HELP WINDOWS XP

[Leonard Smith]

On Sat, 2008-08-09 at 09:27 -0400, Doug Pollard wrote:
> 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:
> >
> >
> >   
> 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
> 

It seems to me that we are aiming at grabbing those persons who have
grown tired of Windows and are searching for a suitable alternative.
While the install process plays into the likelihood that someone will
even try it out it is not ultimately what will keep users in Linux.
Access to powerful and easy to use software plays a huge part. The more
software vendors who view Linux as a viable operating environment for
which they ought to provide a port, the easier it will be for users to
stay in Linux. Face it one of the reasons MS has so much share is because software developers view it as the best platform in which to market their product.

Some have mentioned that they dual boot for hardware compatibility,
same here. I spend about 90% of my day in Linux because it provides the
features and tools I need for my job. I use Windows to run certain
multi-media and other tools for which I have not found a comparable
port or workaround in Linux.