HELP WINDOWS XP

[Doug Pollard]

Chris wrote:
> On Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:57:38 +0800
> Chris Jeffries <chris at candm.org.uk> wrote:
>
>   
>> The approachability of Ubuntu by new users is crucial to success. The
>> open software project will not succeed if it cannot get 'Joe Public'
>> on board without fuss. Even though I am a literate computer user
>> myself (since 1964), my mate who often asks my help is not, so I am
>> going to reference his responses to my experience as well as my own.
>>     
>
> *** Snipped to get to the point ***
>
> Chris and others, while I understand your suggestions and agree with
> some, first and for most I think that Ubu (and the whole Distro
> community) needs to finally decide is;
>
> Is Ubu going to be THE Linux entry point for your mentioned users.
> If the distro community can agree to that one basic point, then and
> only then should all attempts be made to "dumb-down" (for lack of a
> better word) Ubu while leaving the other distros to continue to
> support the "clued" users.
>
> If the above is globally recognized, then the other distros should be
> pushing Ubu on the sites something like this:
>
> New to Linux? We suggest using Ubuntu, Click here. Ready to move
> beyond Ubuntu? Welcome blah blah blah.
>
> Let everyone know that Ubu IS the Linux to be used as a jumping off
> point. In fact, demand it!
>
> One of the reasons I "left" the BSD (FreeBSD to be direct) community is
> much of the same discussion. How "User friendly" can FreeBSD be made.
> And with that sort of indulgence, adds bloat and features that
> are not needed by the larger user base as a whole.
>
> I know that many of you here on this list have at least used
> FreeBSD (and I know many still do) can agree - that there are some OS's
> that ought to be left alone (meaning, newbs and limited *nix knowledged
> users should at all costs, be steered away to something else).
>
> Just an idea while reading Chris' ideas.
>
>   
So maybe there should be a beginers Linux for the  person coming from 
Windows.  I know you didn't mean bloat in it's usual sense as one mans 
bloat is anothers easy to use features.   This kind  of a Linux would 
likely be more susseptable to viruses and that would likely be the worst 
downside.  My thinking would be that it would only be used for a 
realative short time.  Maybe it would expire after one year to convert 
to say Ubuntu.  Easy Ubuntu, or something like that. It  would likely  
work as a transition  but I don't know how it would teach the use of 
the  terminal  and if it did it would be hard to bill as easy.
                                                                         
                                    Doug