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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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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 hemocyanin on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:38PM
I used to suggest whatever my favorite Linux distro was at the time, and I had some friends take me up on it. But nobody ever really got into it and I was always on the hook for helping them figure out how to install things, and then didn't really have much to offer when they wanted to install things they couldn't, like most Windows programs. Sure there's WINE, but that's a whole new level of hand holding.
Burning out on that, I just started to tell people to get a mac -- I really like the laptops and most people are able to figure out how to install stuff.
Today, I think I would suggest either a tablet or a Chromebook (I've never used one but would like to) for people who are simply going to email stuff, surf the web, look at cat vids. I'm personally uncomfortable with the level of privacy violation that goes into these options, but I'm getting old and bitter. People aren't going to care about that unless they come to that care independently. For those who do care, I'll help them set up anything they want, even going through the intricacies of setting up gpg for secure email and such.
But for the unwashed masses for whom computers are just consumption devices and facebook portals -- tablet, or maybe a Chromebook if I ever see one IRL.