Massive Linux handout set for French schools

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Well.....

In one sense the Knoppix based live CD is a good
idea because it just works. And fairly well,
too, on a whole range of computers. This, to the
extent that I haven't found one yet that it
doesn't work on.

Installation of distros like Fedora, Linspire,
SuSE and Mandriva is simple and easy. The same
for internet connections, identifying most
hardware (Each of these distros does a far better
job of it than a virginal install of XP, btw),
and adding and updating programs.

Mandriva's URPMI, SuSE's YAST and Linspire's
software management routines work extremely well.
Debian's (Knoppix's) apt-get works wonderfully
too.

Fedora's YUM gets a lot of good press but I could
never get it to work properly and it conflicts
with the two other installers you need with
Fedora. I'm still scratching my head over where
all the good word of press/mouth about YUM comes
from.

One example is that the hardest bit of hardware
to install any OS on is a laptop. I'm working on
a Toshiba Satellite right now running Mandriva
and it was installed, running and connected to
the Internet and flying some 35 minutes after I
slipped in the DVD. There was one small glitch
with the installation that needs better docs but
other than that it went without a hitch.

Another laptop, same model as this one, I started
a Windows XP pro install on a clean hard drive
(not the one that came from Toshiba) and it took
90 minutes to get to the same place. It took
another 20 minutes to get my USB hard drives up
and running.

A lot of the "easy to install, easy to use" stuff
comes from the fact that most people buy a
computer with Windows installed and tuned for the
box it's on. It's fairly rare now that anyone
would have to install their own Windows OS.

And yes, the learning curve can be steep. But
remember that newbies plunked in front of a
Windows box face the same steep learning curve as
they would on a Mac or Linux running GNOME, KDE,
xFCE or any of the other desktops.

ttfn

John

Posted by: TtfnJohn   Posted on: 08/12/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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