On Thu, 2009-09-24 at 09:37 -0700, Florin Andrei wrote: > 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). All true. No way would I argue with that. > 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. We might have a communication problem here, in the image of the "low-tech" user. My image of the "low-tech" user is the one who surfs the Web, reads and writes e-mail, and does the odd letter or maybe even a spreadsheet in some office tool, along with maybe some simple games. My experience with this category of user is that when they stumble across something unfamiliar or want some additional function, they pick up the phone and call me. If I'm reading your above two paragraphs correctly, your image of the "low-tech" user is one who has enough curiosity and motivation to poke at the machine by his/her self to find things out. My personal tendency is to not include people like this in the "low-tech" category, but to let them slide towards the "power user" category. This, of course, is another rationale for the Linux/Unix security model versus the sham that is called "security" under Windoze. When somebody is experimenting with an idea new to them just found on the 'Net, at least it's more difficult for them to trash the entire machine. Anyway, I have been reasonably successful with my approach to moving people onto Linux, and apparently so have you. As every little bit helps, then let's both keep at it. ;> > -- Ron Loftin reloftin at twcny.rr.com "God, root, what is difference ?" Piter from UserFriendly