[CentOS] CentOS for non-tech user

[Ron Loftin]

On Thu, 2009-09-24 at 08:53 -0700, Florin Andrei wrote:
> Anne Wilson wrote:
> > I'm thinking of giving CentOS to a non-tech user for her new desktop.  He 
> > needs are small.  She has been used to Mozilla for both mail and browsing, so 
> > equivalents there are not a problem.  She needs grip and lame, for her mp3s - 
> > again no problem.
> 
> Desktop, non-techie - use Ubuntu instead.
> 
> I'm a big CentOS fan, I joined even the Facebook group (lol), but its 
> place is on the server or, perhaps, on a workstation for a power user 
> (or for things like running scientific apps on the desktop). If you're a 
> PhD running quantum theory equations with Mathematica on your Xeon 
> multicore workstation, I can very well see why you would prefer CentOS, 
> or even Red Hat Enterprise proper.
> 
> But non-tech persons, they will be much more comfortable with Ubuntu. 
> Much, much more comfortable. It will do more things for them, they may 
> even be able to tinker with it, in a small way. Your support calls will 
> be much reduced. ;-)
> CentOS (any RHE derivative, basically) is a less good choice for this 
> particular situation.

I respectfully disagree with your viewpoint.

I have converted several "non-techie" users to CentOS from the "other
OS" ( sometimes called the Rubbish from Redmond ) with little
difficulty.  CentOS on the desktop is what I use, therefore I am in a
good position to answer their questions ( which have been very few, so
far ) where if I put another distro on their machines, I would have to
flail around when some minor point about the desktop or menu comes up.
This also gives the long support cycle, as others have noted in this
thread.  This is also of interest, since I equip these folks with
recycled or "older technology" systems, which CentOS supports quite
well.

For those who may have some need or want that CentOS doesn't support, I
keep Linux Mint around.  It is a derivative of Ubuntu that has the
codecs and stuff like that included, so it has all of Ubuntu's "user
friendliness" with less fuss over non-free components.  So far, I
haven't had to use it since CentOS has satisfied the modest requirements
of my users.

This is just my $0.02 ( US ) worth.

> 
> Heck, I consider myself very knowledgeable (been using Linux since 
> Slackware came on a stack of floppies and I had it dual-boot with a 
> novelty OS called Windows 95; made my own distribution once from 
> scratch; been using Red Hat nearly since the beginning) and I still 
> don't run CentOS on my desktop - I use Ubuntu instead. (actually, as I'm 
> getting more and more involved with higher-end-ish digital photo and 
> digital video processing, I find myself booting Vista a lot more often 
> on my home PC - it's a long story and yes I am aware of all the 
> wonderful Linux video apps)
> 
-- 
Ron Loftin                      reloftin at twcny.rr.com

"God, root, what is difference ?"       Piter from UserFriendly