[plug] Interested in Linux

[Craig Ringer]

On Wed, 2004-08-25 at 09:19, Bernard Blackham wrote:

> I am a very primitave user of computers and know nothing about computer
> language I am simply a point and click user and one finger typist. Will Linux
> be a system that I could easily use first time??? 

The chances are that you could use a modern Linux distro for "core"
tasks pretty easily. Web browsing, email, word processing, that sort of
thing. A lot of the staff at work fit your description well and have had
little (I won't say no) trouble adapting to the Linux thin client system
we use.u

You are, however, likely to encounter more difficulties when it comes to
connecting hardware (say a scanner or a digital camera) and adding new
programs. Both of these can sometimes be very simple and easy, but
depending on the hardware or software can also be convoluted and very
complex.

> I have hea\rd that unless you are computer language literate Linux is 
> hard to use.

I still think that's true for most of the system, but there's a growing
set of user tasks where the usability of the system is getting very
good. I think the issue is less with using it for day to day tasks, and
more for simple administration tasks like adding hardware and software.
Sometimes those tasks can be utterly trivial too - plug it in and it
works, or run one command and the software is installed and working.
Sometimes, though, it can be a convoluted and somewhat painful process,
or in the case of hardware may simply not work at all.

One example is modems. If your computer has an internal modem (a phone
socket in the computer, rather than in a device you plug into the
computer) or an external USB modem, it may be trick to get working under
Linux. While some internal modems, and some USB modems, work great
without any effort, some (so called "winmodems") will not. It is
possible to make some of those work with varying degrees of effort and
expertise, but sometimes it is necessary - or easier - to buy a new
external serial modem.

> Also that is not a in the home type user system.

Frankly, neither is Windows ;-) . It requires too much administration
and maintenance to keep it working, especially with the need for an
antivirus program, firewall, etc. Linux, on the other hand, generally
requires little or no on-going maintenance but when you do have to make
changes it can be more difficult.

Much as it irritates me*, I think MacOS is still winning this race by a
mile.

> Will it support the outlook e-mail

Afraid not. Linux does not run Windows programs, no more than a Mac runs
Windows programs. There are tricks to run certain popular Windows
programs under Linux using a special "adapter" called WINE, but it's far
from guaranteed that a program will work or work reliably, and it can
sometimes take a lot of fiddling to get one going even if it is known to
work.

There's a commercial ($) variant of WINE called CrossOver Office that
makes a good effort to make it easy to install and run a select set of
Windows applications under Linux, including Microsoft Word, Adobe
Photoshop, etc.

You may hit a hitch if you use things like MYOB, which as far as I know
haven't been made to run under Linux. e-Tax is another problem case at
the moment.

>  as my porovider bigpond offers technical
> support for only windows internet programs or do I get a better e-mail program
> with easy access to technical support.

Regarding your email, though, there are many fairly good email programs
under Linux, and they don't suffer from the same problems with letting
viruses onto your computer that Outlook and Outlook Express have tended
to do. I've also found most to be quite reliable, so you may not need
tech support as much.

I haven't had to use an ISP's for troubleshooting the use of an email
client with their servers (I run my own mail server) but if you
understand the email program to an extent, in the end they're all fairly
similar. If you need step-by-step where to click instructions then
support will be an issue, but if you're able to hunt down what they are
talking about in more general terms you might be OK. One option is to
find out if they support Mozilla Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird, as these
programs also run on Windows and I think on MacOS so there's more chance
the tech support team will be familiar with them.

It would be helpful to know what you do with your computer or what you
require of it, because that's really important in determining whether or
not Linux will work well for you right now. 

I hope this has been helpful, anyway. There is a good chance you'll get
replies from others on this, or replies from other people picking holes
in what I've said ;-) . Hopefully you'll get the answer you're looking
for out of it all...

*It irritates me because of the extreme pain Macs, especially mac
networking, mac printing, and the "interesting" software we run on the
macs, causes me at work.

--
Craig Ringer