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Linux vs. Vista for an absolute beginner? (+related Vista/hardware query)

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mrainey:
"you have the source, fix it"
--- End quote ---

 ;D

Lutz_:
Currently you can get better spec'd Acer aptops for $400 at Bestbuy and Newegg for example.  I bought one two weeks ago - bigger hard drive, 2GB memory ( a single stick), core duo pentium, draft-N-wireless, etc......
And of course go with the OS that you know best yourself.

mrainey:
I recently bought an Acer Aspire One netbook, and I made sure to get one with XP installed.  It worked just great right out of the box.  It's stable and almost as fast as my standard laptop.

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.

Not saying there's a connection ...

http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/index.php

MilesAhead:
Generally my experience has been that Windows breaks and fixes easier.. and installs stuff easier.  Linux is harder to install stuff, rarely breaks, but if it does, it may require a lot more knowledge to fix.  So, if your newbies are going to run a fixed set of programs and that's all, then Linux probably won't break once set up.  Just use one of the journaling file systems and make sure it has battery backup(in the case of desktop PCs that is.)  If you are going to let the newbies try installing packages on whim, forget it!!  You'll be ripping your hair out!!

Either way if you can image their partitions and lock them away then a fix will be proportional to the time required to lay the backup image back on. ;)

Paul Keith:
IMO, I don't get why you don't just put XP with specs like those.

If I were an absolute beginner, I'd probably start with having an OS that has a folder in the desktop titled help with .txt or .rtf (set to open with wordpad) on it with basic stuff. Even better if there's video files.

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.

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.

Then I'd probably try to have all Linux documentation help set as bookmarks under Firefox in a folder called help. Even better if you can be allowed to set up extensions for it and just set it up as a speed dialled homepage. I'd also make sure if there's duplicate programs on it, that there is a .txt file somewhere that explains what one does better than the other.

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