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Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users?
obarthelemy writes "Having at last gotten Linux to run satisfactorily on my own PCs, I'd now like to start transitioning friends and family from XP to Linux instead of Windows 7. The catch is that these guys don't understand or care much about computers, so the transition has to be as seamless and painless as possible. Actually, they won't care for new things; even the upcoming upgrade to Windows 7 would be a pain and a bother, which is a great opportunity for Linux. I'm not too concerned about software (most of them only need browser, IM, VLC, mail and a Powerpoint viewer for all those fascinating attachments). What I'm concerned about is OS look-and-feel and interface — system bar on the bottom with clock, trash, info on the right, menu on the left, menu items similar to those of Windows. Is it better to shoot for a very targeted distro? Which would you recommend? Are there themes/skins for mainstream distributions instead? I've been looking around the web, and it's hard to gauge which distros are well-done and reasonably active."
... it wants your comment back.
Seriously folks, this question is lame on so many levels.
I have to agree with this assessment.
I really only see three groups of people who would enjoy Linux: hobbiests with lots of time on their hands to tinker and tweak a finnicky system (and Linux is VERY finnicky as soon as you start to tinker, it's only rock solid when well configured), very technical server admins (amature or professional, it doesn't matter) for whom the licensing costs or customizability are bigger factors in the decision than ease of use, and very basic users who will never, ever change anything.
The tricky thing with the basic users is they may become slightly less basic users, and may want to change things, or they may have a child at home or a grandchild who comes to visit who is much more adventuresome on the machine and starts accidentally breaking things. Since Linux has a high learning curve compared to Windows, any change at all in the status quo is likely to make the very basic user become frustrated and end up hating Linux and being ultimately unhappy with whoever told them it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
The sad fact is, the majority of computer users are not very technical, but also do not fall into the catagory of "very basic" users. They are people who easily get themselves into trouble messing with things they shouldn't, and the potential to screw things up is higher. It's something Windows has been fighting for years, and they have been a lot more successful with it than Linux has.
The way a user interacts with Windows 7 as far as admin rights is concerned is much more Linux-ish (though uac still somehow manages to be far more annoying than sudo), so the fundamental security flaw that always distinguished Linux from Windows is no longer there. At this point the only real advantage Linux has in security is that not nearly as many people try to poke holes in it because it is such a small target. As anybody who knows a thing or two about security will tell you, that's a false security at best.
Anyway, this ended up being much longer than I intended, but my whole point is really to just be very, very careful about installing Linux for a novice computer user. The potential pitfalls are many, you could just as easily create a new Linux hater as a new Linux advocate, and that is definitely not what you want.
Oh and for my 2 cents, I'd go Ubuntu all the way, pretty much any flavor DM but I've always used gnome. It has the most support, most things you wouldn't think of (like mp3 codecs and wifi to name a couple) but can often be a real pain in the ass are pretty much taken care of automatically, making your job a lot easier. Their repository system is fantastic, and as long as you keep things set to the official repo's you almost can't run into an issue with a piece of software or an update breaking things. It also comes with Compiz effects pre-configured so you get some nice flair (I don't think the flair is as nice as Win 7's, sorry, though it does win on sheer number of effects) without much hassle. Also when setting it up you are going for stable stable stable, keep that thought in mind, and if you want to enable something that could jeapordize stability I would seriously think twice.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
We all know Vista is crap, so if they're using that, switching to anything would be a reasonable upgrade.
There is often a difference between what the geek "knows" and what he "believes."
Case in point - the crap Win 7 stories that have been making their way to the front page of Slashdot.
they care about what they can do rather than who makes their OS, and their are reasonable alternatives to XP and Vista.
Pretty much everything of interest in Linux [FOSS] is ported to Windows or begins as a native Windows app.
That is not true the other way around - and it matters.
The gold standard for the Windows user is the OEM system bundle of hardware and software. The system works as advertised or it is returned for service or replacement under warranty.
The platform has strength and visibility as a consumer product. It has the attractive mass market price - and better specs than the bottom feeders.
The Win 7 PC in store or at WalMart.com comes in essentially two flavors:
Win SE for the Atom netbook. 64 Bit Windows Home Premium for everything else. 150 or so systems in all, with a bare handful priced over $1000. The laptop will be dual core with 4 GB RAM. The desktop quad core with 6 to 9 GB of RAM.
The real trouble with Linux is it's a lot easier (and often necessary) to step out of "really easy GUI mode" and drop off the learning-curve cliff into extremely technical mode.
You mentioned one big example - installing anything outside the repositories can be extremely difficult. While most stuff you'll want is in the repositories, there are still a lot of software that are not in the repository systems, and the more obscure your interests the less likely it will be in there. Once you get into making and compiling software on your system, the once easy to maintain and upgrade distro can become a nightmare of re-compiling software after major updates. If your libraries have changed in a significant way between updates you might have to do some editing prior to the compile to make it work. That is way beyond the capability of an ordinary user. Unfortunately, this design is one of the main features of Linux that makes it so portable and successful. In order to make installing software in Linux as easy as it is in OSX or Windows you would have to break its portability.
Another example is cheap consumer-grade hardware (printers, scanners, cameras, whathaveyou), 99% of which works with Windows out of the box. Often the manufacturer isn't willing to go to the expense of writing a Linux driver for such a cheap product and so you are left with a nightmare of workarounds to get the thing working, and occasionally that isn't even possible. It isn't the fault of Linux's design or the Linux community, it's just the nature of the beast when your OS is not very popular on the consumer market.
For these two reasons alone I never recommend Linux to a user who is not at least very interested in learning about the inner workings of their computer. I'm all for "Linux on the desktop" in spirit, but in practice I can't in good conscience inflict that kind of thing on a clueless user. At least with Windows they can call Geek Squad if they make a real mess of things. I'm certainly not going to be anybody's personal tech support.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
I once made the mistake of criticizing Ubuntu on /. and was modded to hell's basement faster than a pop-up Bing ad. There's definitely some very strong and very defensive opinions here. I'd suggest the *nix community create some very well-written and friendly FAQ's that not only help newbies, but also serve as verbal scripts to practice dissemination of *nix info without triggering Asperger yellow alerts.
Table-ized A.I.