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posted by
Dopefish
on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:30PM
from the no-need-to-join-the-microsoft-collective dept.
from the no-need-to-join-the-microsoft-collective dept.
resignator writes:
"'Arm yourself with the information needed before telling someone to install such and such distro because it's great,' warned blogger Ken Starks in his recent FOSS Force post. 'It might be great for you, but maybe not so much with my hardware choices.'
What considerations do SoylentNews readers have when recommending an OS? What OS do you recommend the most or least? How far would you go to 'tailor' a Linux distro to a potential adopter before recommending something that will work out of the box but lack non-essential features?"
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Recommending Linux to a Friend
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 5, Insightful) by EvilJim on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:34PM
I wouldn't recommend any operating system to a friend, you'll end up on the hook for support. I might suggest an OS but would explicitly state that they can fix their own problems.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:49PM
Mod parent up.
It is true, that you will be on the hook for support no matter what you recommend. I've been doing my whole life.
Still, I do make recommendations, because that's what friends are for. I've been doing pro-bono support for some geezer friends of mine for many years.
But I no longer recommend ANY flavor of Windows. Regardless of how well you help them set up windows, they will have it full of malware within 90 days, or they will go overboard and have 3 or 4 virus scanners running on it, two different "registry cleaners", at least two different disk defraggers, and a boat load of spyware.
This isn't always windows fault, its their fault for Never seeing a link they could pass up clicking.
I've had many of these guys switch over to Linux, and never have another problem. Yeah, all the names are different but you would be surprised how FEW things they actually use.
What ever distro you recommend make sure it is Long Term Support release. Regardless of Distro, I like KDE, but sometimes its overkill for people who only read email, surf, and shop on line.
Ubuntu has gone so far down-hill these days that I can't recommend it anymore. In their rush for simpleness, even simple tasks become obtuse as hell.
Other than that, recommend what ever distro you are happy to maintain for them, because you will be doing so.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by etherscythe on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:12PM
On the flipside, Ubuntu is a pretty common support target for many software packages - chances are, if there are any instructions that are noob-friendly, they will give pretty explicit directions for Ubuntu. This will make your job exponentially easier if you have to do anything with the system later that you don't know like the back of your hand.
The most I would ever "customize" an install for someone is to choose a sub-variant like Xubuntu or Kubuntu. The more you change the "out-of-box" configuration, the more time will have to be spent getting it to work properly, and the less often standardized instructions will apply without modification.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:25PM
Well people who have worked in offices are generally happier with KDE, and Kubuntu is pretty sweet.
I've installed that for people quite a few times.
It has a start bar that is functionally the same as windows, an their approach to finding
their documents and doing their work can be largely the same. So the learning curve is much less.
Ubuntu with its new out of the box interface is minimalist, but good enough for Grandma, or kids with nothing to do but surf. Or any other users that have never seen a real distro before. Or Mac users converting to Linux.
Personally, any form 'Buntu is not my cup of tea.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by jt on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:51PM
Generally the people I know who would consider switching OS are the kind of people who would not be asking friends for recommendations. That said, I've had some success in getting some family members to dual-boot their much-loved Windows for 'normal stuff' and some Linux-based OS for banking and other sensitive stuff. For this usage pattern the main factor I need to consider is how easy it will be to keep it patched with little manual intervention.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:14PM
The best way I know to convert people is to tell them that, running Linux, they can watch all the porn they want without having to reinstall Windows because Linux doesn't get malware and viruses. It doesn't matter that I am technically lying, because these types of people don't understand things like BASH shells and file permissions and so have never borked their Linux in poking around. They see that Linux not only runs orders of magnitude faster than even Windows XP (due to all the virus scanners and other shitware bogging down the system under XP) but with one quick configuration of Compiz-fusion can run faster and flashier than Pixar's wildest dreams.
With this newfound power, my friends were then equipped to go to the nearest hipster-inhabited coffee-shops and up to the nearest Mac users, showing their own 4 year-old and semen-crusted Dells or Toshibas, with 3-D Cube 3-D Windows Fire Mosaic Paperairplane Whoa FUCK blazing. With the awestruck Mac user's jaw still dropped and speechless, my friends would then say, "This laptop cost me 300 bucks," before walking out with a strut.
(Score: 1) by jasassin on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:36PM
Windows 7 Ultimate and just use the daz crack on my digital life forums. Windows 7 has the best graphics driver support for most modern hardware. Crack after all updates including the check for hacks. Install. Do all updates checking the unchecked one, reboot, run windows loader. Bam.
I say Windows 7 ultimate. Every time they get a virus.... Ask them to buy you pizza :-)
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Wednesday March 05 2014, @10:07PM
if you're only charging a pizza for virus removal/resoftwaring you're really underselling yourself. I would probably ask for 3, delivered.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TWiTfan on Thursday March 06 2014, @10:05AM
Yeah, I've learned to just tell them to go to Best Buy and pick a computer they like. If you make a specific recommendation, they're not only going to be bugging you for support, they're also going to hold every crash, bug, or other problem with the computer against you. I also tell anyone looking for support to take it to Best Buy and let the Geek Squad lame-asses fix it.
Here's your script: "Yeah, I would love to help you on that, but I just don't have the equipment to diagnose or fix the problem properly. You should take it to Best Buy. Those Geek Squad guys can probably help you."
If real life were like D&D, my Charisma score would be a negative number
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 09 2014, @01:02PM
I truly appreciate this blog post.Thanks Again. Cool.