[SWLUG] Starting with Linux

[Gerald Davies]

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 17:59:19 +0000, Richard Smedley
<richard.smedley03 at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> <delurks>
> Doesn't that rather depend upon what Hugh wants to do with it?
> 
> If he buys a box (x86, ppc, whatever) with Debian Testing on
> it, only becomes root to install and update software, and
> just does the regular things that people do on home PCs then
> it will run unbroken for years.
> 
> After curiosity gets the better of him and he fixes it 'til
> it breaks, that's a fine time to learn installation - and
> not too hard if whoever builds the box leaves a few notes
> behind on the config (or, better still, a zipped up drive
> image :^)
> 
> I expect most people enjoy tinkering on their computers, I
> certainly am guilty of this strange condition myself, but
> there's nothing wrong with wanting to buy a computer that
> works straight out of the box - a possible reason why so
> many have given up Free Software for the convenience of
> OS-X on their powerbooks? - and the availability of
> pre-installed GNU can only be seen as a good thing (always
> assuming anyone can point to such a beast for the original
> poster).
> 
> However, it is a good point. Installing Debian (pre-Sarge installer)
> is certainly a learning process ;-P
> (Of course there's always Ubuntu/Knoppix/etc to make it easy :-)
> 
> </delurks>
> 
>  - Richard
> 

Apologies, I thought he wanted to learn ;)