Re: distro for novices
Hi,
On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 12:56:03PM -0500, Matt Price wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> this is not a troll, really! I'm just looking for some advice.
>
> I've been using Debian exclusively for about 2.5 years, and it's the
> only linux with which I really have any experience. I teach in the
> history department at a Canadian university and have been asked to
> teach a somewhat unusual coursee next semester: not history at all,
> but a kind of "technical self-sufficiency" not-for-credit
> community-based course in a local housing project. Students will
> asssemble their own computers, install an operating system, and learn
> how to use it.
I sounds interesting ... how many hours does it take to do this class,
that is one major factor.
> The students will come from a pretty wide variety of backgrounds; many
> will be refugees and refugee claimants, others are new immigrants to
> Canada. In other courses offered in this program, a high percentage
> of students have been (HIGHLY motivated) middle-aged women, and that
> will probably be the case with this one again.
You seem to have many well intended objectives but you need to assess
people attending class:
* their expectation of accomplishment
* theie readyness
* how much time you spend foe explanation
* in-depth vs. overview approach and student expectation on this
direction issue.
> I'm very excited about the course but a little worried about which
> distro to use in the class. As I said, am only really familiar with
> Debian and quite love it; but I do all my sysad work on the command
> line and use the menu system very little, so I'm not sure my
> experience is especially relevant. I'm worried
> that's not the best approach for this class. So, I guess I want to
> ask, which distros would folks recommend for the following situation:
>
> - novice computer users, who probably know how to use a web browser,
> an email client, and a mouse on windows, but little else;
For this, I think supported commercial distribution.
> - relatively slow hardware (hopefully not ancienct, but in any case
> not cutting edge);
(If you are thinking 486, then sarge is practically out.)
> I'm not looking for beauty or even speed, really; I *am* looking for
> out-of-the-box usability, compatibility with both old and new hardware
> (especially plugin devices like mp3 players, which are likely used by
> the kids of some students), and accessability.
>
> I had a bit of a wake up call this week when I tried out Ubuntu. I
> know it's based on Debian, and uses gnome, which really isn't so far
> from my desktop, xfce. But I found it surprisingly confusing to use;
> having everything hidden behind the gui layer seems quite foreign to
> me now.
I think if you want user experience through GUI as objective, this kind
of situation happen with any distro.
If you had to do something manually under such environment, distro was
not mature.
> so I really don't want to give folks a distro in which the
> ocnf files need constant tweaking, as I've found they sometimes do
> in Debian (at least in Sid, which I guess is an unfair comparison).
>
> anyway, thanks as always,
I do not have easy answer.
If the system has enough memory, I suggest installing live CD based
system. There user have enough initial experience. (Knoppix etc.)
That is good start.
Then tell people to install woody, ubunts, mandrake, ... hoppefuly the
version supported by the vender.
I have to admit that standard debian is not yet ready to be called easy
to use by the non-technical minds. I have problem even as a DD.
OA
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