> > Personal preference is Debian and KDE... This falls in line with our other
> > suggestion of Knoppix if the user isnt ready to lose their diskspace. I
> > am a big GNOME guy, but right now GNOME appears to be in too much flux.
> > (IMO)
>
> Well, not having used Debian I may be blowing hot air here, but it
> doesn't have the reputation for a newbie distro. Nor can I usually walk
> into the local "Computer Stuff Emporium" and purchase a boxed copy of
> Debian. I think we would have to pick a distro that newbies may easily
> encounter outside of the Linux culture, like Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake,
> Lindows (urk!) or Lycoris. I have seen all of these in stores.
Why make a distinction? Why not Debian?
Microsoft is visible in stores, therefore people think MS invented the
computer.
Representing only distributions that already are visible is kind of silly.
When you go to a car dealer, do you only see the models of cars that are
shown most in ads or a selection of any you wish to get? While it's
true the car dealer may have only certain makes and models, if you drive
up McDowell Road you will see many car dealers. A GNU/Linux distributor is
like a car dealer. Just because it's not advertised doesn't mean it
doesn't exist. I don't see the millions of clones of tetris on the
shelves yet people play those all the time. Incidentally, Lindows and
Lycoris are based on Debian. By the way, which do we want to promote a
long standing distribution like Debian which isn't on the shelves, or a
distro like Corel Linux which complete abandoned its users, though it was
on the shelves?
For example, we can show users KDE and GNOME as up to the most flashy eye
candy driven settings that we can configure. We can show them the simpler
configurations for KDE and GNOME. We can show them a simple window manager
set up... no desktop environment at all. We can show them anything in
between. Not everyone wants to wait for windows to start up completely
before they use their computer. They might prefer a completely blank
desktop with only a few windows for applications, no icons or clutter
whatsoever. Not everyone is a newbie.
Others are not even happy with all the fluff and flash and gadgets MS
provides. For them, having a clock, a stock ticker, Xeyes and penguins
running all over the screen is just the tip of the iceberg. They might be
satisfied with even that much distraction while they work.
We can show people you can use Linux right up front with a CD.
We can show people that they don't even need to perform a Debian
installation to run Debian on a new hard drive.
We can show people different desktop environments
and managers.
This installfest can wake people up to the whole thing. I don't see Best
Buy talking about the GPL. I don't see CompUSA giving discounts on updated
source CDs. GNU/Linux should stick out like a sore thumb. It's not an
also-ran, an upstart, a runner-up, a challenger. It's a whole new way of
looking at software, technology, and computers for users.
>
> I agree with KDE, however! :^)
>
> Alan
>
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