Hi folks, I'm baaaack! Nothing much seems to have changed...... (sigh) Heather said (in part): Hope I've got the right poster here :-)) As a total linux newbie I will add my two pennorth - I work as a coordinator and support person for housebound people - repairing pcs, getting them on the net etc etc. Whatever the level of skill, everyone here on this list is, by default, either a full blown 'techie' of some sort or an enthusiast who wants to learn more about OS innards. I would go further and say that everyone with a linux PC falls more or less in those categories ------------------------------------- The critical point she made was: "as a total LINUX newbie". Like her, I am certainly no newbie to the PC - literally writing programs to get the originals ( BEFORE "P.C.s" existed) to actually do anything. I wrote the first ever "user friendly" thing for the portable microcomputer: a text-based ASCII Menu for the Osborne et al. I had to - nobody "normal" could remember the nonsensical command line inputs of CP/M ( the grandpa of MSDOS/PCDOS ) AND I've hated them since. :-)
Linux in ANY flavour is a nightmare for the non-geek. The solution to getting Linux out there in any meaningful way is to consider the logistics: 1. Nobody installs their own OS in the real world. The PC is delivered - delivered with Doze already installed AND with a suite, typically. 2. The Mandrake distro is now up to 8.4. The problems are at exactly the same level as they were when I bought Mandrake's first offering. My last try was M8.0. I have tried every one and NEVER got a useful working system. ( Also everybody else's Redhat SUSE etc.) Never had sound, or CD's, or a decent Office suite(lousy font displays), or decent sane, Printing. Same as most people out there today.................. 3. As in (1) the solution is to have the job done by a geek. Catch? Finding one who can actually do it!! THAT is how hard it is - I've lost count of the people who generously tried to help me along the way..... I believe, after all my research, that there is a great business opportunity going to waste out there for tech-heads. Supplying FULLY-CONFIGURED (underpowered!) systems at a fraction of the Doze-based price in two forms: 1. For the Computer unaware. A completely Linux system. NEVER even mention Doze except to say it is old-hat, very expensive and hard to keep going. 2. Computer/Doze aware: Same thing, only add Win4lin. THAT is where I am finally going. a) find *known to work* specs - Mb, SC, VC, etc etc. Put the box together. b) install Win4lin so I can keep my beloved Frontpage98, VoiceXpress, Lotus Smartsuite and stop fooling around with enormous NEW learning curves instead of making money!! c) Enjoy the best of both worlds! NOW: Is there anyone out there who has done something like this? Setup a low-cost box (built-in sound,video sort of thing)? A businessperson - not a command-line freak? I WANT to use the GUI. If we can't do it via the GUI something is terribly wrong with the interface or something.....really - after all this time and attempts. Someone who insists on not suffering the inanities of programs written by very strange people all over again and who has installed Win4lin? Maybe even got ViaVoice going? ( Came with M8.0 Big Retail Box I never got it to go) There! My hypothesis and Xmas wish all at once. HINT: It is 10 times harder to convert to a different system of operation than it is to start with one. Why bother? AHHHH!!! But geeks LOVE it! They love the strain, the pain, the anguish, the slow, inching forward in great danger............... the non-physical equals of the nutters who climb high rocks. BUT - I must say this - I never saw more friendly and helpful people on any support list who worked harder to help others than here on the Newbie list. Thanks! Him Again (John Rigby)
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