[CentOS] CentOS for non-tech user

Thu Sep 24 16:37:18 UTC 2009
Florin Andrei <florin at andrei.myip.org>

Ron Loftin wrote:
> 
> 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.

That is a fair point. Having to support something you're not familiar 
with can be difficult.

> This also gives the long support cycle, as others have noted in this

Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) is similar to Red Hat in that regard, if 
that's what you want (but the advantages of a slow-moving distro are 
less clear for this kind of situation).

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-8.04-lts-desktop

I forgot to mention something: The end-user support for Ubuntu is 
phenomenal. With CentOS or Red Hat, you do get info on the mailing lists 
and wikis, but it's for geeks like you and me. Ubuntu has plenty of 
information on the Web, including forums and blogs and whatnot, much 
more accessible to the average Joe/Jane. The difference is gigantic, 
orders of magnitude really, it was the most striking feature when I 
started to use Ubuntu (besides the fact that you almost never have to 
compile anything, ever - any software you can imagine is just an 
"apt-get install" away, or rather, click on Synaptic Package Manager, 
Search, double-click).
The low-tech crowd using Ubuntu is huge, they clearly have the largest 
user base in that segment. And if you're a non-techie you want to stay 
with the crowd.

What I'm saying is, they will be able to figure out more things by 
themselves on Ubuntu, if they can use a browser. Maybe even become 
totally independent after a while.

-- 
Florin Andrei

http://florin.myip.org/