[clug] A New Users perspective on Linux

[Peter Barker]

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005, Ian Bardsley wrote:

> The Mandrake cds provided all of the common applications but I needed

Ah! Well, now you've put all that trouble into getting Mandrake working, I
guess it MUST be time for you to try a different distribution ;)

> Desktop Publishing, 2D CAD, a working DVD player and a sound sequencer

Can you tell us all what did you decide to go with for all of your
applications?  I find I hear about all these cool applications but never
have time to play with them at all, or if so, only a cursory glance. Had a
play with Scribus the other day, for example, but couldn't give it a
really good workout. Others might have the same problem as me....

> _I now need to research the best approach to Anti-Virus, Anti-Spywear
> and a secure Firewall so any suggestions or feed back would be very
> welcome._

Ah. Well.

IMO, you shouldn't worry about explicit anti-virus stuff. Just make sure
you keep your system up to date. There should be facility somewhere in
Mandrake to tell you when "updates are available". And keep backups :)

Anti-spyware is an interesting one. There were some (almost certainly
sensationalist) headlines the other day about spyware authors starting to
target firefox. Again, probably just best to keep your machine up-to-date,
and be careful of what plugins/whatever you allow for
firefix/mozilla/browser-of-choice-which-is-certainly-as-good-as-either-of-those-two.

As for firewall... if you are connecting this machine directly to the
internet, make sure it's kept up-to-date! As Martijn pointed out, the
"iptables" package will allow you to configure a firewall. Most firewalls
are misconfigured, though... so you might want to looks for some HOWTOs on
tightening boxes up from a security point of view (e.g. turning off unused
services).

> To conclude.  Is Linux a viable alternative to Windows for the non IT
> industry user....Yes.... although not quite yet for those with no PC
> experience.

Really soon now, I hope.

It really is nice to hear success stories every now and then :)

> Ian Bardsley

Yours,
-- 
Peter Barker                          |   N    _--_|\ /---- Barham, Vic
Programmer,Sysadmin,Geek              | W + E /     /\
pbarker at barker.dropbear.id.au         |   S   \_,--?_*<-- Canberra
You need a bigger hammer.             |             v    [35S, 149E]
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