On Apr 20, 2004, at 9:30 AM, Hyrum Wright wrote:
I don't mean to renew the age old distro wars, but....
I also don't want to stir the pot, but my comments will probably end up doing so...
I've got a friend who is fed up with Windows, and when I offered Linux as a suggestion, he was very favorable to the idea. I'm trying to figure out what would be a good distro to install on his machine tonight. Given that he is leaving town tomorrow for the summer, and I won't be around to help (except via email), is there a distro which would be the easiest for him to use, and for me to install?
How technical is this friend of yours? Is he pretty good with computers? Or is he always asking for help to do troubleshooting? Have you given him a computer competency test? :) I think Mandrake is great for CS or other technical newbies who have used windows a lot. For a non-techie, you may want to go with one of the "user-friendly" distros that attempt to be a Windows replacement. Specifically I would look at Lycoris, Xandros, or Lindows (what is it's new name: Linspire or something like that?). Xandros has gotten a lot of really good reviews, and it includes CrossOver Office to ease his transition. Linspire or Lycoris would also probably fit the bill. Although Mandrake, RedHat, Suse, Fedora, etc. are all good distributions, they might be a little _too_ much change for a non-technical user who (although he may hate it) is used to Windows.
My $0.02
Grant Robinson
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