Giving Linux to the unaccustomed?

[bonch]

A friend of mine asked me to recommend a "stable" Linux just recently .. I thought about it and couldn't really bring myself to recommend Linux. Here was his question:

what in your opinion is the most stable/rarely crashes/well put together distribution of linux great one? I might buy a laptop and strip out Win 7 and replace it and just use the laptop for word processing (legal, financial, literary type stuff) and for software programming. I'm also considering putting together a laptop like that for my brother because his WHOLE job revolves around word processing (like open office) and accessing LexisNexis/Westlaw Legal Research through a browser...so he could save himself a ton of computer headaches with a really barebones on resources system like that (and if he opened his own firm..cutting microsoft out would certainly cut costs lol...not that any attorney Ive ever known is ever interested in billing the client less lol *shame*

And my reply:

Linux ... hmmm. Well these are the ones I have used:

Ubuntu
Red Hat
Slackware
Arch
Fedora
Gentoo

Ubuntu is certainly the most "polished". It is mostly quite stable but you really need to make sure you have well supported hardware running underneath it. This new computer I've got with Intel integrated graphics is not well suported and NOT stable at all lol. Nvidia dedicated gpu's are really the way to go .. the drivers are all written by Nvidia and you really cant go wrong.

Hardware issues aside ... they are all stable. Many of them are too secure in the sense that they are designed for running clusters of servers and super computers
.. not workstations. Even the user friendly versions like Ubuntu require a their
user to be a competent system administration. tbh ... Id give hin Windows or a MAC

.

Do you think I was wrong? I would like to recommend Linux but I know this guys brother and he is one of those types for whom computing == Windows and I can just envision the whole experiment going badly. Although maybe Fedora rigged up with Open Office and a browser is just the solution? What would you recommend if a friend of yours has a similar query?

[Solar]

My recommendation, without a moment of hesitation, is Linux Mint.

It's an Ubuntu-based distribution with a focus on providing the best possible out-of-the-box experience, which takes a more relaxed view on proprietary software - e.g., you get MP3 and DVD codecs preinstalled instead of having to fiddle with the package manager to install them manually.

Mint does not require you to be a competent administrator. I am both a competent admin and a power user, but so far I did not have to go "under the hood" to get anything done, in over two years since I made the switch from Gentoo. (That, unfortunately, is bound to change soon, because our new printer is not yet supported by Linux, and I have to do some trickery to get it running these days, but that's the usual story with latest hardware. The old printer was literally plug & play.)

But it always takes a user willing to make a change. There will always be a difference in user experience. It's not MSOffice Word, Internet Explorer and Outlook, it's LibreOffice Writer, Firefox and Thunderbird, and some things are just done differently there.

If you have a user willing to jump to a different application, you can make him do the jump to Linux.

But if you have a user who gets confused if the keyboard shortcuts are not just so and is paralyzed with fear if the start menu looks a little bit different, you'd probably scare him to death with the switch from WinXP to Win8 already...

Another point to keep in mind when company use is desired is PIM integration: Getting a Linux box integrated with a company's Exchange server, for example, does take someone competent and requires a couple of compromises, which might not be acceptable at the workplace.

As a first step, why not install OpenOffice on his Windows box and have him give it a shot instead of tossing him into deep water? Install Firefox and Thunderbird, and if he can cope with those, then there's absolutely no reason why he should care about whether he's using them on Windows or Linux.

Other options include KDE on Windows or using Cygwin and CygwinPorts to bring the "usual suspects" to a Windows box, as "bait".

[Casm]

Give me a bad cold. I would like it better.

[Coty]

I'm with solar, mint is the way to go, especially if your new to linux, for me though once I had a taste of linux and got used to using it I started moving around from distro to distro, looking for better. Mint was nice, but it didn't offer any challenge for me... Strangely enough that bothered me... Right now I'm using Debian on my desktop and Ubuntu on my net-book (Because Ubuntu works better with it).

