Switching a friend to Ubuntu

[Bas Roufs]

Hello Alain

>> Perhaps the best thing to do is to help your friend with a distro you
>> feel yourself comfortable with.

> But I cannot fully grasp the current KDE with the odd thing in the upper
> right  corner which does not fit me at all. ....

I understand exactly what you mean. For the time being, I have solved
such problems by means of some provisional bypasses. I mention a few
examples.

I have "locked" the widgets at the screen and also at the panel in the
bottom. This measure prevents the screen from happening something
strange, out of my control.

Sometimes, I simply restart the PC if the system behaves like a
uncontrolled horse. (Control-Alt-Del, alt-r).

Via some "backport", I upgraded in December KDE to some version with
several bug fixes. Ever since that measure, working with Kubuntu 9.10
has become much more stable and predictable.

In case the horse becomes really uncontrollably crazy,  I  put the
terminal in root mode, command 'mc', midnight commander, in order to
rename .kde into '.kde.old' and to quickly get out and restart the PC.
In such a way, I force the system to create a new .kde desktop and
panel, which functions properly again. If such an operation succeeds,
you can put again your terminal in root, switch to midnight commander,
in order to delete 'kde.old'.

Such bypasses enable me to continue working in the KDE environment,
which I still prefer. But this is more a matter of 'taste' than of
purely technical considerations.
In your case, Alain, you could consider trying KDE again a few weeks
after the official release of Kubuntu 10.04, which will be a LTS, long
term supported distro. That's why, the "overall focus" in the
development of Kubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" is aimed at bringing a more
stable and polished desktop" . Several bugs and rough edges are being
eliminated right now. You can find more info if you go to kubuntu.org
and click at 'release page', a few lines under the heading "Lucid
Alpha 2 released".
I would advise you to upgrade your Ubuntu system to 10.04 a few weeks
after it's formal release - in such a time framework, the most rough
edges of a such a new release will be eliminated via updates.
Additionally you could consider adding a KDE/ Kubuntu shell to your
installation. This will allow you to easily switch between Gnome and
KDE.


> So I switched to LinuxMint, first KDE than gnome. It is well done, but I had
> some hardware problems (mostly sound and sometimes WIFI).
>I switched back to
> Ubuntu with gnome which I am starting to like.

Sometimes I work with Ubuntu Gnome and/ or Xubuntu at another PC;
nothing fundamentally wrong with those distros. A certain software
flexibility is always useful. However it may be, if Ubuntu is the
distro you feel most comfortable with right now, use it also to get
your friend started with Linux.

> Oh, Tx for the tip for the mail!

If any other question pops up in you with respect to Thunderbird, do
not hesitate to use this forum. As I said: it is a useful mail client
in the situation of your friend, but with rough edges though. On the
other hand, once Thunderbird is up and running in the Linux partition,
your friend can consider in a later stage transferring to Evolution or
Kontact. Both packages contain import facilities for Thunderbird.

With respect to Evolution, the Ubuntu website writes:
"Evolution gives you email, an address book and a calendar and works
well with colleagues and friends using MS Outlook."

So, it could be useful to take a look at it more in more detail. But I
have not practical experience yet with "Evolution".

Respectfully yours,

Bas.



>
> bye/Alain
>
>>> Changing his email client may well be the most traumatic aspect of
>>> this from his point of view so it may well be worth deciding which of
>>> the available clients is most like his current one.
>>>
>>
>> I think "Thunderbird".  My transit from Outlook to Thunderbird was quite
>> easy.
>> See above for the details.
>>
>> Respectfully yours,
>>
>> Bas.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Colin
>>>
>>> --
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>>> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Alain Muls                                   alain.muls at rma.ac.be
> Royal Military Academy                              +32.2.7426340
> Department CISS                                 srt +32.2.7426476
> Renaissance Avenue 30, B1000 Brussels
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>