On 10/28/2011 07:04 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
I wouldn't call PCLinuxOS an exotic distro. Until recently it was number 5 on the most used Linux distro list. (I don't know where it is today.) It has a Forum that usually answers questions within hours. It works out of the box, with very minor tweaks--you probably want to unlock the "widgits"--icons to most people--so that you can move them around to suit yourself and add icons from the menu. If it looks quite a bit like Windows, that makes a lot of sense. Windows has developed from the original Xerox research over about 30 years, and everybody is used to it. (That may not be true for Win 8, but W8 is not here yet.) Just because some distros have gone bonkers with their screen displays doesn't mean everybody--or even anybody--has to like that nonsense. With the exception of the above writer, I haven't really heard anyone badmouth pclos. It's a great distro, and I've been using it for about 18 months now, having run from SuSE in 2010 after a batchOn Fri, 2011-10-28 at 23:27 +0100, Lisi Reisz wrote:On 28 October 2011 15:20, Ralf Mardorf wroteI don't know PCLinuxOS, but I'm sure it won't work OOTB for all needs. People might read the list's archive, so please don't write such careless generalisations.Yours is the careless generalisation. This was in reply to a specific poster and in answer to a specific question and was a very sensible suggestion. PCLinuxOS is a very good distro for someone switching from Windows, as the OP is. And the reply which occasioned your rudeness said that PCLinux is usually a good distro for a beginner, and I entirely agree. You say that you have not read the thread, so how come you are in a position to comment on someone's reply, especially to comment so rudely. If, in addition to not reading the thread, you have never seen PCLinuxOS, how on earth can you consider yourself qualified to have an opinion? LisiRude? Ok, I won't talk about this, but give a hint. A good Linux distro for beginners is a Linux distro with a huge community, IOW a distro that is used by many people and that comes with lot's of up to date forums, wikis etc., hence a good distro for beginners would be one of the major distros, any exotic distro in most cases isn't useful for a beginner. There are some exceptions, I e.g. already mentioned CNC and DAW. If a distro mimicries Windows it's completely bad for beginners, because this always leads to misunderstandings. Linux isn't Windows. Linux isn't a C64. Linux isn't ... Linux is Linux. I won't sound rude. IMO a beginner should use Ubuntu, Suse, Debian, Fedora ... those major distros are made for averaged users and they usually work OOTB. Especially Ubuntu has ggot a huge community with lot's of up to date wikis, forums etc.. IMO it isn't wise to recommend an exotic distro. YMMV. - Ralf
of problems with it. I use the KDE version.I have looked at a number of other distros, including Debian--I don't like their politics; Ubuntu--there's one distro that believes that just because it's possible to do something, it should be done--also the devs seem to have done their absolute best (or worst) to make sure there's nothing reminiscent of Windows about it; Kubuntu--when I looked at it about a year ago, I puked, don't know what it looks like now, and don't care; Mint--very nice when I last looked; Zorin--also nice, and had the capability of looking very much like XP, if you wanted it to, or like Gnome 2. Most distros now have several desktops available: you may have to choose *before* you download the live version which one you want--or perhaps not, depending.
Advice: get a live CD or DVD and try whatever you're thinking about using. See if you can add things that you want and have them work: *your* printer(s), your scanner, sound, both in headphones and on speakers, video--make sure that both sound and video work from whatever sources you normally use, including CDs, MP3s, YouTube, etc. Sound and video seem to be the weak points in some distros, so look carefully at them. Look especially for software that lets you run "protected" DVDs, if you're going to want to view them. (When I dumped SuSE, one of the reasons was that I never got a peep out of the speakers, no matter what the source, and all the answers on their list didn't help. That may be fixed, by now, but I'm not going back.) If you like to have the familiar icons of some common programs, see if the distro will let you do that, or only give you clones or imitations. Make sure that the pdf reader works, and that it prints properly to your standard size paper. You should be able to install Adobe Reader--some distros don't have it in the repo, and it may be a hassle to get it, if you want it. (There are FOSS readers; I like what I know works.)
I'm sure others will have some other recommendations, and some will quarrel with what I have said above. To each his own, as the song says. There are certainly some folks who like what I hate, and some who hate what I like, and I have no gripe with that. Just so long as I don't have to use theirs, I wouldn't force them to
use mine. --doug -- Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A. M. Greeley