[Jvac]

It all depends on what is your friend comfortability. Chances are that he is going to be very busy due to the nature of his occupation. Time on hand is going to be limited and he will need something that is stress free, user friendly, and has a strong customer support.

What software and hardware should he use or which is better is not the question. But the questions should be what system will keep my friend doing what he does best without any worries about his software?

From a user point of view my opinion is that you should give him windows.

[NickJohnson]

In the true linux spirit there's a lot you HAVE to configure and hence understand at least how some of the linux bits and pieces work.

I agree; it seems like a better idea to give the user sharp tools and force them to become competent at using them than to give them dull or abstruse tools and let them continue in ignorance. Give a man a fish...

I kind of like using Gentoo for this reason, since I'm liable to accidentally break something but also be able to fix it. It's sort of like a game. I have an English paper due in two hours and my network drivers were broken by an update? Challenge accepted.

I wouldn't expect a sane person to have this attitude though .

[Solar]

Yes, but not every computer user is an admin / developer type. Computers have become a commodity, and for quite some people, calling for a system where they don't have to get their hands dirty is fair and square.

This coming from a long-time Gentoo user. I'd still recommend it if you want to set up a home proxy / firewall, or a secure online game server, or a highly customized developer box. But I wouldn't recommend Gentoo to my mother-in-law looking for a Gimp / Writer platform, while I'd be comfortable recommending Mint in this context. Actually, I've converted to Mint myself, because what little time I have I didn't want to spend doing the latest update (and checking the bugs database, and patching, and reverting, and reconfiguring...).

[Combuster]

Gentoo is for anybody who wants to become a linux pro. Once you have gotten the feeling for how things work, you can do quite a few of the tricks on any other linux distro. Yes, it comes with a high maintenance cost, but like two weeks ago I helped someone out with testing some Cisco configuration and had to add some nonstandard parts to the kernel. We started actual testing 20 minutes later.

I couldn't recommend gentoo for production hardware, those kind of machines should be configure-once-work-always.

[bonch]

I've converted to Mint myself (based on Solar's recommendation). Well, I haven't "converted" as I still have 6 Linux partitions on my box + Windows 7 . But Mint is now taking the role Ubuntu used to. I hadn't upgraded from 10.10 because 11.** is garbage (much like win 8 is to win 7 .. nice .. but no thanks). And also ubuntu hasn't worked properly with my new hardware without bugs everywhere and the people on the forum are defensive and unhelpful. Mint is fantastic. They haven't jumped on the "your desktop needs to look like a smartphone" bandwagon and I haven't had a bug yet. All I can say is binary blobs for the win!

Thanks for the recommendation Solar.

[bonch]

Gentoo and LFS are loads of fun and an epic learning experience but they are not for everyone. You'd have to be a sadist of the worst kind to suggest Gentoo to the casual user. If someone asked you to recommend a car you wouldnt say "oh, I recommend you build your own!". :p

[Combuster]

If someone asked you to recommend a car you wouldnt say "oh, I recommend you build your own!". :p

No I wouldn't; I'd tell them to take driving lessons instead

[OSwhatever]

Ubuntu hands down (or its variants). Best support on the net and it is easy to find information if you need help.

Also for the causal user I would not recommend any distro that requires any more difficult configuration and recompiling. If you really want to learn about Linux you can choose a geek distro but even if you're programmer who wants to get things done, you're better off with Ubuntu.

[NickJohnson]

Interesting how P(uses/used Gentoo | regular on osdev.org) is so high... perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to recommend that people use Gentoo on the Getting Started page.

[JackScott]

If we recommend something, we have to be prepared to support it. Even if we don't think we should have to, the people who take our recommendation would.

Plus, the choice of a Linux distro is a very personal thing. I'm a fan of Debian (stable for servers, testing for desktops) and no wiki article would convince me otherwise.

[Solar]

Plus, the choice of a Linux distro is a very personal thing.

Absolutely +1 there.