Patrick Bartek wrote:
--- On Sat, 4/16/11, foldingstock@theowned.org<foldingstock@theowned.org> wrote:Like I said, "A Lot has changed in 12 years". Debian is more friendly today than yesterday as are most distros, but there are others that are friendlier, a lot friendlier. So, I stand by my initial statement that Debian is notsuitable for the Linux firsttimer. I would never recommend it to a noobie. With Debian, you need to know, at least somewhat, what you're doing.I think if someone is capable of reading and comprehending the excellent documentation available, there should be no problem using Debian. This is how many people have learned.It's been my experience that most users never read the manual. Too much trouble. When something breaks, they find someone to fix it or tell them how to. No learning required.
I'll certainly agree with that - applies to everything. I expect few people read the manuals for their cars, or their cell phones, until they're trying to figure something out (like how to set the clock). Those of us who are engineers need to remember that most people are not, and engineers get paid to make technology simple to use (well, generally not paid to work on Debian).
I'm really floored every once in a while by someone who can't get their email set up - but when you come right down to it, there is some trickiness to things like getting all the server names, port numbers, protocol selection, and passwords set up.
I'm not sure I'd recommend any flavor of Unix to someone without some general understanding of computers, except maybe a Mac. I'm beginning to come around to the idea that appliance computers (web browser, nothing else) + software as a service is not that bad an idea for the average person -- I'd certainly spend a lot less time helping friends and family out of jams.
As to Debian: Easier than BSD, OpenSolaris, Gentoo, Slackware, Redhat, SUSE; probably not as easy as Ubuntu, maybe Mint. Definitely not as easy as a Mac.
On a more general note: You probably want to take some time to learn things, if you're going to use Linux, and Debian is easier than most (apt still rules). I've watched one of my sons - the English major - ditch Windows for Arch Linux on his ancient Compaq laptop, learn the ins and outs of finding/installing drivers for various things, and teach himself some C and Python along the way - so you never know.
-- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In<fnord> practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra