[BBLISA] Windows or Linux for parents' PC?

[Public]

I've be using Linux since 1996 and I've been running Linux as my Desktop
OS for many years.

Linux on the desktop has progressed to the point where, in certain niche
cases, I would recommend replacing u$oft with a Linux desktop. In fact I
know of a large physician's practice that has moved the vast majority of
their desktops to Linux.

The problem is u$oft does drive the desktop market and you will run into
some of the problems you've mentioned.  The less well defined the user
needs are the more likely you will run into "windows only" issues.

For sake of discussion on the list, I would like to bring up a few
things to consider before you move to Linux.

1) Identify all windows only apps you need to run. If there are no Linux
alternatives your choices are limited. (See below for alternatives.)

2) Have you considered another flavor of u$soft, i.e. Windows 2000?

3) Have you considered replacing the PC?  FWIW, you can get a 1.2GHz
system preloaded with Windows XP, 128MB RAM, Kbd, mouse, speakers,
ethernet..... for <$350.


OK, so you've decided to go with Linux.  Some things that may be useful
to you.

1) Which distro to use. (I'm not looking to start a religious war, these
are my OPINIONS.)

Debian
Debian is a wonderful distribution for the technically inclined.  Debian
has a strong Open Source philosophy which may limit some of the packages
included out of the box.  However it's Linux so you can always find what
you need elsewhere.

Red Hat
Red hat is dropping their "Free" line. Their "support fee" isn't cheap
so you may want to look elsewhere

Fedora
This is the "community supported" spin-off of Red Hat.  Well supported
with a large user base.

SuSE
This is the distro I use since I've dropped Red Hat.  The 9.0 Pro boxed
set is ~$50 at your local SoftPro book store.  It's got some great admin
tools and is very easy to install and maintain.

2) Which "desktop" to use

For this task I would STRONGLY consider you look at Ximian's XD2.  It's
based on Gnome.  However Ximian has put quite a bit of effort into
tweaking the desktop and applications so they all have the same look and
feel.  XD2 includes Ximian's version of OpenOffice.Org
More info at: http://www.ximian.com/

3) Replacing those pesky "windows only" apps.

Alternative to Microsoft Office:
OpenOffice.org (ooo) This is a direct replacement for MS Office. In fact
it can read and write MS Office files.  More info is available at
http://www.openoffice.org/ .  However I would strongly recommend looking
at the Ximian release as they've gone through it as described above.

Alternative to MS Outlook:
Ximian Evolution.  It has all the Outlook stuff, mail, calendar etc. 
Again this is included in the XD2 desktop, but it's also available stand
alone.

Alternative mail client:
If Evolution is more than you need, you may want to consider the old
standards.  Netscape runs under Linux and does POP and IMAP mail 
retrieval.

Alternative to IE for browsing:
Netscape:  http://www.netscape.com/ This also includes  an AOL IM chat
client.

Mozilla: The base engine underneath Netscape. This is included most, if
not all, Linux dists.  http://www.mozilla.org/

Opera:  Another popular browswer.  FWIW, you can tell Opera to
masquerade as another browser, e.g. "Tell the server you're IE".  I've
seen some reports that this fools some IE only websites well enough to
get by.

Alternatives for multimedia:
XMMS: for streaming audio.  Included in most desktop distros
xine: plays many video formats
RealPlayer: There is a version RealPlayer available for Linux,

Instant messaging:
gaim:  An IM client that speaks to AOL, MS, Yahoo, IRC, others?.  It's
included in most desktop distros.

4) Running those "windows only apps"

Emulators:
wine: A windows emulator that runs under Linux. http://www.winehq.com/

CodeWeavers crossover products: Emulators to run MS Office, MediaPlayer?
et. al. http://www.codeweavers.com/

Dual Boot:
Of course this assumes you've gotten around your "windows will not run"
issue.  However it is helpful to be able to boot into windows when their
is no other choice.


  - Paul
 

On Wed, 2004-01-28 at 07:11, Scott Ehrlich wrote:
> A recent fresh installation of Win XP by me on my parents' PC developed an
> unrecoverable problem, proven to be with the OS and not hardware.
> 
> I am now thinking of giving them Linux, but there are some web sites they
> need IE for, and some multimedia stuff (like Windows Media Player) they
> need, though are not at all technical.
> 
> The PC is a genuine Intel board with an 800 Mhz P3 and 128 Meg RAM.
> 
> What are my browser options?   What WMP options are there for Linux?
> 
> I'd most likely be installing debian.
> 
> Thanks for any insights.
> 
> Scott
> 
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