[plug] A new convert (maybe)

[garry]

Perhaps a good choice would be Knoppix. It is bulletproof and is very good at 
picking up hardware.

As it is debian based (hey, another feature..) the updates are a doddle, and 
the system is perhaps not _quite_ as bleeding edge.. You will have KDE 3.0 
instead of 3.1 to start with, but it's still good.. Staroffice is there with 
lots of other friends too.

<disclaimer>I'm not trying to start a war, OK.</disclaimer>

One thing a new user DOESN'T need is the sand shifting under his feet. To me 
knoppix is a good starting point, is very stable and is more than a match for 
XP*. And having a debian based distro means easy access to the important 
stuff like xinvaders...  8^)==

Mandrake HAS come a long way, but I'm hooked on apt I'm afraid!

If it turns out to be a good fit, a hdd installation is really easy too. If 
not, give Mandrake a go!

HTH

Garry.

> What sort of problems do novice users run into when running Linux. I
> know it is going to be the little things that will bother him. Things
> like is there a "pretty" dialog box showing the ink status for his
> printer.
>
> Has anyone used a Canon N1240U with Sane/Gimp? This is the one thing
> that worries me. The Sane site shows it as having beta status and poor
> picture quality.
>
> It has been a long time since I have used an rpm based distro. Anything
> I should look out for with Mandrake/URPMI.
>
> Whats the status of wine like nowadays? They don't play any games and
> big apps like OpenOffice.org will do most of what they want to do. I am
> just worried that there might be a little application out there that
> they will need.
>
> Sorry if this all seems a bit vague. I know they will be better off
> running Linux, it is just if something goes wrong and they convert back
> to Windows I will never here the end of it. In fact I will probably turn
> up to work and he will give me a coffee in a MS mug whilst dressed
> in a MS T-shirt.
>
> A list of the system components can be found at;
>
> www.iinet.net.au/~peregrin/newsystem.txt
>
> TIA
>
> Nigel
>
>
> [1] He has actually been using computers since Win 3.11 but has only
> recently started using the right mouse button to copy + paste etc.
>
> [2] Don't ask
>
> [3] He has just come back from 3 months in Europe. While he was away he
> had a young lady house sit. She just used his computer for Hotmail and
> some web browsing. Last week i had to remove 3 virii, 7 porn dialers,
> and 31 instances of spyware from his Win98 computer. Maybe this and my
> colourful language about Microsoft and the people who write this crap
> helped him come to a decision.