IT Pro - now relaxing

faq
flatforty
contribute
subscribe
configure
search
rdf

main
parent

IT Pro - now relaxing
by Jim on Monday 12/Nov/2007, @18:59

Hey Guys, I have to say that I agree about the blogs being hostile out there and how one person prefers and pushes a particular distro over another. I have tried many distros, from the meek to the over-glorified (no names given, but I'm sure most of you are aware :-). One thing I have to say is, if you happen to be a newby, then Ubuntu and it's several flavors, is DEFINITELY a good starting point - and for that purpose alone, it's hard to find fault in the distro... Hey, most of us responding to this blog are experienced Linux users. To us, we find fault because the distro doesn't support one or another feature. We each have our faves and anyone else (or, perhaps, even ourselves in the future) will find some fault with it. One could just as easily go on and on about our choice in desktops - or even operating systems, for that matter. I prefer to see each person's choice for exactly that - their choice. If we continue to down (or even push, for that matter) any other distro/desktop we DO confuse any potential new users out there. When we should simply be saying: "Hey, here's a free disc. Let me know if you need any help and I'll be more than happy to oblige." Once the new user gets up to speed, they can decide for themselves if it supports what they need and you can guide them from that point.
Happy computing;
Jim

Related Links

·   Articles on KDE in Linux Distributions
·   Also by Jim
·   Contact author

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )

Distribution DOES matter--esp. w/ newbies
by DrK on Wednesday 21/Nov/2007, @10:48

Ubuntu is a decent distribution. No doubt. Of course, this thread is about Kubuntu.

It very well may be a good starting distro, but remember that there are other good starting distros out there.

I happen to like openSUSE quite a bit, part of which is how easy it is to install (although I second the notion of using Smart rather than Yast for package management) and run. KDE is well supported via the various package repositories, including KDE 4, backports, community, etc.

It also has pretty good hardware support (with the exception that you do need to go to the NVIDIA and ATI maintained binaries on your own)--I have had zero problems with an IBM ThinkPad T42.

I think that the notion that you can just give someone new to Linux any old distro and let them decide is a bit silly. I *tried* Red Hat (before there was even a Fedora) as my first and it was painful. I switched to SUSE (before there was openSUSE/Novell SUSE) & it made a huge difference in my motivation to stick with Linux.

I think the choice of a distribution makes a tremendous difference in many areas. I think that even new users need to understand that there are different distributions for a reason (so they can focus on specific aspects, etc.), as well as different GUIs, different windows managers, different XXX, and that is one of the best things about Linux these days. There are certainly distributions that non-techies/non-masochists should stay away from--and people new to Linux should be told this!

So, pick a humane distribution for new folks. Ubuntu is reasonable, Kubuntu is probably getting there, but openSUSE (and others) already has great KDE support. OpenSUSE probably does need a little more handholding, since it offers a CHOICE of KDE, Gnome, minimal GUI, text mode, etc. (Can add Blackbox, XFce, etc. later as well) as well as a ton of end-user applications (probably too many choices in media players and too few for XML editors IMHO).

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Distribution DOES matter--esp. w/ newbies
by Engineer John on Monday 11/Feb/2008, @08:35

I am running Win98 at home and WinXP at work. I am looking for a Linux that I can learn on since Vista is a little scary. (Those iMac attack ads seem to work)

I have tried Puppy Linux and had a good experience. I am currently trying Kubuntu on VMWare Player and having a more difficult time. Most of the difficulty comes from software installation and directory privileges. I guess that is the price to pay for moving to a more secure multi user system from a single user system.

Years ago I had just gotten used to setting up DOS 2.11 systems when Win3.0 came along and then Win3.11 and then Win95 and then Win98 (Win32). I paid full price for two of these, with the others being OEM and upgrades. I can't bear the thought of having to upgrade hardware every time more eye candy comes out.

All distros have their good and bad points but for newbies like myself the big determinant is informative and easy to follow documentation and tutorials. Well implemented installers would also be a big help.

My problem is that I like to have the new OS's but I haven' got the skills yet to be able to install Flash Player, Firefox, etcetera. This being said I wonder if the distros are being made available a little too soon in their life cycle without their contents being described as Alpha or Beta versions. Maybe they should list the distro's contents so we newbies can pick the one that requires the least tweaking?

<B>Bravo Open Source<B> for giving enthusiasts around the world a great adventure.

[ Reply To This | View ]

The Fine Print: The previous comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )


		"KDE: Get Over It!" -- Ivan E. Moore II
KDE®, "K Desktop Environment", "KDE Dot News", "got the dot?" and the KDE Logo® are trademarks or registered trademarks of KDE e.V. in the European Union, the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster. The rest: Copyright © 2000-2008 KDE e.V. for The KDE Project. For further information or comments on this site, please contact the Webmaster.