[Fwd: Re: [clug] MtM - content update]

Paul Wayper paul.wayper at anu.edu.au
Fri Mar 16 01:06:51 GMT 2007


Damn.  I meant to post this to the list instead of reply to Chris.  Then
I tried to forward my reply to Chris, but it didn't work.  Here it is:

Chris Smart wrote:

>> > > Well I don't like Ubuntu personally and if Ubuntu was the only distro on offer 
>> > > then by your reasoning I should never be using Linux. What a shame that would 
>> > > be for me. Luckily there was choice for me to choose. The fact that not 
>> > > everyone runs Ubuntu is testament to the fact that choice is a good thing.
>> > >
>> > > What if the choice wasn't Ubuntu, but Suse? If you had only been offered Suse 
>> > > and never the option of Ubuntu, you'd never have been using Linux. I think by 
>> > > the same token we simply MUST give end users a choice to experiment with 
>> > > which distro they like most.
>> > >   
>>     
> >   
>   
I think this is a very important point.  The main compelling reason
we're giving people to move to Linux is choice.  You can have the kind
of system you want.  There are plenty of Windows sysadmins who are
totally familiar with hardware and operating systems but still need a
nice, friendly Linux distro to get them started on the way to
understanding mount points, /dev directories, and kernel logs. 
Likewise, there are plenty of users who know enough to go straight to
Debian or Gentoo (or, to not colour the debate, to an 'advanced'
distribution) but their last taste of Linux was seven years ago when it
still looked crappy and all the package management was done by hand.

I think we should list at least half a dozen distros, including Debian
and Gentoo.  They have their compelling points.  We shouldn't assume
that people wanting to 'make the move' are total newbies.  But they
should be ranked in order of ease of use to beginners to Linux, their
popularity and the breadth of their community support.  So Ubuntu will
probably come first, followed by Fedora, SuSE and Mandriva in whatever
order, then Debian, Knoppix and Gentoo and so forth.



>> > > Yeah I agree, and that's why I carefully selected 4 instead of 4,000   ;)   People 
>> > > can download the livecd of each and test it out. What doesn't work for one 
>> > > person will work for another and people will settle on what they are most 
>> > > comfortable with.
>> > >   
>>     
> >   
>   
And the key point to make on the web page here is that they're really
all quite similar under the hood.  Try out the Live CDs and see which
one has the right look and feel for you.

People understand change, but they don't like to have to.  The point of
the Make The Move website, as I read it, is that if you're staring down
the barrel of upgrading to Vista, then look at all the other things
which will have a similar (possibly smaller) amount of change but will
ultimately protect you in the long run.

Have fun,

Paul







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