[plug] A new convert (maybe)

[Peter J. Nicol]

Ok, I have done this experiment a couple of times.  Neither time really worked
that well.  My GF did manage to write her Honours thesis in Star, then OpenOffice,
but I had to more or less administer the poota.

The other installation did not really work well either.  They were happy using
Mozilla and OpenOffice, but installing other programs was a hassle.  They wanted
to use sound progs and 'standard' things like winmx or kazaa (surprise, surprise!)
and it was a bit hard to educate them.

My tips are to make sure your browser has everything installed and working.  Test
MP3 playing, flash, java and stuff like that.

Make sure that every file type that you can download has a program that opens it,
esp PDF and stuff like that.

Getting used to the X clipboard model is a bit of a prob for windows users as
well.  Also, if they are not used to networked systems (say, an NT domain or
Netware setup), they may not be used to security concepts.  Root or user privs can
be an issue if they want to install things.

Printing can be fun issue as well.  Personally, I much prefer CUPS to doze
printing, but it can be a fun thing getting used to the different worlds.  I have
been off X based linux systems for a while, and using doze (am editing a
newspaper), but I still think the GUI is klunky.  Dunno about the new redhat
'unified' 8.0 gnome/kde thingy.  I have it on one machine, but am not really using
it atm.

For a power user, or as a server thingy, nix is great.  I am still not convinced
it is for n00bs.



>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: Shayne [mailto:shayne at guild.murdoch.edu.au]
>  Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 7:53 AM
>  To: plug at plug.linux.org.au
>  Subject: Re: [plug] A new convert (maybe)
>
>
>  Off the top of my head, the main thing that gets newbies at first is mounting
>  and unmounting floppies and cds, and the fact that there is only one file
>  tree. It's pretty easy to get the hang of....
>
>  Oh yeah.... Learn the trick of how to use kde's printer dialog in non kde
>  appps, it's real easy, and your boss'll LOVE the bit about printing to a pdf
>  from anything.
>
>  Um, Can I suggest if your life depends on this working, get your hands on a
>  copy of knoppix and play with that first. It runs totally of a CD and might
>  save your neck if it pans out that.
>
>  Oh yeah. I think the 'crossover office' plugin will let you run office if you
>  need office, but openoffice works a treat
>
>  Wine can work quite well, but it can be a totally bizare thing trying to find
>  the right combination of settings to get it to run perfectly. I've had no
>  luck with photoshop, but illustrator & pagemaker works a treat. (Having a
>  copy of windows installed someware on drive really helps for supplying dlls
>  to wine)
>
>  > My boss suprised me this morning by going out and ordering a new
>  > computer. He then shocked me by saying he wanted me to install Linux on
>  > it[3]. He is a novice[1] user and primarily uses his computer for web
>  > browsing and mail. His wife likes to dabble with Photoshop and wants to
>  > start using "some sort"[2] of sound generation/manipulation program.
>  >
>  > I have decided to put on Mandrake 9.0 and use KDE3.
>  >
>  > What I need to know is;
>  >
>  > 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.
>