The "secure boot" if mandatory will make it almost impossible to recompile source to optimize your system. Also, good by Gentoo. I think mandatory "secure boot" is a big mistake and Microsoft should be ashamed of itself, but monopolies seldom are ashamed.
There is a sshfs module that lets you mount a remote file system just like you mount anything else. It is secure and fast. Google sshfs for more information.
Outlook is many things: calendaring, ToDo, Email, and a VIRUS. In most ways, except the virus, it is like Evolution. If one needs all that other stuff then Evolution is the way to go, other wise Thunderbird is great for email. In fact Google Mail is wonderful and then all one needs is Firefox.
The "bad" isn't that bad any more: Flash is available and works well. If one wants games they should buy an XBox or the like. The games are much better on one of those $100 to $500 dedicated game machines than on any Windows box, and they don't crash or get viruses. A lot of the Windows biggies run pretty well under Wine and there are some good money programs. The new (beta) Linux Picasa runs under Wine and works great.
The "ugly": There are a lot of professional video programs available for Linux. The biggest motion picture animation companies use Linux not Windows or Mac. Hardware on distributions like Ubuntu works very well. I have printers, scanners, DVD's keyboards and they all work without any problems and no hassle.
All in all the best Linux distributions like Ubuntu and its kin work with almost everything. There is a bit of a problem setting up the DVD because of the legal, patent, and DeCSS but if one just says pooh to DeCSS and downloads the drivers needed it works great -- put a DVD in the slot and it runs just like Windows or better.
If you installed Windows on a clean-blank machine you would not say "windows just works". It is much worse than a distribution like Ubuntu. If one of the good Linux distributions were installed on the box you buy from the computer store the vendor would have the MP3, DVD, file system setup to "just work". Windows off of a CD is a pain in the a** to install and get working. Try to add Windows as a dual-boot to a Linux or Mac machine and you will give up and take the CD back to the store where you bought it.
Linux will grow slowly until Joe Average can buy a computer with it installed. Linux is growing now only because Windows is SO BAD. If Windows "just worked" there would be NO Linux community. If Windows "just worked" no one would care if Microsoft was a monopoly or not. The problem is Windows "just does not work"!
Microsoft is a massive monopoly will billions of dollars to advertise. Other big for profit companies are in bed with Microsoft for all kinds of reasons: co-advertising is one big one. Dell gets little if any help from Linux in that regard. Dell doesn't want to piss off Microsoft for a lot of money reasons. Microsoft has a lot of clout and can either help or hurt a company. Linux does not have much clout and Dell is offering Linux as a token to assuage a vocal but not very powerful minority at this time. Dell is being careful and trying to have its cake and eat it too. If the demand for Linux grows (which I hope it does) they will be ready, but until then Dell doesn't want to anger the 100 billion pound gorilla with the great big club that is watching.
For non GEEKS Ubuntu is probably the best distribution out there. One can live in Ubuntu and never ever use the dreaded command line. Or one can use the terminal and the command line to anything and everything. Distributions like Fedora or Gentoo are great but require much more geek savvy. Gentoo would be almost impossible for for a newbie to work with even though it is a great distribution and a wonderful learning experience.
I think the biggest thing that keeps most people from trying Linux is that the computer they buy at the store has Windows pre-installed. I do agree with one of the posters when he says "please don't pre-install Linux". One of the biggest pains in the neck with Windows is all the pre-installed junk that companies like Dell, Sony, Compaq, or HP feel compelled to put on their offerings. And as that person said the hardware vendors create some of the worst junk out there.
Having agreed with that point if we could just get companies to install a vanilla version of Ubuntu with appropriate drivers for their hardware on computers at a reasonable price people would start using Linux and loving it. Once Linux (especially Ubuntu) is installed on a box anyone can use it and they don't need to be a geek or ever learn to use the command line or any of the command line tools if they don't want to (if they do want to then they have all the wonderful Unix utilities there to try). I think if people were given the chance to buy a Linux box or a Windows box ready to run more and more people would choose Linux. Even with the disadvantage of having to wipe the Windows virus off the machine and install Linux from scratch Linux is catching on. There are a lot of non-geeks out there that have become so fed up with Windows and proprietary software, viruses and adware that they have moved to Linux and are very happy they did.
