G’day humans and others,
OK first off, this is NOT a definitive review of all the Linux systems. I have been looking at what is easy to install and use for the BASIC level END USER that is technically illiterate – you know the type that does not understand why you should not click on the ‘Yes’ button on every pop-up box they see.
To that end my evaluation criteria have been
1. Ease of install as compared against Windows XP.
2. Ease of post install use for general office activities.
3. Ease of post install use for basic Internet activities, no I have NOT included chat, teleconferencing, or Instant Messaging type stuff.
4. Reasonable security in an out of the box install.
5. Reasonable levels of backwards compatibility with applications and hardware.
NB: This is not a performance comaprison with Windows or a review of system performance, I am simply looking for what some of my clients could use on a basis for them to install and use – they are challenged finding an ON button on many computers.
The system I have used is a Pentium 4, 3 gHz with 3 GB of RAM and a 200 GB SATA drive. This is a 64 bit board and CPU. All software has been loaded on this same machine.
I have not tried every system available due to accessibilty of software problems – downloading ISOs over 28.8 kbps with a 6 hour cut off is NOT an effective way to get software.
The best compatibility with Windows based software and games, for all systems, is obtained by downloading and installing WINE for applications and Cedega for games (this will also run older games from earlier OSs).
Results to date
Mandrake 10 – need tech knowledge to install – about on par with DOS 6 and Win 3.1 re installation skills. OK to use but needs updating. After all, it is 18 months older than the rest of the systems tried.
Free Mandriva 2006, Ubuntu 5.10, Fedora Core 4, Fedora Core 5 – were all OK to install some problems with post installation administration functions, noted later. OK to use. Debian 3.1 I had installation problems with and also tried to install on a P 4 2.4 gHz 32 bit machine as I thought problems may be related to the 64 bit hardware, got a different set of installation problems. Nothing major just annoying – Note, had same sorts of troubles with Win XP on those machines. All had better out of the box security than Windows XP as they included basic firewalls in their packages. They also required establishment of user accounts and opened into user accounts when booted. All were backwards compatible with the older hardware and software that I had on hand.
Recommendations (NB note addition below) to clients who are going to use Linux and only Linux – install Fedora Core 5 or Ubuntu 5.1 and take a little time and trouble to learn the differences between them and the Windows you are used to. I also suggest that they get a tech to install WINE and XINE for them so that they can readily use their older Windows applications and play DVDs. Free Mandriva 2006 and Fedora Core 4 are not quite as good but acceptable. With all installations they recognised my Network Interface Card, video card, and modem, loading the correct drivers. All had to be told what my monitor was and FC 5, U 5.1, & FM 06 all had drivers for it, the rest used generic drivers that worked well.
All came with Open Office, two browsers and two mail clients – usually their own versions with Thunderbird and Firefox.
The only real complaints I have are outside the test criteria and relate to difficulties with dual boot systems. All recognised the Windows installation and set up the boot loader to handle that. However, in each case I could not use the GUI interface admin functions to reset the owner and group permissions of the Windows created partitions or folders to enable me to have full access within the Linux installations, They all enabled read and execute of FAT 32 partitions, with FC 5 and U 5.1 allowing read and execute of NTFS partitions as well. This is an issue for full sharing of files between the OSs.
edited to fix typos and add — I recently got a copy of SimplyMepis 3.4
It reads FAT32 and NTFS out of the box. It will allow me to copy from NTFS and then reset the permissions on the copy – so it does the sharing that I want. It’s easier to use than the rest and the best choice for a non-Linux tech head to use – well that’s my opinion after trying it. Full basic user and power user modes.
I’m not sure if this is a 32 bit or a 32/64 bit installation as the magazine indicated 32 bit, but it installed and works perfectly – with both FC5 and Ubuntu I needed to get 64 bit versions to make them work on a 64 bit system.
Yeah, I know, those who like the ones I haven’t tried will say their’s is better – but I don’t have the ability to download and am restricted to what I can get from the magazine covers. I do live near the middle of nowhere, that’s only a few miles down the road.