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On Sat, 2009-12-12 at 19:42 +0000, Steph Foster wrote: > Having read about a lot of problems and heard a lot of complaints I am > now finding myself wondering > if I could genuinely recommend GNU/Linux as a desktop OS to any non > geeky user. > > I personally think that if this trend continues popularising GNU/Linux > to the masses is going to be very difficult. > > I do say GNU/Linux because the problem is not kernel based so it isn't > really a Linux problem. > > It is a GNU problem. > > Steph > > I don't think this is a problem (I'm ignoring the difference between GNU and linux as it really is a pin for angels to dance upon). About 3 years ago my mum's XP PC, not a badly spec'd box, slowed down to something that made crawling look fast. Also exhibited many other problems. Me, as in house IT support, eventually put my little foot down and said "either we go linux or you sort it out yourself!". After going through what she needed to acomplish we came to the conclusion that the only windows app needed was Quicken 2004 (accouting stuff - we tried some linux equivilents, but the import of data, down to the way quicken archives stuff I think, was so bad they weren't usable). So on goes ubuntu. There have been no problems. She really doesn't care what OS she uses so long as it works, ubuntu does. I think she'd have problems with the file structure etc if switched back to windows. A couple of years back my 9 year old nephew hassled his mum into buying an assus eeepc - one of the early ones. This came with a very naff linux and I replaced it with the ubuntu netbook remake. No problems, up and running. Two weeks ago my next door neighbours PC refused to boot. I tried to re-install XP, I tried to install windows 7. No joy, so I put in kubuntu (I am not a canonical fanatic and would have been happy to give the openSUSE or mandriva, but ubuntu has a slight edge for people who are basically IT illiterate). Also its repositories are bigger. They LOVE IT! "It does what it says on the tin!" Easy to use no bells and whistles - though I guess many long term linux users will think these distros have many bells and whistles. Ubuntu for my mum, as I'm on site to give advice, kubuntu for the neighbours as the menu structure is a little more windows like. So don't give up. Just don't evangelise about "obscure" stuff like free software, proprietary codecs etc. Just show people something easy to use, good looking (very important) and free. I have introduced and persuaded to use linux to 4 people. Non of them have problems with it. But it has to be done when they need it Simon -- 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