<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8"><title></title> <style type="text/css">  </style> <div> <div>Recently, I've converted my friend's 13 year old daughter to Linux because her windows got infected every one or two months with viruses and spy-ware. Now, she uses Ubuntu and happy because she can visit all the virus infected download sites without being afraid of getting viruses. But to make her satisfied I had to install a few additional programs like  Limewire, mplayer with the codecs and dvd libraries and F-Spot; now she can do the same things with Linux she got used to doing on the windows. This gave me a chance to learn about her and her friend's surfing and user habits, and helped me to figure what were the most important of programs teenagers couldn't live without. </div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>- a messenger program like Gaim for chatting</div> <div>- a file exchange program like Limewire</div> <div>- a good music player</div> <div>- a video program, like mplayer</div> <div>- an image viewer that can retrieve images from cameras, like F-Spot</div> <div></div> <div>If xubuntu is intended for the average users rather than specialists, I think the default applications should reflect this. From this point of view the Gimp, Inkscape, Dia are not even necessary to be included in the default setup. Those who want to use xubuntu as a graphic platform can easily download and install them from the repositories. More important are the basic apps that mainstream users, with all probability, will use everyday, like the ones I mentioned above. Because if they cannot do things they want out of the box they get quickly frustrated. </div> <div></div> <div> J. Mak</div> </div> <p> <hr size=1>Find your next car at <a href="http://autos.yahoo.ca"><b>Yahoo! Canada Autos</b></a>