Is Linspire OS a good choice for newbies?

[DumbDick]

Have been having tons of problems with WIN XP PRO w/ SP2. I need a change, but I do not know the Linux lingo. Have looked at the software list for the warehouse at Linspire. Where can a dumbell like me find a dictionary of the software titles they use.

[torque2k]

Originally Posted by DumbDick

Have been having tons of problems with WIN XP PRO w/ SP2. I need a change, but I do not know the Linux lingo. Have looked at the software list for the warehouse at Linspire. Where can a dumbell like me find a dictionary of the software titles they use.

Well, I don't know of any "dictionary", but I do know that Linspire uses readily available software packages which can be installed in ANY Linux distribution. I'll try to give some examples, though I can't guarantee these are the exact packages Linspire uses. They are, however, the most popular (generally) in the Linux community..

Office Suite (similar to MS Office 2000/XP): OpenOffice.org
- provides a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software (like PowerPoint), and drawing program. Note that this is OO.org 1.1.3; there is a beta of OO.org 2.0 available which is faster, more compatible with MS Office file types, and includes a relational database front end similar to Access. Linspire also has KOffice (part of the KDE desktop) and GNOME Office (part of the GNOME desktop), but I'd stick with using OO.org, especially since it's available on Windows and Mac OS X, so compatibility is higher.

Web Browser (similar to Internet Explorer): Mozilla Firefox.
- provides 95% compatibility with existing websites. The only thing it doesn't give you is ActiveX, which is actually the coding technique crackers use to gain access to a Windows PC. Many sites have switched away from using this proprietary application coding, but they still exist, so your surfing mileage may vary.

Email (similar to Outlook Express): KMail
Email (similar to Outlook in MS Office): Evolution
- provides you with perfect email abilities. The difference between the two is that KMail (part of the KDE workspace) doesn't have the calendaring and group assignment abilities of Evolution. The latest version of Linspire also has the Mozilla Thunderbird email package, again similar to Outlook Express, which has the advantage of being available on Windows and having a great developer community working on it constantly.

Chat (similar to AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger): GAIM
- provides multiple chat client abilities all wrapped up into one nice "instant messenger" program. Can also handle ICQ and IRC chat as well as a few others. The closest thing to this program in Windows is Trillian, which is a phenomenal program.

Finance Manager (similar to Quicken or MS Money): GnuCash
- provides most home financial tracking functions. Not as full-featured as the biggies in Windows, but it's growing consistently, and the functions it does have are stable, and that's important when you're relying on it for your budget tracking!

CD Burning (similar to Nero or EZ CD Creator): k3b
- provides CD burning software with walkthrough wizards to help new users. Very similar layout to EZ CD Creator, this is the easiest burning package to use in Linux. I do believe it supports DVD writers as well, but not for authoring purposes (yet).

I don't have time to list more this morning, but if you'd like a look at the actual packages Linspire 5.0 uses, check Distrowatch here: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=lindows

IMHO, Linspire is a very solid Linux distribution. If you want, there's now a Live CD available for download, which allows you to try it out on your Windows machine before taking the plunge; it runs from your CD at boot time, so it doesn't affect your current installation.

You may also want to try Ubuntu (or Kubuntu if you'd rather have a KDE desktop) at www.ubuntu.com -- it's been getting rave reviews, and is based on Debian Linux like Linspire is.

Good luck!
Dan

[Zxian]

I would recommend reading up on how to keep your Windows system clean and healthy and performing a good clean install of Windows, just to start out fresh. I've tried quite a few Linux distros and I always ended up coming back to Windows. I've had my system running virus and spyware free for over a year now, ever since I read up on security information. Windows is a much better operating system than Linux overall.

Oh... and Linspire isn't worth the money. If you want a good Linux distro, look into Mandrake or if you're a bit more adventurous, Debian. The whole point of Linux (that many in the Linux community are angry about) is that it's open source, while the Linspire is making users pay for something that should be free.

[torque2k]

Two points:

1. While it's a good idea to learn about Windows security, that's not what this thread was about. I had a PC just today, as a matter of fact, where the SP1-to-SP2 update failed with a cryptic "Access Denied" window, and backed out (cleanly, luckily). Turns out it was a permissions problem, and MS didn't have the answer which corrected it (but I found a blog entry which did).

Personally, as a consultant and technician I'm asked to clean up systems 10-20 times a week, and I gladly do it (thank God for Windows, or I'd be out of a job!) but also try to teach users about security. Unfortunately, security on Windows is a moving target on a monthly basis. Recommendations can't stand up past six months. I can't even tell people which anti-virus app to use, as the quality changes from one revision to the next (witness the increasing failure rate of Norton AV in the 2004 and 2005 versions). People want to USE their computer, not learn about upkeep, completely destroying the idea of the computer becoming an "appliance". If I had to patch and update my VCR as much as my computer, I'd give up and stick to books. And not ones about computers.

2. As for Linspire charging for software, before someone else brings it up, you can use Debian's 'apt-get' to download any of the software which you'd pay for from Linspire. However, again on the subject of users just wanting to get something done, there's something to be said about an absolutely easy-to-use system for installing software, especially if you didn't want to learn which package does what. For instance, what's Firefox? Or Evolution? Without the original poster asking which does what, they'd never know. I don't much like the price of doing business with them, but Linspire does get the job done, no matter what you can say about their business practices. They also provide decent customer support, and set up the desktop to behave like Windows users are used to. As recent articles have pointed out, you'll tend to stick with whatever system you've started using. Of course, if that were me I'd be using a PET/CBM 8032! Thank goodness I learned to adapt early in life! LOL!

[s7p9a2m4]

I've never tried Linspire and I'm sure its fine. If you want to dabble a bit without spending money the Debian based systems are best. Someone mentioned Ubuntu - not my fave but ok. Kanotix is another.
The easiest of the lot to install and work with out of the box is Mepis. You cannot go wrong with it.

www.distrowatch.com