Hi Groupies!

[general view]
About 24 hours ago, my better half, a long time McIntosh and MS-Windows
addict, declared: "Can you put Linux on my box, I am fed up with daily
virus updates and BSOD's!!!"
I jumped to attention as "she is the one that HAS to be obbeyed" and
started debating what do you give such user. Must be some
"user-friendly" (whatever this means) distro.
OK, from under some papers SuSE 8.2 proffesional appeared (2 DVD's and 5
CD's of friendliness). When after about 6 hours I had the thing going (I
had to relearn YaST) it presented itself with Mozilla 1.2.x which is a
distant echo of what I use daily.
Bye, bye SuSE! Next!
Mandrake 9.2. Install, configuration, four hours gone and for some
strange reason the X-windows system could not activate itself properly
on the video hardware. Sooooo, bye bye Mandrake.

Last resort, Slackware 10, "difficult, not-user-friendly, CLI
configured, you name it", in two and half hours connected to internet
with Netscape 7.1 through "masquerading" Slack 9.1 box.
And no need to download JRE as Mozilla comes with it so just copying the
relevant link from /plugins in one to the other solves the hickup.
[/general view]

Now I need advice, to cry or to laugh?

Stanislaw & co.
Two users of Slack from Ulladulla.

* Stanislaw Flatto <compaid@shoalhaven.net.au> writes:

> Hi Groupies!
> [general view]
> About 24 hours ago, my better half, a long time McIntosh and MS-Windows
> addict, declared: "Can you put Linux on my box, I am fed up with daily
> virus updates and BSOD's!!!"
> I jumped to attention as "she is the one that HAS to be obbeyed" and
> started debating what do you give such user. Must be some
> "user-friendly" (whatever this means) distro.

The answer, as you eventually found, is *always* Slackware. Slackware
is an absolute breeze for a new user, especially when said new user
happens to be sleeping with a Linux geek with Slackitude. :-P

> Last resort, Slackware 10

Because you chose to walk into the light only as a last resort...

> Now I need advice, to cry or to laugh?

....do either, but do it quietly so as to not draw attention to
yourself for fear of the adornment of negative Bozo points.

> Stanislaw & co.
> Two users of Slack from Ulladulla.

Two Slackers from the bush. :-)

--
|---<Steve Youngs>---------------<GnuPG KeyID: A94B3003>---|
| Genius - Is the ability to reduce |
| the complicated to the simple |
|----------------------------------<steve@youngs.au.com>---|

On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 03:34:53 +0000, Stanislaw Flatto wrote:

> Hi Groupies!

> <snip>
>
> Last resort, Slackware 10, "difficult, not-user-friendly, CLI
> configured, you name it", in two and half hours connected to internet
>
> <snip>
>
> Stanislaw & co.
> Two users of Slack from Ulladulla.

The layers of complexity required to make a simple process idiot-proof
should never be underestimated.

On 2004-11-14, Stanislaw Flatto espoused the following:

> Last resort, Slackware 10, "difficult, not-user-friendly, CLI
> configured, you name it", in two and half hours connected to internet
> with Netscape 7.1 through "masquerading" Slack 9.1 box.
> And no need to download JRE as Mozilla comes with it so just copying the
> relevant link from /plugins in one to the other solves the hickup.

It is amazing how often we overlook the obvious and create more pain for
ourselves. When I first put Linux on my laptop, I tried SuSe, Mandrake,
Debian, RH and finally ended up with Slack. That was back with 9. Now
I decided to update what I had on it (and used ndiswrapper on my fsked
up excuse for a card rather than the... err never mind) to a newer
version. So what did I do.... you guessed it. I went through the latest
SuSe, Mandrake, Mepis and then back to Slackware. Perhaps after a few years
of Slack only, that is all I can run...... perhaps Bob owns my soul....
think I better get ready for church this morning.

Scott Cole

--
Only trust pipesmoking penguins.

On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 03:34:53 +0000, Stanislaw Flatto wrote:

> Hi Groupies!

Not sure about everyone else, but I prefer not to be called a groupie :P

> [general view]
> About 24 hours ago, my better half, a long time McIntosh and MS-Windows
> addict, declared: "Can you put Linux on my box, I am fed up with daily
> virus updates and BSOD's!!!"

Not surprising.. I put linux on an ex's computer for that very reason
since she asked, went straight to slackware 8.1 (current version at the
time). She's still using it as far as I know

> I jumped to attention as "she is the one that HAS to be obbeyed" and
> started debating what do you give such user. Must be some
> "user-friendly" (whatever this means) distro.
> OK, from under some papers SuSE 8.2 proffesional appeared (2 DVD's and 5
> CD's of friendliness). When after about 6 hours I had the thing going (I
> had to relearn YaST) it presented itself with Mozilla 1.2.x which is a
> distant echo of what I use daily.
> Bye, bye SuSE! Next!

That's an older version of SuSE, why didn't you try something more up to
date?

