[Chelmer Linux & Android] Getting Linux to be the natural and obvious choice for 2nd user computers.

[Martin Houston]

On more than one occasion recently I have seen laptops in the 
'pawnbroker' style 2nd hand goods shops that say they come with Linux 
:). However the vast bulk of 2nd user machines, the ex business systems, 
usually Dell or HP for desktops and a slightly wider choice for laptops 
all tend to come with boring old XP.

One thing I would like the community to do is make it so easy for 
computer recyclers to put nice modern Linux on these systems it would 
make no commercial sense for them at all to NOT do so. This is an area 
it makes no commercial sense for Microsoft to be in (as their current 
product is too 'heavy' not to mention expensive for the market), but 
they seem loath to give up on the 'hearts & minds'. Foisting more XP 
systems into the hands of beginners is only going to lead to more misery 
for the rest of the Net as they will just be recruited into botnets for 
nefarious purposes.

For the sort of people that are new to computers so would be dipping 
their toe in the water with £100 or so second hand system Linux with 
everything they could need is far better than a bare bones, unprotected 
XP that is going to catch all the nasty malware out there as soon as 
people start to surf the net.

We need something that builds Linux WITH all the current patches in a 
matter of minutes.
The huge hump of initial patches that even a fairly recent distribution 
with lots of loaded software has is a bit off-putting to a newcomer, 
especially over a slow line - it makes us look no better than Windows!

I have some ideas but want to see what other people think too :)

This is the same message as I have posted in our linked-in group: 
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Chelmer-Linux-Android-Users-Group-3963756

I will try and cross post interesting information between the two (but 
not the ads for viagra etc.)

-- 
*Deluxe Technology Ltd*
/Linux Consultant/
mhouston at deluxe-tech.co.uk <mailto:mhouston at deluxe-tech.co.uk>
http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk
Mob: 07970 850961