Re: Why Microsoft must abandon Vista to save itself

GrandmasterB wrote:
"Roger Lascelles" <relATaantDOTcomDOTau> wrote in message
As long as your wife has you around, she can run any OS. But without your expert help she must run a Mac or Windows machine, because sooner or later she will end up at a command line or editing a config file - and that will be the end of it.

Can you imagine grandma trying to use apt-get?

Every year or so I install linux on a desktop to see where things are (not server - I manage a number of linux servers, and am familiar with that end of things). So last week I installed Fedora 7. My impressions:

- Font rendering in gnome was *horrible*. After tweaking it a bit I got it to be accecptable, but its still not as good as in Windows. It literally gave me headaches.

- It was unstable. The system menu (basically, the 'start menu') locked up 3 times over the course of a couple hours, and stopped responding to clicks. Basically making the system useless. I ended up having to put a terminal link on the desktop so that I could do a reboot via the command line when that happened (you could still click on things on the desktop). Evolution looks like a decent email client, but it 'dissappeared' a number of times whenever I selected anything from its menus. No error message or crash - it just dissappeared.

- Finding a decent editor (not full blown IDE) with ssh support was tiring. I eventually found one, komodo. Functional, but its no UltraEdit.

Basically, I didnt see a single compelling reason that would make me want to switch. I did see enough to dissuade me again from doing so. I'm sorry, I just dont see what the advantage is.


Fedora, IMHO, is the one of the worst Examples of Desktop Linux I have seen. I NEVER would recommend anyone using Fedora as a Desktop OS. Server wise, it is fine.

My favorite is from the Ubuntu/Debian family. Ubuntu is not a newbie distro either, since it requires that you have some knowledge of Linux to get all of the multiple codecs for multimedia. Also, I do not like the idea that an install does not include Firefox by default.

However, Ubuntu and Kubuntu are excellent distros and to make them even easier, I would recommend Linux Mint, based upon Ubuntu.

Best Free Linux Desktops (in order)

(1) Linux Mint: Why? Based upon Ubuntu, so you have excellent repositories, great On Line support and Ubuntu is becoming synonymous with Desktop Linux. Plus it adds non open extensions for multimedia, Real Player, and Flash. If you want the Ubuntu/Hubuntu experience that is ready for Multimedia and Internet Flash enabled sites as well as You Tube, this is the distro for you.

(2) PC Linux: Based upon Mandriva primarily, this is a very pretty Linux Distro. It gives Mint a run for its money, but it has some networking and Java issues with Open Office. Support is not that great either (on line or otherwise). It looks good however and is very easy to use. If they fix the small quirks, it is Mint's main competitor. A little better Control Panel type functionality than Mint. but the problems are not easily resolved. DO not depend upon great support.

(3) Kubuntu/Ubuntu: Great distros and if you know a little Linux, you can make it top notch. Good Hardware recongition and stable. 7.10 release may push it number one. Mint basically is Ubuntu that takes care of the little things for you.

(4) Open Suse 9.3: This is in last stages of Beta and looks promising. No doubt will hav the best MS compatibility as well.


(5) FreeSpire: Now based on Ubuntu. Once the CNR is completely open, this may become the easiest of all Linux desktops.

Worst Linux Desktops:

(1) Fedora: They really have not taken Linux Desktop seriously. They are trying now, but I have always found Red Hat/Fedora to lags seriously behind all others for Desktop. You need to know what you are doing to make this work properly.

(2) Slackware: Good Linux distro and you can make it run quite efficiently. However, not a newbie distro by any means.

(3) Gentoo: Great for lean and mean Linux, but again, too Slackware like.

(4) Dream Linux: I actually LOVE this distro (great MAC L&F), but installing it isn't polished at all. It is total Trial and Error.

Works great from bootable CD. This thing has mucho potential if they ever work out install issues. The prettiest Linux of all.


I know people will argue with me. but that is my experience with Newbies. Linux pros can use what they want to make it what they want. That is the beauty of Linux.





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