You missed the whole point, I was a windows user for years. I got sick of troubleshooting the same problems period. I didn't really know there were alternatives until about 2000 when I downloaded red hat 9. Since trying Linux (several different distros) I have become convinced that it is more secure with less demands on the hardware. Why be locked into buying new computers every 2-3 years when I can run linux on older machines and just not worry about it. I can honestly say that I have not lost any data since I made the switch three years ago, the same can not be said for my years of using windows. Is it a crime to run a different OS then windows? Believe me, it is very nice to have an OS that just runs better without the hassles of malware and frequent system crashes.
There is nothing hard about troubleshooting xp, just a waste of time. After the final blue screen of death when the sys.ini file was corrupted I didn't feel like recovering, formatting and reinstalling. On her old laptop it typically took almost 2 hours just to do the install not to mention reinstall all of the drivers that were not supported out of the box or additional software such as office. With linux, it took about 40 minutes, all drivers were built in and at the end of the 40 minutes she has a fully functional system complete with email, word processing and everything else she needs.
She has been happily using the same system for over a year and wonders why her school doesn't run linux.
They actually like it. I think it depends upon the particular distro, something like xandros or linspire is so easy to use and very easy to understand after only using windows. Both of their computers work for what they use them for, basic web browsing, doing word documents with openoffice for homework etc, and email.
The whole process wasn't painless though, the biggest issue was getting the multimedia codecs working flawlessly, and using wine to run some of the games that my daughter wanted to run.
The email conversions were absolutely painless, as they had both been using firebird. The web browsing was a no brainer because I had already switched them over to firefox or opera.
When making the switch, if the user already has some experience using open source, cross platform software they have a much lower learning curve.
Funny that you mention your daughter, I became so fed up with troubleshooting my daughters xp box that I gave her the option of Linux or nothing. She has been happily using Xandros OCE every since. (9 years old)
My wife on the other hand chose the xp route and while I was travelling crashed her computer. I get the phone call while on the road and simply told her I am not a window washer anymore. She ended up using the daughters computer and has now converted to linux too.
After downloading firebird, migrating all of their email and backing up all data. Go ahead with your installation and restore their data. Problem solved.
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amarok
You must have typed it in wrong! Try apt-get install microshitdrmnewest
You missed the whole point, I was a windows user for years. I got sick of troubleshooting the same problems period. I didn't really know there were alternatives until about 2000 when I downloaded red hat 9. Since trying Linux (several different distros) I have become convinced that it is more secure with less demands on the hardware. Why be locked into buying new computers every 2-3 years when I can run linux on older machines and just not worry about it. I can honestly say that I have not lost any data since I made the switch three years ago, the same can not be said for my years of using windows. Is it a crime to run a different OS then windows? Believe me, it is very nice to have an OS that just runs better without the hassles of malware and frequent system crashes.
There is nothing hard about troubleshooting xp, just a waste of time. After the final blue screen of death when the sys.ini file was corrupted I didn't feel like recovering, formatting and reinstalling. On her old laptop it typically took almost 2 hours just to do the install not to mention reinstall all of the drivers that were not supported out of the box or additional software such as office. With linux, it took about 40 minutes, all drivers were built in and at the end of the 40 minutes she has a fully functional system complete with email, word processing and everything else she needs. She has been happily using the same system for over a year and wonders why her school doesn't run linux.
They actually like it. I think it depends upon the particular distro, something like xandros or linspire is so easy to use and very easy to understand after only using windows. Both of their computers work for what they use them for, basic web browsing, doing word documents with openoffice for homework etc, and email.
The whole process wasn't painless though, the biggest issue was getting the multimedia codecs working flawlessly, and using wine to run some of the games that my daughter wanted to run.
The email conversions were absolutely painless, as they had both been using firebird. The web browsing was a no brainer because I had already switched them over to firefox or opera.
When making the switch, if the user already has some experience using open source, cross platform software they have a much lower learning curve.
Funny that you mention your daughter, I became so fed up with troubleshooting my daughters xp box that I gave her the option of Linux or nothing. She has been happily using Xandros OCE every since. (9 years old)
My wife on the other hand chose the xp route and while I was travelling crashed her computer. I get the phone call while on the road and simply told her I am not a window washer anymore. She ended up using the daughters computer and has now converted to linux too.
After downloading firebird, migrating all of their email and backing up all data. Go ahead with your installation and restore their data. Problem solved.