On Sun, Nov 06, 2005 at 08:05:03AM +0200, Aaron wrote: > > would I gain something from ubuntu?
I'd like to amplify Marc's answer. Ubuntu is sort of the "Windows" of Linux. Instead of trying to make Linux look and act like Windows, as in "Lindows", etc, the founders of the project aim to take an already existing distro, Debian to be exact, and recreate or repackage it into a Linux that anyone can use. I assume most people on this list have installed Windows at one time or another and are familar with its instalation. You boot from a CD, put in a "magic number" answer a few questions and an hour later you have a working system without a clue of how it got there. This is fine as most users would not want a clue of what happened, what choices were made, or what they could have gotten if they had not taken a "typical" setup. So Ubuntu is a Linux package with that in mind. It installs (or runs from the CD) a working Linux system with very little user input. Instead of the sparseness of Debian or the "richness" of SuSE or dead rat, it is "lean and mean" but with the functions a new user would want. For example, not knowing why to choose between twm, fvwm, Gnome or KDE, makes a choice meaningless. So instead of offering it or going with KDE, which may be nice, but has its costs, they went with Gnome. It is also important to keep in mind that most of the world does not have Pentium 4 or the AMD equivalent computers. I had several Pentium 133-166 computers in my basement and as I made working systems out of them and offered them to the general public on a take them for free basis. I received many replies from people who needed a computer and had no money. Ubuntu is Linux for these people. While it will work well on a new, faster system, and being based on debian anything can be installed with apt, it works on what people have. The have also raised money to give away CD's for free and encourage you asking for more than one to hand them out. While I expect that most people on this list would find it too simple and confining, if you are asked to help someone get their computer going, Ubuntu with Open Office is IMHO a much better solution than a bootleg copy of Windows '98se and Office 98. Two important points to note: Ubuntu is not a static distribution, when you install it and later as you use it, an internet connection is (almost) necessary. The other is that there is no Hebrew version. Installing Hebrew support is fairly easy. The result is an English system with Hebrew display and text entry. If you don't read english you will be lost using it. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 You should have boycotted Google while you could, now Google supported BPL is in action. Time is running out on worldwide radio communication. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
