[Sussex] New linux user

[Steve Williams]

On Sun, 2005-06-12 at 14:13 +0100, Liam Derwin wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I want to make the switch to linux, but I'm a user rather than a sys admin,
> so I'm looking for a distro that has an installation process that vaguely
> resembles win98 (i.e. check boxes for the things you want installed).
> 
> I'm looking for the following to be included in the install...
> 

I'd suggest SUSE if you want the GUI install and GUI configuration.

> Firefox
> An email client that has an outlook express feel to it, or thunderbird
> Open office

Evolution looks just like Outlook. It'd take you all of 7.2 seconds to
get used to it if you're an Outlook fan.

> A chat client other than kopete, that can do icq, aim, msn and yahoo.  If
> there's one that can also handle xfire I don't mind how complicated the
> install process is, I'll learn ;-)

I use GAIM.

> A media player that plays dvd without any additional tweaking

I don't think you'll get away with no tweaking at all on this, but
Mplayer does it for me.

> An IRC client
> An ftp client
> Networking with a windoze pc
> 
> Additionally, these would be nice (but non-essential features)
> 
> Sync with an ipaq running I have no idea what version of wince

You'll need Multisync with an Evolution plug-in and SynCE for this.

> MIDI software (I currently use cakewalk on windows)

Rosegarden for this.

> 
> I've currently got xandros running on my laptop, but xine won't play dvd, I
> can't see an ftp client, and the networking only goes one way (I can read /
> write from linux to windows, but not the other way round).
> 
> I get confused when it comes to all the compiling etc.  I'm quite happy to
> use linux, but I'm looking for the equivalent of a .exe file when I install
> a package.  I don't mind learning more complex ways of doing things, but I
> like my learning in bite sized chunks.

If you want to learn more about this aspect of Linux I can
wholeheartedly recommend Gentoo - compile everything from scratch! Mind
you, you need to be able to swallow very large bites!


>   Ultimately I'm looking to switch to
> linux on my desktop and install cedega, after I make sure it's able to
> handle all the games I play.

I suggest you stick with Windows for this, and set up a dual boot system
with Linux - best of both worlds then.

Steve Williams.

> 
> Any advice you guys can give on a suitable distro would be much appreciated.
> 
> TIA
> Liam
> 
> 
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