[Tfug] ubuntu

[Malcolm Schmerl]

Jim March wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 10:22 AM, Jeffry Johnston <tfug at kidsquid.com 
> <mailto:tfug at kidsquid.com>> wrote:
>
>     > He told the other that it wasn't as nice as windows, but it
>     worked pretty good.
>
>     Probably running Gnome... KDE is nicer than windows ;)
>
>     Jeff
>
>
> The real indicator as to whether or not somebody is going to jump 
> cleanly into Ubuntu or any other newbie-friendly distro is whether or 
> not they have somebody experienced to help with initial tuning and 
> setup.  Multimedia support for starters, DVD playback, MP3 codec, all 
> that happy $hit :).
>
> Gnome v. KDE means a lot less in my opinion.
>
> For REAL success, get VirtualBox running with an XP VM for those few 
> programs or times we still need Windows.  A LOT of users will have at 
> least one such app, in my case the ones I need most involve playing 
> with election databases.
>
> This works with surprisingly little horsepower.  I'm pulling it off 
> with a single-core Celeron 1.6 lappy, lowly Intel945 video and 1.5gigs 
> RAM.  And it'll work in a lot less than that.
>
> Oddity on that score:
>
> I rented a video recently that flat wouldn't play under Ubuntu.  I 
> tuned and tweaked and tried VLC player, updated LIBDVDCSS, etc.  No 
> joy.  If anyone cares, it was the video-only final conclusion to 
> Stargate SG1 :).  Finally I said "screw it", loaded XP, downloaded VLC 
> for that and watched my friggin' video :).
>
> But here's the kicker for a newbie:
>
> You explain that when they're on the 'net in Ubuntu, 
> EMail/web/whatever, they're basically immune from 
> viruses/spyware/crapware.
>
> THAT they get.  Bigtime.  The number of newbies getting hammered by 
> malware is just crazy...that is BY FAR the number one reason a 
> non-techie will consider Linux.
>
> You also have to explain that running XP or whatever as a VM task is 
> much safer than dual-boot because Linux shields Windows.  You lose 3D 
> video support and gaming, but short of that it works.
>
> Jim
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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Jim,
The problem with Windows, as I see it, besides the mal-ware problem, is 
that you get caught in a constant cycle of hardware and software 
upgrades. We use an old copy of Quickbooks, which is perfectly adequate 
for our business and which ran perfectly well on Windows 98, but has 
problems on XP and will cost $200 to upgrade. I use an old machine (AMD 
750) which works just fine with Ubuntu. Will Virtualbox work with 
Windows 98 or ME? This really sounds like a way for me to go. Thanks for 
the idea, Malcolm