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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, 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.