On Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:58:21 -0600, Paul Johnson wrote: > Hello, Beartooth. Hi, Paul! If you're the same guy I know from several electronic places, I'm glad to hear from you. And incidentally, the address I post from is valid, and I check it several times a day. > I have given this a lot of thought over the last few months. You > certainly can't leave her on Fedora. That turns over too fast. > > On a server or in a public lab, I run Centos or RHEL. > > This is a Centos list, and I don't want to inspire a big distro flame > war, but here's an opinion. If you are serious that you may die and > leave your wife with an OS she can't manage, you might think about > installing the LTS version of Ubuntu. Hmmm ... I had forgotten all about the LTS versions ... > The Ubuntu email list folks are > more helpful to non-experts. The distro team is more energetic about > making device drivers work, even if you happen to own the "wrong" > hardware (proprietary drivers for Nvidia video, MP3 encoding, etc). They > are somewhat like Macintosh in attitude. "If we can't package it up for > you to click on, it is not worth doing." That's not the way experts > need it, but for somebody who is just using the system, it may be about > right. Hmmm ... again. IF (repeat IF) she would ask online (and I don't know) .... As for drivers, etc., I don't think that's likely to become a problem unless by hardware obsolescence; but I'll keep it in mind next time I have somebody build her a new machine. (I don't speak hardware myself.) I install lots of apps on her machine for me to use on occasion (not only for troubleshooting); but I don't think she even looks at most of what I put on her panel -- like the workspace switcher, which to me is the Champion Percheron of All Workhorse Apps. She seems to stick to one or two browsers for news and reference, a gnome-terminal for Alpine, and OpenOffice for her own writing; she'd rather be out hiking or playing golf than sitting indoors. > On the other hand, if I have a really serious problem, something wrong > in the kernel, I'd much rather seek help in the Fedora list. There are > more true experts floating about in there. I read you loud and clear. 99 44/100% of the Fedora list (well, close) is over my head; but lots of the regulars are very helpful. > I suppose that once you install the OS, the trouble due to automatic > updates from either Ubuntu LTS or Centos/RedHat will be about the same. > The trouble will come when she either has to get a new computer or make > a major distribution update, eg from Centos 5.5 to Centos 6.0. I'll hold off till 6.0 is out and quieting down; but that's just now. How important is it to upgrade from x.y to x.(y+1) in general? > If she needs to find Linux help, my *guess* is that she will be more > likely to find a teenager who has used Ubuntu than the others. Actually, she'd likely have an easier time finding an undergrad or grad student. (We have no Tech affiliation, but we live a couple miles from campus. Dunno if that will much affect the issue, though.) > She'd have the same trouble with Windows, the only difference there is > that it is easier to find/hire geeks to help on a Windows system. Our LUG list is nowhere near so active as for instance the ones in Northern Virginia or Silicon Valley, of course; but there seem to be a respectable number of members, year after year. Time was (before we arrived), I'm told, when Tech required Apples; but we replaced OSX with YellowDog and then Fedora.ppc while we had an iBook. Maybe the LUG is full of fellow rebels from fame. -- Beartooth Staffwright, Neo-Redneck Not Quite Clueless Power User I have precious (very precious!) little idea where up is.