> Mandrake 9.2. Install, configuration, four hours gone and for some
> strange reason the X-windows system could not activate itself properly
> on the video hardware. Sooooo, bye bye Mandrake.

Again, an older version of that distro...

>
> Last resort, Slackware 10, "difficult, not-user-friendly, CLI
> configured, you name it", in two and half hours connected to internet
> with Netscape 7.1 through "masquerading" Slack 9.1 box.

Slack imo, is the best choice for a new user it doesn't have to be command
line only or non-user friendly you have complete control of what gui apps
you want to use - depends how you set it up. I've set it up once for a
complete computer novice - settled on Gnome as a desktop and scaled all
the icons up (half a dozen icons taking up nearly the whole screen!) for
the most commonly used applications, didn't give them they're real name
but rather called them "Documents Folder", "Music/Video Player" "Internet
Browser" and the like...

> And no need to download JRE as Mozilla comes with it so just copying the
> relevant link from /plugins in one to the other solves the hickup.
> [/general view]

ickkkk, java :P


Paul Mc

Scott Cole wrote:
> On 2004-11-14, Stanislaw Flatto espoused the following:
>
>
>>Last resort, Slackware 10, "difficult, not-user-friendly, CLI
>>configured, you name it", in two and half hours connected to internet
>>with Netscape 7.1 through "masquerading" Slack 9.1 box.
>>And no need to download JRE as Mozilla comes with it so just copying the
>>relevant link from /plugins in one to the other solves the hickup.
>
>
> It is amazing how often we overlook the obvious and create more pain for
> ourselves. When I first put Linux on my laptop, I tried SuSe, Mandrake,
> Debian, RH and finally ended up with Slack. That was back with 9. Now
> I decided to update what I had on it (and used ndiswrapper on my fsked
> up excuse for a card rather than the... err never mind) to a newer
> version. So what did I do.... you guessed it. I went through the latest
> SuSe, Mandrake, Mepis and then back to Slackware. Perhaps after a few years
> of Slack only, that is all I can run...... perhaps Bob owns my soul....
> think I better get ready for church this morning.
>
> Scott Cole
>

I too did this, I've tried every distro out there, and Slackware is the
greatest by far. I've just joined an engineering firm as a NetAdmin with
6 Debian servers. I'm using my Christmas vacation to upgrade to Slackware

> Must be some "user-friendly" (whatever this means) distro.

Any Linux distribution could be set up to be user-friendly. This might be
a more or less difficult task for the administrator depending on the
goals, the distribution of his/her choice and the administrators Linux
skills and how familiar he is with the distributions.

Please note that Linux like Unix sees users and administrators as
different people. You will probably at least initially be the
administrator of this box. It is up to you to setup X, configure a
graphical login like kdm or gdm and choose a good default window manager
with tasty presentations of well selected applications. All other users of
this box will not have to care about the refresh rate of the monitor,
which directories have their own partition or which modules are loaded for
sound to work.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc2(at)uthyres.com Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
info@k-software.biz svar@webtelevision.se info@webrider.ru root@localhost

Stanislaw Flatto wrote:
> Hi Groupies!
>
> [general view]
> <SuSE sucks, Mandrake won't do it, Slack rocks!>
> [/general view]
>
> Now I need advice, to cry or to laugh?

<yoda> A loong way you have come - a hard way it was! but the right side
of the source you have found! </yoda>

Really, you give me courage to try installing Slackware for _my_
girlfriend, too - I was aldo thinking about exactly SuSE or Mandrake,
but why not stick with that which works - and well?

Keep on slacking!

Mik

--
....for in the files of /mnt/doom, another string was made...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

In alt.os.linux.slackware, Franklin dared to utter,
> The layers of complexity required to make a simple process idiot-proof
> should never be underestimated.

Build a fool-proof system and the world will build bigger fools.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Henrik Carlqvist wrote:

>>Must be some "user-friendly" (whatever this means) distro.
>>
>>
>
>Any Linux distribution could be set up to be user-friendly. This might be
>a more or less difficult task for the administrator depending on the
>goals, the distribution of his/her choice and the administrators Linux
>skills and how familiar he is with the distributions.
>
>Please note that Linux like Unix sees users and administrators as
>different people. You will probably at least initially be the
>administrator of this box. It is up to you to setup X, configure a
>graphical login like kdm or gdm and choose a good default window manager
>with tasty presentations of well selected applications. All other users of
>this box will not have to care about the refresh rate of the monitor,
>which directories have their own partition or which modules are loaded for
>sound to work.
>
>regards Henrik
>
>
Ha??
"Administrator", "setup", what are you talking about???
It was my _wife_ that wanted to play bridge on Yahoo! and gossip with
her friends on Yahoo messenger.
I have seen some book called "Smart husband in 24 hours", did not read
it, as I am married for about 40 years and by the subject
of this post I "admitt defeat". :'(

Have fun

Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.