Re: Just a simple query
On Sat, 2011-10-29 at 01:08 -0400, Doug wrote:
> On 10/28/2011 07:04 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> > On Fri, 2011-10-28 at 23:27 +0100, Lisi Reisz wrote:
> >> On 28 October 2011 15:20, Ralf Mardorf wrote
> >>> I 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?
> >>
> >> Lisi
> > Rude? 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
> >
> >
> 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 batch
> 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
>
Hm? I'll take a look at the live media :).
http://distrowatch.com/
1 Ubuntu 2178<
2 Mint 2114>
3 Fedora 1673>
4 Debian 1318>
5 openSUSE 1258>
6 Arch 1236<
7 PCLinuxOS 1038=
I experienced the best howtos for Ubuntu and Arch. I never used Arch,
but the howtos helped me a lot. My recommendation for beginners would be
Ubuntu, while I don't know Unity or GNOME3. For good reasons I switched
from Ubuntu back to Debian, but for beginners Ubuntu has some
advantages.
- Ralf
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