[Novalug] Linux Mint Debian 201403 LMDE Mate

Walt Smith waltechmail@yahoo.com
Sun May 18 00:18:18 EDT 2014


You never asked which LINUX system to use ...
You asked a Q that gets flame retardant about
once a year: it used to be a much bigger fire.
except, granted, this IS a LINUX group...  
I assume you are talking WHICH LINUX DISTRO ?

but it's been awhile since we're had a decent kernel or
consumer discussion... since Linux has taken over
smartphones, many tablets, google and yahoo.

so.......  I'll take the initial hits ...

I'd recommend for non-technical people that I 
know Windows 7 or 8.

Why ? ( nothing new here that hasn't been said before )

1. They know how to let their system do auto updates
whither they want to or not.... they're comfortable.
2. They already know where their own menu' s are.
3. They're not interested or motivated to learn anything
new.  This last point is important.  They are either older,
or if younger are ADD and learn from their friends who know
nothing about linux.
4. I'd have to install it.  And it isn't simple.  I've installed
CentoOS, Fedora, and Ubuntu  within the last 4 years
or so.  Let me restate:  Installing Baseline with development 
software, or web server, or firewall and a few other server things...
is easy.   Thats not the problem. The consumer part is the problem.

The absolute biggest problem is installing enough
packages for the simple media people know and love.
The second is the perception on almost all my own boxes that
some driver isn't up to par for graphics, or GPU/media chip,
or some PCI or bus chip, or USB, or ......
or software modem or such...having used multiple motherboards and
DVD drives, there's always something not quite  right...
Specially since - and this is part of the responses -- linux for much older
CPU motherboards hasn't been supported.   IT was intentionally
sent away.   Now the Q is: at what point ( say, for the "new"
ide interface system, in kernel 2.2 or 2.4 ? ) How far back does the "new"
kernel support motherboard technologies ????

Lets look at the time scale.  What year are 2.2 Ghz or faster are on
desktops ?

Lastly, relatedly, I'd like to ask the Question I've asked before.
We generally know what distros are SOOO open sourced gpl
properly ( not a bad thing, depending  )... the WHOLE THING
is properly open.

BUT, what distros supply all (most) of the proprietary drivers necessary
to run almost anything?  ( and we know the nvidia and ati and a few
other stories....)

Some of the above should seem familiar to what a lot of normal users
won't know to ask - until they've turned on the system for the 4th time.

Walt.......

-----------------------------

Comment pro and con please
First Question:
  Would you be willing to give a system with this to a new users?
   If NOT then what would you recomend instead?

  Besides setting the base system up and answering the first 100+ how do I question, how much tech support to expect them to need?

Relate If you say YES the what base set of additional packages would you install.
 {home user Web surfacing, games, email, light wp}


Note my Future plans is to install on some formally XP class machines with 


----
The government is lawless, not the people.



More information about the Novalug mailing list