On Sat, 2011-10-29 at 01:08 -0400, Doug wrote: > On 10/28/2011 07:04 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote: > > On Fri, 2011-10-28 at 23:27 +0100, Lisi Reisz wrote: > >> On 28 October 2011 15:20, Ralf Mardorf wrote > >>> I don't know PCLinuxOS, but I'm sure it won't work OOTB for all needs. > >>> > >>> People might read the list's archive, so please don't write such > >>> careless generalisations. > >> Yours is the careless generalisation. This was in reply to a specific > >> poster and in answer to a specific question and was a very sensible > >> suggestion. PCLinuxOS is a very good distro for someone switching > >> from Windows, as the OP is. And the reply which occasioned your > >> rudeness said that PCLinux is usually a good distro for a beginner, > >> and I entirely agree. > >> > >> You say that you have not read the thread, so how come you are in a > >> position to comment on someone's reply, especially to comment so > >> rudely. > >> > >> If, in addition to not reading the thread, you have never seen > >> PCLinuxOS, how on earth can you consider yourself qualified to have an > >> opinion? > >> > >> Lisi > > Rude? Ok, I won't talk about this, but give a hint. > > > > A good Linux distro for beginners is a Linux distro with a huge > > community, IOW a distro that is used by many people and that comes with > > lot's of up to date forums, wikis etc., hence a good distro for > > beginners would be one of the major distros, any exotic distro in most > > cases isn't useful for a beginner. > > There are some exceptions, I e.g. already mentioned CNC and DAW. > > > > If a distro mimicries Windows it's completely bad for beginners, because > > this always leads to misunderstandings. Linux isn't Windows. Linux isn't > > a C64. Linux isn't ... Linux is Linux. > > > > I won't sound rude. IMO a beginner should use Ubuntu, Suse, Debian, > > Fedora ... those major distros are made for averaged users and they > > usually work OOTB. Especially Ubuntu has ggot a huge community with > > lot's of up to date wikis, forums etc.. > > > > IMO it isn't wise to recommend an exotic distro. > > > > YMMV. > > > > - Ralf > > > > > I wouldn't call PCLinuxOS an exotic distro. Until recently it was > number 5 on the most used Linux distro list. > (I don't know where it is today.) It has a Forum that usually answers > questions within hours. It works out of > the box, with very minor tweaks--you probably want to unlock the > "widgits"--icons to most people--so that you > can move them around to suit yourself and add icons from the menu. If > it looks quite a bit like Windows, > that makes a lot of sense. Windows has developed from the original > Xerox research over about 30 years, > and everybody is used to it. (That may not be true for Win 8, but W8 is > not here yet.) Just because some > distros have gone bonkers with their screen displays doesn't mean > everybody--or even anybody--has to like > that nonsense. With the exception of the above writer, I haven't really > heard anyone badmouth pclos. It's > a great distro, and I've been using it for about 18 months now, having > run from SuSE in 2010 after a batch > of problems with it. I use the KDE version. > > I have looked at a number of other distros, including Debian--I don't > like their politics; Ubuntu--there's one > distro that believes that just because it's possible to do something, it > should be done--also the devs seem > to have done their absolute best (or worst) to make sure there's nothing > reminiscent of Windows about it; > Kubuntu--when I looked at it about a year ago, I puked, don't know what > it looks like now, and don't care; > Mint--very nice when I last looked; Zorin--also nice, and had the > capability of looking very much like XP, if > you wanted it to, or like Gnome 2. Most distros now have several > desktops available: you may have to > choose *before* you download the live version which one you want--or > perhaps not, depending. > > Advice: get a live CD or DVD and try whatever you're thinking about > using. See if you can add things that > you want and have them work: *your* printer(s), your scanner, sound, > both in headphones and on speakers, > video--make sure that both sound and video work from whatever sources > you normally use, including CDs, > MP3s, YouTube, etc. Sound and video seem to be the weak points in some > distros, so look carefully at > them. Look especially for software that lets you run "protected" DVDs, > if you're going to want to view them. > (When I dumped SuSE, one of the reasons was that I never got a peep out > of the speakers, no matter > what the source, and all the answers on their list didn't help. That > may be fixed, by now, but I'm not going > back.) If you like to have the familiar icons of some common programs, > see if the distro will let you do that, > or only give you clones or imitations. Make sure that the pdf reader > works, and that it prints properly to > your standard size paper. You should be able to install Adobe > Reader--some distros don't have it in the repo, > and it may be a hassle to get it, if you want it. (There are FOSS > readers; I like what I know works.) > > I'm sure others will have some other recommendations, and some will > quarrel with what I have said above. > To each his own, as the song says. There are certainly some folks who > like what I hate, and some who hate > what I like, and I have no gripe with that. Just so long as I don't > have to use theirs, I wouldn't force them to > use mine. > > --doug >
Hm? I'll take a look at the live media :). http://distrowatch.com/ 1 Ubuntu 2178< 2 Mint 2114> 3 Fedora 1673> 4 Debian 1318> 5 openSUSE 1258> 6 Arch 1236< 7 PCLinuxOS 1038= I experienced the best howtos for Ubuntu and Arch. I never used Arch, but the howtos helped me a lot. My recommendation for beginners would be Ubuntu, while I don't know Unity or GNOME3. For good reasons I switched from Ubuntu back to Debian, but for beginners Ubuntu has some advantages. - Ralf -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1319880834.2828.14.camel@debian
