[Wftl-lug] Bye bye desktop Linux

[Frank Albe]

On Wednesday 20 June 2007 21:57, Michael Willems wrote:
> Oh, I know about OS's - again, been installing them since 1980, long before
> Windows (CP/M was an upgrade from OSI for me). But it should not be
> "hardship".. in 2007, there is just no excuse for an install that dumps you
> into: /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
>   (initramfs)
> ..and if 12,000 other people experience the same issue, that's rather a lot
> of hardship.

My experience with Kubuntu on a new Shuttle SK21G I built for my wife (who has 
similar computer needs to your wife's) was just the opposite. Around the 
first of June, my wife's computer finally died. It was a 1998 vintage PII/400 
running Microsoft Windows 98 first edition! We knew the machine was on its 
last legs. I had already built a Shuttle SK21G to replace it and was wringing 
my hands deciding whether to make it dual boot Linux and Windows XP Pro when 
her old machine gasped it last. I had the OEM copy of XP Pro I bought with 
the Shuttle hardware as well as a boxed set SuSE 10.1 lying around. I really 
didn't want the hassle of installing XP, and more importantly, I didn't want 
to take on the responsibility of maintaining and securing Microsoft Windows 
XP Pro. I almost threw SuSE on it, but on a whim I downloaded 7.04 Kubuntu 
and installed it instead.

The Kubuntu installation went smoother than any previous OS installation I've 
ever done, and I did it all in the GUI. The only problem I had was getting it 
to recognize the home LAN. That was a silly oversight on my part because I 
didn't make sure I was in administrator mode when setting the machine's IP 
address.

My wife had an immediate need to create a couple of documents. She had never 
used OOo, but I started up OOo word processor and left her with it. I told 
her to yell if she had any problems. When I went back into her office, she 
had finished her documents and was messing around with a spreadsheet she 
created to keep track of her weight. I've spent a little time over the next 
couple of days helping her get acquainted with Linux, and so far things have 
gone much smoother than I could have hoped for.

My wife's a 64 year old grandma who has used Apple //c, MS-DOS, Win 3.x and 
Win 9x strictly as an end user. I'm a semi-retired software developer who has 
been messing around with computers since 1964. I started using Linux (RedHat 
6.1) in 1998. I switched to Linux 100% in 2001. I'm highly impressed with 
Kubuntu 7.04 and plan to install it on my own workstation in the next couple 
of weeks.

-- 
Frank Albe

falbe at mindspring.com