Acer Extensa 5230E-581G16 CM585 1GB 160GB 15.4" WXGA non-glare TFT Celeron-M 585 2.16GHz 1024MB Speicher 160GB Festplatte DVD+/-RW DL Intel GMA X4500HD (IGP) max.1759MB shared memory USB 2.0/Modem/Gb LAN/WLAN 802.11bg PCMCIA Typ II und ExpressCard/54 Slot Card Reader 15.4" WXGA non-glare TFT (1280x800) Windows Vista Home Basic |
Acer Extensa 5230-571G16_Linux 15,4 Zoll WXGA Notebook Intel Celeron M575 2,0GHz, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Intel GMA 4500MHD, DVD +/-RW DL, Linux (Linpus) |
3) there's also the aspect that I'll get called on if there's a problem - while I might cope with Vista, I've never used Linux so have no idea how that might be-tomos (March 24, 2009, 10:41 AM)
The specs sound pretty OK for Vista, btw. RAM might be a bit in the low end, but I don't suppose they're going to be heavy users. Run the thing through vLite and they should be OK :)-f0dder (March 24, 2009, 12:22 PM)
"you have the source, fix it"
On the very active Aspire forum, I'd say 90+ percent of the problem reports are coming from people who are using some variation of Linux.It might be that their implementation of Linux isn't what it ought to be - the reports I've seen of Linux installations on netbooks makes them sound a bit idiosyncratic, and that's the last thing you want with Linux where you're much better off being with a bigger crowd if your not technically adept.
Not saying there's a connection ...-mrainey (March 24, 2009, 03:53 PM)
Boy! I've seldom seen a unanimous response like this to a question here (or anywhere else).
All good, sound advice with partisan leanings set aside in favour of informed common sense based on the situation described.
:up: :up: :up:-cranioscopical (March 25, 2009, 08:06 AM)
IMO, I don't get why you don't just put XP with specs like those.Probably because Vista comes standard with laptops today, and XP is usually an extra expense? Besides, Vista isn't as bad as a lot of people claim (after all, I'm still running it after my 30-day immersion experiment (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=15243.0)).
I really feel that the .chm files or whatever people call it is just containing too small to read texts that has a hard to get documentation because it relies on searching and trees.Too small to read? depends on the font size used. And if the index tree is done properly, it's much easier to use than Ctrl+F'ing through a large text document (and besides, you still have full-text search with .chm - win/win).
My ideal OS would probably be a Linux distro based on Ubuntu like Linux Mint on a Gnome set up with a pre-configured XP on Virtualbox with basic instructions on how to move files between each other and a guide as to how to explain the slicing of RAM when running virtualized environment as well as to check how much RAM your current programs are eating up before activating XP.For absolute beginners? O_o - bad idea. I wouldn't dare anything like that with non-powerusers. Even people that have been using computers for 10+ years but never took it beyond what they need for the office would be confused by this kind of setup.
The specs sound pretty OK for Vista, btw. RAM might be a bit in the low end, but I don't suppose they're going to be heavy users. Run the thing through vLite and they should be OK :)-f0dder (March 24, 2009, 12:22 PM)
Probably because Vista comes standard with laptops today, and XP is usually an extra expense? Besides, Vista isn't as bad as a lot of people claim (after all, I'm still running it after my 30-day immersion experiment (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=15243.0)).-f0dder (March 25, 2009, 12:07 PM)
Too small to read? depends on the font size used. And if the index tree is done properly, it's much easier to use than Ctrl+F'ing through a large text document (and besides, you still have full-text search with .chm - win/win).
For absolute beginners? O_o - bad idea. I wouldn't dare anything like that with non-powerusers. Even people that have been using computers for 10+ years but never took it beyond what they need for the office would be confused by this kind of setup.
True but you're still left with an underpowered PC compared to XP with those specs.Dunno about that, really. I don't find Vista to be very CPU-draining, and x4500HD is (more than!) enough for running Aero pleasantly. The only thing a bit on the low end is the RAM, but that isn't a problem either - I'd even say it's a non-issue for people who aren't going to run anything heavy. I do appreciate 2GB in my laptop, but then again that's used for Eclipse, VS2008, SQL Server 2005 et cetera - a bit more than casual web browsing and some text editing ;)
See, that's the thing. You don't make large text documents. You create a .txt for each specific option. Often times proper folder hierarchy goes a long way. The only time you need .chm files is if you want to bleed your eyes out learning the ins and outs of the program and even then, rarely are they as useful as a book specifically for it. These are newbies we are talking about. Most of them won't have a problem with Linux if they all just rtfm or in this case rtf.chm. Of course this doesn't happen often enough though.Navigating folder hierarchy, opening text files, and using filemanager "find in files" to look for a topic is easier than HtmlHelp? O_o
I think it would be even worse if you're on Linux and then you need a Windows program and wine can't emulate it well. Also remember that the Ubuntu model is much simpler to learn than XP. It both has a GUI installation guide from LiveCD and an actual LiveCD. You're also not bound to get infected by viruses because you tried connecting to the internet before installing an AV ESPECIALLY with newbies who don't know how prone to viruses Windows machine are.
Dunno about that, really. I don't find Vista to be very CPU-draining, and x4500HD is (more than!) enough for running Aero pleasantly. The only thing a bit on the low end is the RAM, but that isn't a problem either - I'd even say it's a non-issue for people who aren't going to run anything heavy. I do appreciate 2GB in my laptop, but then again that's used for Eclipse, VS2008, SQL Server 2005 et cetera - a bit more than casual web browsing and some text editing ;)-f0dder (March 25, 2009, 07:27 PM)
Navigating folder hierarchy, opening text files, and using filemanager "find in files" to look for a topic is easier than HtmlHelp? O_o
As for RTFM, that's really not something I'd expect being helpful for newbie on linux. The documentation there is often pretty bad, and definitely written withpower usersprogrammers in mind.
1) if you need to run windows programs on linux, you have failed and might as well run windows.
2) newbies won't be installing the OS themselves.
3) limited user account on XP or Vista (with UAC love), windows' own firewall enabled, and "virus what me worry?". If tomos adds a free AV and firefox w/adblockplus to the mix, even better.
Yeah sure, linux has come a long way and the recent distros are relatively friendly, as long as you only need to do bog-standard stuff. I wager that, knowing their needs, I could put my mother or grandmother on linux - partially because they don't need much stuff, and more importantly because I'm familiar enough with linux to troubleshoot. But I'd still go for Windows, because it's less hassle and there's a lot more people with windows experience to help out.
Considering that tomos says he doesn't have linux experience at all, I'd say the choice is a no-brainer.