Too long, don't read. It's mostly YMMV (religious) anyways. > The main thing about Linux that is 'hard' is the fact that > you have to use your brain and make choices: > Which web browser? We have this same question under Windows. My answer is "all of them, why not?" Some of the web sites I have need to visit only work on Internet Exploder (ms update), some only work on FireFox (my favorite game site), many are only tolerable in Opera because of *their* addiction to flash hits *my* allergy to flash. Opera's content blocking is a God-Send. > Which office suite? Unfortunately all of them fail at full compatibility with MSWorks; that's the Gold Standard. > Which email client? This is not trivial. Content compatibility with Office and other "of course you want embedded content in email" senders is a field of study in itself. My email client (Forte Agent) is horrible at handling embedded content. I'm also almost never bothered by trojans such as have clobbered my kids' and wife's systems (1 in 10 years, and that was when my son 'borrowed' my system). > Which desktop? Which one is most like WinXP? This is the question that keeps Linux off of desktops. Retraining people to a different way to drive is non-trivial also. > Which Linux distro? Why is there more than one? A Century ago there were ZILLIONS of things for chest colds/flu/pneumonia/bronchitis. In 1955 there were like 3... Sulfa, penicillin, and erythromycin. What happened to the others? They didn't work, so as soon as something came along that just worked, the others turned to dust of no more than historical value. Today there are a zillion flavors/distributions of Linux ... And one flavor of Windows. It tastes terrible until compared to the competition (speaking in behalf of everybody I personally know). > For lots of people this is way too much work. Or it's too much work for their boss or their spouse (but I repeat myself) ... Many/most people don't play with computers for a hobby OR for a job, they want it to Just Work so they can get their work/play DONE. If I could find a version of Linux that Just Worked for my machine, my wife's machine, and our software suites, I'd jump. > I guess if these > people looked at, say, cars or clothes the same way they > looked at computers, they would ALL be driving boring black > Chevys or would have a closet with 100 black suits, 100 black > ties, 100 white shits, etc. (Well maybe 100 black T shirts > and 100 pairs of jeans.) NOT. They'd all be wearing something they pull off a hanger in a store, or drive off a lot, utterly dependent on some foreign manufacturer's sense of fashion and function. Oh, wait ... If clothes were like Linux ... Think artfully/randomly placed patches of duct-tape on some home-made follow-the-pattern-and-hope-it-works abominations. YMMV. I have CentOS 5.5 on my "other drive" which I (almost) never boot because "wine /path/to/WoW/installdir/Wow.exe -opengl" doesn't Just Work. Wine didn't Just Work with Diablo, or Tetris either. Others got it working, I know; I've been odd man out for a decade. So's my wife, both my folks, most of my kids, and all my neighbors. We Linux desktop users are a small fringe because of what has been called "having to take thought". <QUOTE=Akemi Yagi>The DKMS version of Nvidia driver at rpmforge is not being actively maintained and will be deprecated in favor of kmods.</QUOTE> Another reason Linux is on the fringe ... The drivers and interfaces change too much too often. > > Them's my $0.04 (inflation, ya know...). Got mole problems? Call Avogadro! 602-1023. ******************************************************************* This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept for the presence of computer viruses. www.Hubbell.com - Hubbell Incorporated**