[Rick Bretz]

Hello All,

I think I might be opening up a can of worms here, but I have a client here that wants to switch to Linux op system.

Ok, here's my problem, I am not in tune with the Linux op systems and I have spend the last few days reviewing all of the different distributions out there. Red Hat, Caldera, Corel, Debian and others. The problem is this...what is the best one out there?
They all look good to me...or the same to me.

My client told me the she doesn't want to spend A LOT of time learning the Linux versions of programs that she will be using. She uses Star Office quite a bit and she has told me that she understands that there will be different ways to get into the Linux system as opposed to a Windows system, but she doesn't want a huge learning curve.

She is hoping that I can find a system that is VERY user friendly and can handle the programs that she is currently using or at the very least find programs that are compatible with the stuff she is using now. (i.e. Star Office compatible with MS Office)

Can anyone out there help me sort this confusion out?

Much appreciated! Email me at: rbretz@usa.net

Regards,

Richard Bretz
www.sanctuarycomputers.com
Brand new 1.6 GHz computer system with 17" monitor for $850!

[Gibble]

If you want user friendly, I'd suggest Mandrake.

[Scully]

So your looking at installing a workstation class of machine?
I would use either Mandrake or RedHat. Personally I like RedHat. But they're both pretty easy.

[Mithrilhall]

I'll put in a vote for Mandrake. It's super easy to use for linux newbies. Then again it's the only version of linux I have tried so far.

[Enigma]

I agree, Mandrake is very good for newbies. But I wouldn't go using it as a server unless you absolutely have to.

I'm ashamed to say that at the moment I'm running mandrake as a server...

It crashes more that windows!
(Probably because I'm running 7 dedicated game servers on it, apache, eXtremail, dhcp, samba, webmin, an IRCd, PureFTP, the list goes on...)

[stufine]

I vote for Mandrake.

[RonK]

Have a look at this version :

http://www.elxlinux.com/product.php

[MikeV]

If you want it to be seriously easy, it really doesn't matter what distro. It's more in the setup. You can take ANY distro, configure it to boot directly to the GUI instead of the console (yea, I know, most of the distros already boot to GUI. have fun when your vga stops working), and then just have the icons that are necessary appear on the desktop.

I would definitely go for the most stable version, which really means any of them. I'm biased, I'll tell you to use Slackware. Support the little guy!

-M

[Massive]

Actually they're all pretty good but for the easiest install I think that Redhat is also pretty good, but maybe just too user-optimized that they forgot about us peoples who wana make our own discover of the app. Then Mandrake would be the best choice.

Actually I've been just trying to install Debian and I must tell you that the fun is to find out why the partition thing wont work, why the files wont copy and why the **** it wont tell you "Congradulation it works". Might seems boring but I'm almost having fun trying to make it run hehe!

[Gibble]

Originally posted by MikeV
I would definitely go for the most stable version, which really means any of them. I'm biased, I'll tell you to use Slackware. Support the little guy!

-M

Good choice

[volrathxp]

i dunno i kinda like Suse 7.3. It is user-friendly and does have a lot of handy apps that come with the professional version like Star Office. Plus, Yast2 is great for installing software. Fast too. of course, all my opinion.

volrathxp