Re: Using Linux on a Family PC
Felix C. Stegerman wrote:
I've recently acquired a 2nd hand PC I want to use as replacement for
our (windows 98) family PC.
That means my mother, stepfather and little sister (5 years old) will
(have to be able to) use it.
Of course, I want to use Debian as the OS, if I can.
Specifications:
CPU: 466MHz Celeron
RAM: 2x 64MB DDR PC100
NIC: 3Com 10/100
Drives:
hda: 8.4 GB Seagate
hdb: 8.4 GB Seagate
fd0: 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
Internet access: ADSL (416 Kbit/sec up, 2240 Kbit/sec down)
My mother and stepfather will need to use the following types of
applications:
- Browser & E-mail (POP3) client
- Word processor
- Spreadsheet program?
- Image manipulation program?
My little sister plays about 3 different Windows games (some have a
Mac version too I believe) that she'll want to be able to play on the
new PC too.
I've thoght of using WINE, but I have no experience with it.
I've also thought of dual-booting, but would prefer not to use windows
at all.
WINE, if the games will play in it. If not, win4lin, or VMWare
(cha-ching$), both of which will also require a Windows license; but you
won't have to reboot between OSes.
As for word processing, they're used to MS Word and Corel Wordperfect
8. OpenOffice is also installed on the current PC, but as far as I
know they've never used it.
Unless they're writing complex documents, they'll adjust quickly enough.
I hardly ever use a word processor myself, since I prefer plain text,
so I don't know what would be good replacements for Word/Wordperfect
and Excel.
Nothing replaces WordPerfect. How I'd dearly love to see a Free clone of
WP. As it is, I've learned to accept OOo. OOo and Abiword both would
probably suffice to replace Word; OOo and GNumeric both would probably
suffice to replace Excel (except for VB scripting).
Any suggestions, with arguments of course, on which apps to use are
welcome.
Google and the Debian-User archives have all sorts of opinions on the
matter.
Image manipulation is something my mother would like to do, but has
not done before, so I'll try to get her to use The GIMP. Any other
suggestions are welcome.
GIMP's what you want.
Another matter is which version of Debian to use.
I'd say unstable would be the best choice, but if anyone thinks
otherwise please let me know.
I'd go with unstable, assuming you're willing to put up with the little
kinks that arise every now and then. The kinks are less painful than the
archaic packages in stable, and for me, unstable is more usable than
testing (because bugs get ironed out more quickly due to the constant
flux of unstable).
- What desktop manager/environment do I use?
Arggh-gh, I hate to say it . . . but KDE. Better yet, install KDM along
with several window managers / environments, and they'll be able to pick
which environment they want to use each time they log in.
- What file-management program(s) should I use?
Konqueror, or Nautilus. If they use something other than KDE or Gnome,
there are other FMs out there, including manual manipulation at the
command line, but these two are what will be most familiar to them I'd
think.
- How much administration (updating etc.) should I do?
I usually do an "apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade" about once a
week. Just depends on what you're comfortable with. If there are any
major security announcements, maybe then as well.
- What do I have to think of regarding security?
If you're behind a firewall, and take normal reasonable precautions
(don't run as root all the time, don't install an ftp server and leave
it wide open, use ssh instead of telnet, etc), you probably won't have
to worry too much about things. Of course, more security is always
better than less, but just by getting rid of Windows and replacing it
with Debian is a huge improvement.
- What do I set-up regarding permissions and limiting their options
for breaking anything, like deleting their important files, etc.?
Give each one an account. When asked during installation of Debian if
you want world-readable home directories, answer "No".
Then configure KDM to start four instances of X/login, and teach them
that Dad is on Ctrl-Alt-F7, Mom is on Ctrl-Alt-F8, etc, so that each
person has their own X session. Configure their screensaver to be
password protected, and that's probably all the security a
(non-psychotic) family needs. My family doesn't even need the
password-protected screensaver.
- How do I make everyting as user-friendly as possible/nessecary?
This question is way too big to be addressed here.
- Do you have any additional tips?
Re: your old Win98 PC; it might be suitable for a thin-client as a
second Debian machine.
--
Kent
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