[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu'ing a PC for a friend.

[Liam Gallear]

On 21 May 2011, at 09:40, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:

> Greetings!
> 
> My friend had this conversation with her Dad:-
> 
> Dad: "Can you get in contact with Alan and get him to help me with my computer"
> Friend: "I'll be honest, he won't touch it with windows on it"
> Dad: "Okay, will he install Linux on it for me?"
> Friend: "I'll ask."
> 
> So I have sat in front of me a laptop computer:-
> 
> Specs:-
> 
>    Dell Inspiron 6400.
>    Intel Dual Core Pentium T2060 CPU at  1.6GHz
>    2GiB RAM
>    60GB Hard disk
>    Intel GMA 945 video card
>    DVD Read/write drive
>    The usual other ports you'd expect, VGA, USBxlots, sound, SD etc.
>    Media playback buttons.
> 
> I agreed to wipe windows off (he doesn't care about what's on there at
> the moment) and install Ubuntu. I also agreed to a couple of hours of
> hand-holding to get him started. As far as I can tell he has no
> experience of Ubuntu or any other Linux distro.
> 
> I'm currently backing up the Windows XP hard disk to an external drive
> he provided, and will start a clean install of Ubuntu later. Wondering
> what to install. 10.04 LTS or 11.04 with Unity 3D or 2D?
> 
> I'm open to listen to suggestions for what to do, and what extra apps
> to install. I figured it might be useful for others. I'm keeping track
> of stuff in an etherpad document:-
> 
> http://pad.ubuntu-uk.org/PCForFriend
> 
> I welcome discussion / suggestions either here on the list or in that document.
> 
> Cheers,
> Al.
> 
> -- 
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/

That's pretty cool. 

I'd probably say go for 11.04, then he gets the benefits of Unity straight away.

If possible, though, why not dual boot the two and let the guy decide which he wants to keep?

Thanks and Regards,

Liam Gallear