Do a friend a favor. Don't sell him Linux. Don't try to "convert" him, please. If he is actually interested, give him something as simple and Windows-like as you can. I generally go for Linux Mint. It's got the stuff in the right place. Thoroughly check hardware support, make sure your friend can play all his media, and check that he can use all his peripherals BEFORE you convert anything over. Don't even start if there's any question. Back up ALL his data for him.
Set the thing up for unattended upgrades. Install SSH and get a dyndns account so that you can admin his box from wherever you are. Then be prepared to spend some serious time helping him get used to those little things that are different. He's going to need it.
Make converting to Linux the best experience of his life. Please. I don't need to read any more "My friend wanted me to try Linux but now I'm stuck at a text prompt and this sucks" blog posts.
While i agree on the topic itself, i must disagree on that Linux Mint should be windows-like. Mint is awesome but for a windows-like experience i would go KDE-based distro like the new Mandriva or PC Linux OS.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right, but I know DEB systems, and it appears to be the best overall.
ReplyDeleteThe advantage of using Gnome, though, is when they sit in front of it they know instantly they are not in front of a Windows machine so they don't even START to make expectations of it to work like Windows.
ReplyDeleteGnome's Application/Places/System menu is easy to get used to.
I say this because my wife is very non-computer savy and she seems to pick up Gnome faster than KDE.