On 12/19/05, Mike McCarty <mike.mccarty@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Kent West wrote:
> Chinook wrote:
>
>
>>am trying to decide which Linux to install.
>
>
>>1) My wife will be using it for documents and communication. I'm sure
>>OpenOffice will satisfy the documents use, and she prefers Thunderbird
>>and Firefox for communications. Oh yes, she says she has to have her
>>card games :<))
>>
>>2) I mainly play at (I'm supposedly retired) software development on
>>my PMac G5 using ObjC/Cocoa. I would like to be able to expand into
>>the Linux world using GNUstep.
>>
>>So, a combination of a simple home system and one on which an old SE
>>can keep his head busy :-) I'm comfortable using Unix, but have had
>>no experience using Linux.
>>
>>Though it may be as unneeded as on a Mac, I'll want to include ClamAV
>>or an equivalent. Some sort of firewall would also be a
>>consideration, as well as a volume cloning tool for backup and
>>whatever system maintenance tools might be appropriate. Maybe I'll
>>even have more luck keeping it networked with my Mac than I had with XP.
>
>
> Lots of folks like Ubuntu.
I've heard a lot of good things about Ubuntu, though I've never
used it. I've heard two bad(?) things about Ubuntu. One is that
it, like Mandrake, has a semi-commercial air to it, and some
suppose that it might turn commercial some time or other.
The other is that it may be difficult to migrate from Ubuntu
to some other distro, as it's somewhat non-stock with some
kernel and other changes.
Mandrake has gone commercial, and is now called Mandrivia.
So there is precedent for such a conversion, and if migration
is an issue, then...
Take this with a grain of salt, as I haven't used it, and
am only reporting what I've heard from others who do.
I set up (and maintain) Kubuntu on my grandmother's computer,
and I think it is a good choice from a user-friendly POV. It doesn't
seem very "non-stock" to me. I have used Ubuntu packages
several times on my Debian box, and it worked about as well can
be expected. I doubt Ubuntu will go commercial, and if it did
it wouldn't be any more difficult to switch away from than any
other distro (if you wanted to). Ubuntu also has fresher packages
without having to use testing. I don't know if Ubuntu has GNUstep
in "main", but I am sure it exists in "
universe".
Speaking of Mandrivia, that is probably my second choice for
being user-friendly. Mandrake was my main distro way back when
I was just getting into Linux, and although I haven't used it recently
I have heard plenty of good reports about its modern incarnation.