Hi folks, this is not a troll, really! I'm just looking for some advice.
I've been using Debian exclusively for about 2.5 years, and it's the only linux with which I really have any experience. I teach in the history department at a Canadian university and have been asked to teach a somewhat unusual coursee next semester: not history at all, but a kind of "technical self-sufficiency" not-for-credit community-based course in a local housing project. Students will asssemble their own computers, install an operating system, and learn how to use it. The students will come from a pretty wide variety of backgrounds; many will be refugees and refugee claimants, others are new immigrants to Canada. In other courses offered in this program, a high percentage of students have been (HIGHLY motivated) middle-aged women, and that will probably be the case with this one again. I'm very excited about the course but a little worried about which distro to use in the class. As I said, am only really familiar with Debian and quite love it; but I do all my sysad work on the command line and use the menu system very little, so I'm not sure my experience is especially relevant. I'm worried that's not the best approach for this class. So, I guess I want to ask, which distros would folks recommend for the following situation: - novice computer users, who probably know how to use a web browser, an email client, and a mouse on windows, but little else; - relatively slow hardware (hopefully not ancienct, but in any case not cutting edge); I'm not looking for beauty or even speed, really; I *am* looking for out-of-the-box usability, compatibility with both old and new hardware (especially plugin devices like mp3 players, which are likely used by the kids of some students), and accessability. I had a bit of a wake up call this week when I tried out Ubuntu. I know it's based on Debian, and uses gnome, which really isn't so far from my desktop, xfce. But I found it surprisingly confusing to use; having everything hidden behind the gui layer seems quite foreign to me now. so I really don't want to give folks a distro in which the ocnf files need constant tweaking, as I've found they sometimes do in Debian (at least in Sid, which I guess is an unfair comparison). anyway, thanks as always, matt PS: any suggestions as to which list this request really belongs on? -------------------------- .''`. Matt Price : :' : Debian User `. `'` & hemi-geek `- -------------------------- if you're an evil spambot, these addresses are for you: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]