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The "secure boot" if mandatory will make it almost impossible to recompile source to optimize your system. Also, good by Gentoo. I think mandatory "secure boot" is a big mistake and Microsoft should be ashamed of itself, but monopolies seldom are ashamed.
There is a sshfs module that lets you mount a remote file system just like you mount anything else. It is secure and fast. Google sshfs for more information.
Outlook is many things: calendaring, ToDo, Email, and a VIRUS. In most ways, except the virus, it is like Evolution. If one needs all that other stuff then Evolution is the way to go, other wise Thunderbird is great for email. In fact Google Mail is wonderful and then all one needs is Firefox.
The "bad" isn't that bad any more: Flash is available and works well. If one wants games they should buy an XBox or the like. The games are much better on one of those $100 to $500 dedicated game machines than on any Windows box, and they don't crash or get viruses. A lot of the Windows biggies run pretty well under Wine and there are some good money programs. The new (beta) Linux Picasa runs under Wine and works great. The "ugly": There are a lot of professional video programs available for Linux. The biggest motion picture animation companies use Linux not Windows or Mac. Hardware on distributions like Ubuntu works very well. I have printers, scanners, DVD's keyboards and they all work without any problems and no hassle. All in all the best Linux distributions like Ubuntu and its kin work with almost everything. There is a bit of a problem setting up the DVD because of the legal, patent, and DeCSS but if one just says pooh to DeCSS and downloads the drivers needed it works great -- put a DVD in the slot and it runs just like Windows or better.
If you installed Windows on a clean-blank machine you would not say "windows just works". It is much worse than a distribution like Ubuntu. If one of the good Linux distributions were installed on the box you buy from the computer store the vendor would have the MP3, DVD, file system setup to "just work". Windows off of a CD is a pain in the a** to install and get working. Try to add Windows as a dual-boot to a Linux or Mac machine and you will give up and take the CD back to the store where you bought it. Linux will grow slowly until Joe Average can buy a computer with it installed. Linux is growing now only because Windows is SO BAD. If Windows "just worked" there would be NO Linux community. If Windows "just worked" no one would care if Microsoft was a monopoly or not. The problem is Windows "just does not work"!
Microsoft is a massive monopoly will billions of dollars to advertise. Other big for profit companies are in bed with Microsoft for all kinds of reasons: co-advertising is one big one. Dell gets little if any help from Linux in that regard. Dell doesn't want to piss off Microsoft for a lot of money reasons. Microsoft has a lot of clout and can either help or hurt a company. Linux does not have much clout and Dell is offering Linux as a token to assuage a vocal but not very powerful minority at this time. Dell is being careful and trying to have its cake and eat it too. If the demand for Linux grows (which I hope it does) they will be ready, but until then Dell doesn't want to anger the 100 billion pound gorilla with the great big club that is watching.
For non GEEKS Ubuntu is probably the best distribution out there. One can live in Ubuntu and never ever use the dreaded command line. Or one can use the terminal and the command line to anything and everything. Distributions like Fedora or Gentoo are great but require much more geek savvy. Gentoo would be almost impossible for for a newbie to work with even though it is a great distribution and a wonderful learning experience.
I think the biggest thing that keeps most people from trying Linux is that the computer they buy at the store has Windows pre-installed. I do agree with one of the posters when he says "please don't pre-install Linux". One of the biggest pains in the neck with Windows is all the pre-installed junk that companies like Dell, Sony, Compaq, or HP feel compelled to put on their offerings. And as that person said the hardware vendors create some of the worst junk out there.
Having agreed with that point if we could just get companies to install a vanilla version of Ubuntu with appropriate drivers for their hardware on computers at a reasonable price people would start using Linux and loving it. Once Linux (especially Ubuntu) is installed on a box anyone can use it and they don't need to be a geek or ever learn to use the command line or any of the command line tools if they don't want to (if they do want to then they have all the wonderful Unix utilities there to try). I think if people were given the chance to buy a Linux box or a Windows box ready to run more and more people would choose Linux. Even with the disadvantage of having to wipe the Windows virus off the machine and install Linux from scratch Linux is catching on. There are a lot of non-geeks out there that have become so fed up with Windows and proprietary software, viruses and adware that they have moved to Linux and are very happy they did.