wrote:
Experience 44 years - it makes me seem old :-( as computer programmer and the usual collection of other computer posts/tasks/assignments I truly believe with Centos and Gnome 90% of "ordinary" M$ Windoze users have what they need. If they use specialist databases and applications not HTML compatible (all mine are HTML compatible so they run on any operating system) they need something which will run in Centos/Gnome.
I agree. I set my brother and family up with CentOS about two years ago and his whole family uses it -- once it was set up it has required zero maintenance from me. Basically I just had to put the RPM forge in the repository. I have family and friends who use Windows and I've spent a *lot* more time supporting them then I do my father and brother who use Linux.
That said, neither my Dad nor brother play major games on the computer, nor have they ever used M$ Office. My wife uses PowerPoint presentations and she doesn't want to change, so I support XP (on her Desktop) and Windows 7 on her Laptop. (The desktop came with Vista, but she had me install XP -- it took about 20 hours for her to make that decision -- Vista was a dog -- with apologies to dogs.)
So, anyhow, you (generic "you") might be surprised how many people could get along just fine with CentOS on the desktop now. A lot (I would almost say most) personal computer usage is now web-centered. Which is why Android and iOS (and others) are taking off.
For me, personally, I went completely to Linux about three years ago. I never was a big game player and *never* liked M$ Office. I used WordStar for DOS for years, then went to Lotus SmartSuite before moving to Linux. I use a couple specialized Windows programs (NetObjects Fusion and Screenwriter -- and sometimes dBASE for Windows) which run fine in a Windows 2000 virtual machine under VirtualBox. I also occasionally use DOSBox, where I can run WordStar for DOS and dBASE for DOS. That's about all the Linux non-native stuff I use.