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bas wrote:
That's PCLinuxOS though, not Mint. PCLinuxOS is (IIRC) based on Mandriva, whereas Mint is based on Ubuntu (which in turn is based on Debian). I find that distros with different bases have different package names.Hi Bas - thanks for that. I have everything but, the "vlc-plugin-dvdnav" which I cannot find using Synaptic.Hi Vivi,Thats weird, shows up in search for me (pclinuxos) its a DVD plugin with menu support for the VLC media player.bas.
However on Ubuntu (not sure if it's because I added Medibuntu mind you), there is a package called libdvdnav4.
With regards to crashing problems too, I've personally not had any show stopping problems with my hardware, I found that it just works. However I have found a couple of machines with some hardware combinations that are a bit more fussy with Ubuntu but happy with other distros.
My advice Steph would be to try a Live CD of a couple of different distros (maybe Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Fedora etc) and confirm everything works. Once you know things work, try installing the distro (maybe dual boot with Windows) and then your dad can slowly make the transition.
I'd also point out that I've had more problems with Windows, for instance a stray Windows Update or something which could cause a BSOD, in fact this happened to a customer of mine recently, he was doing something, rebooted and he couldn't get back into Windows at all (not even in Safe Mode). Luckily Ubuntu came to the rescue and I managed to get his data back.
I've also seen another problem with Windows XP on the Intel wireless drivers. If you install the option to start the wireless before logging in, it disables the welcome screen. However on removing the driver, you can't log into Windows anymore, not even in safe mode. The only way around it is to go into Safe Mode with Command Prompt, open a registry editor and remove the offending entries.
So yeah, things could screw up on Linux, but they also do screw up on Windows, it just seems that it happening on Windows is more acceptable to some.
Personally I would say recommending Linux is a good idea, as long as you test it on the hardware first to make sure it works, and if you want real stability try going for Debian stable, or maybe an Ubuntu LTS version (such as 8.04, or 10.04 maybe 6 months or so after release so any show stopping bugs can be ironed out).
Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html