[Gloucs] Another Linux newcomer

[Steve Searle]

Around 08:43pm on Thursday, February 10, 2005 (UK time), Steve Greig scrawled:

> Hi, I also have just joined your mailing list and was interested by

Welcome
> 
> I had chosen to go with Red Hat but only because that is the only
> distribution for which I could find a big book on the subject (The Red
> Hat Linux 9 Bible which I have just bought). Is there any particular
> reason to think that Red Hat might not be a very good choice for a
> beginner like myself? I notice it was not on Guy's list.

Red Hat have chosen to concentrate on the commercial market and sell there
version rather than have it available for free.  However they also
created and support a community version - which is Fedora, which I
referred to earlier.  I would suggest going with Fedora - currently it
is extremely similar to Red Hat so your book will be relevant - unless
you have already purchased the current version of Red Hat, in which case
you may want to go ahead with that and possibly migrate to Fedora - or
another distro - at a later date.

> I have wanted to do this for a couple of years and my enthusiasm was
> rekindled when I saw the shop in Cirencester (Computer Broker)
> offering computers with Linux installed. We are prepared to pay for
> someone to install it and also to configure it to work with the
> broadband internet connection. Actually the shop has been a bit slow
> at responding but they should do so at any moment.
> 
> I know most of you are probably very clued up in the computer field
> but if you do have any thoughts on all this directed at a user rather
> than developer I would be very grateful.

Although there are plenty of debates as to whether GNU/Linux is more or
less *user friendly* than windows, I don't think you should rule out
being able to install and configure GNU/Linux yourself.  If you are
prepared to read the appropriate documentation then you certainly should
have no problems, and you will find a much better quality of free,
helpful advice and support available on the net than you will for
Windows.

Good luck

Steve

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