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Hi all! I'm looking to replace all the XP operating systems on 5 computers
(family and friends). This XP Genuine Advantage (phone home spyware) is the
last straw for me. They (M$) are moving to "renting" you the operating
system, and there are 2 pending class action lawsuits over this and other
issues. I'm tired of dealing with all this crap!

I'm looking to learning Slackware, but alas, my friends and family cannot.
Therefore, I'm wondering if there is a Slack spinoff worth using and which
one?

All computers will just be doing the basic stuff: surfing, e-mail, burning,
office stuff, etc.
It would be good if I could set up the remote boxes and not have to tinker
with them after set-up.

Would a newbie derivative be suitable for this, or a full blown Slackware
install?

Any help appreciated.
Thanks!

mikey coons wrote:
> Hi all! I'm looking to replace all the XP operating systems on 5 computers
> (family and friends).
<snip>
>
> Would a newbie derivative be suitable for this, or a full blown Slackware
> install?
>

My humble opinion: if this is your first exposure to Linux ever, I'd
start from
a live-cd. I have started with Knoppix, but if you want to get a
Slackware
flavour then go for Slax: <http://www.slax.org>.

You can learn a lot from a live image. You can even install it.
It's not a proper install, it will just copy itself to the hard drive,
without messing
with existing partitions, and you can also create a 'stealth'
partition.

Ottavio
http://www.pledgebank.com/boycottvista

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:57:35 -0700, mikey coons wrote:

> Hi all! I'm looking to replace all the XP operating systems on 5 computers
> (family and friends). This XP Genuine Advantage (phone home spyware) is the
> last straw for me. They (M$) are moving to "renting" you the operating
> system, and there are 2 pending class action lawsuits over this and other
> issues. I'm tired of dealing with all this crap!
>
> I'm looking to learning Slackware, but alas, my friends and family cannot.
> Therefore, I'm wondering if there is a Slack spinoff worth using and which
> one?
>
> All computers will just be doing the basic stuff: surfing, e-mail, burning,
> office stuff, etc.
> It would be good if I could set up the remote boxes and not have to tinker
> with them after set-up.
>
> Would a newbie derivative be suitable for this, or a full blown Slackware
> install?
>
> Any help appreciated.
> Thanks!

I can understand why you'd be attracted to slack, but in all honesty, the
average home user, non-geek, is probably going to be much happier with
something like ubuntu which is a bit easier to keep going and get
information.

On 2007-08-13, mikey coons <rukidding@aol.com> wrote:
>
> I'm looking to learning Slackware, but alas, my friends and family cannot.
> Therefore, I'm wondering if there is a Slack spinoff worth using and which
> one?
>
> All computers will just be doing the basic stuff: surfing, e-mail, burning,
> office stuff, etc.
> It would be good if I could set up the remote boxes and not have to tinker
> with them after set-up.
>
> Would a newbie derivative be suitable for this, or a full blown Slackware
> install?

A full Slackware install comes with KDE and Koffice, and OpenOffice is
easy to install, too. Keep in mind that if you're the admin, your
family doesn't have to know what they're doing--if they have a problem,
they tell you, and you get to fix it. ;-) I would definitely suggest a
gradual introduction for them--first, set up a box for yourself and use
it regularly; when you're confident that you can answer most of your
users' questions easily, set up another box for them, but keep a Windows
box available (as a dual-boot, or as a separate machine) in case they
get frustrated. Eventually you should be able to replace your Windows
installs with Slackware if that's your goal, but you don't even need to
go whole-hog if your family really needs Windows for one or two apps
that simply don't run on linux (some games, for example).

Another person suggested Ubuntu, which is Debian based. Ubuntu is
definitely okay as well, and would be a good suggestion for someone not
really looking to learn anything about linux, someone just wanting to
escape Windows. But Slackware is certainly a viable alternative
(especially if you don't want to have to fight your package manager every
so often) if you'd rather go that route. And if you're the admin, your
users won't care about the difference, anyway.

--keith

--
kkeller-usenet@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://www.therockgarden.ca/aolsfaq.txt
see X- headers for PGP signature information

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:22:25 -0700, Keith Keller wrote:

> On 2007-08-13, mikey coons <rukidding@aol.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'm looking to learning Slackware, but alas, my friends and family cannot.
>> Therefore, I'm wondering if there is a Slack spinoff worth using and which
>> one?
>>
>> All computers will just be doing the basic stuff: surfing, e-mail, burning,
>> office stuff, etc.
>> It would be good if I could set up the remote boxes and not have to tinker
>> with them after set-up.
>>
>> Would a newbie derivative be suitable for this, or a full blown Slackware
>> install?
>
> A full Slackware install comes with KDE and Koffice, and OpenOffice is
> easy to install, too. Keep in mind that if you're the admin, your
> family doesn't have to know what they're doing--if they have a problem,
> they tell you, and you get to fix it. ;-) I would definitely suggest a
> gradual introduction for them--first, set up a box for yourself and use
> it regularly; when you're confident that you can answer most of your
> users' questions easily, set up another box for them, but keep a Windows
> box available (as a dual-boot, or as a separate machine) in case they
> get frustrated. Eventually you should be able to replace your Windows
> installs with Slackware if that's your goal, but you don't even need to
> go whole-hog if your family really needs Windows for one or two apps
> that simply don't run on linux (some games, for example).
>
> Another person suggested Ubuntu, which is Debian based. Ubuntu is
> definitely okay as well, and would be a good suggestion for someone not
> really looking to learn anything about linux, someone just wanting to
> escape Windows. But Slackware is certainly a viable alternative
> (especially if you don't want to have to fight your package manager every
> so often) if you'd rather go that route. And if you're the admin, your
> users won't care about the difference, anyway.

Agreed. I had noticed that he mentioned 'family and friends'. If some of
the friends are more casual and not ones you visit on a daily basis, it
might be easier for them to handle ubuntu.


>
> --keith

mikey coons wrote:

> ... This XP Genuine Advantage ... is the last straw for me. ... I'm
> tired of dealing with all this crap!

What took you so long???

> I'm looking to learning Slackware, but alas, my friends and family cannot.

If you're in a position to manage their systems for them, they need not.
Set them up with KDE (or other suitable GUI environments of KDE is not
appreciated among your friends and family; I suspect that they'll find
it looks rather familiar to Windows, though, and will gladly give it a
chance), and they should have no trouble adapting to the new system.

> Therefore, I'm wondering if there is a Slack spinoff worth using and
> which one?

Why a spinoff? Why not just go with Slackware itself?

> It would be good if I could set up the remote boxes and not have to
> tinker with them after set-up.

Agreed, though you'll likely need to tinker periodically, if only to
ensure that updated packages get installed as necessary. If you can set
yourself up to be able to tinker remotely (ssh into the remote systems
and perform all system-administration -- that is "tinkering" -- from the
comfort of your own system), you'll find it's not too much trouble.

> Would a newbie derivative be suitable for this, or a full blown
> Slackware install?

I don't know of any "newbie derivative"s, but even if I did, I would
recommend using Slackware itself. Why go for a derivative when you can
have the real thing?

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca

Systems and Network analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------

ray wrote:

> I can understand why you'd be attracted to slack, but in all honesty, the
> average home user, non-geek, is probably going to be much happier with
> something like ubuntu which is a bit easier to keep going and get
> information.

In what way, on either point, easier?
--
Two Ravens
"...hit the squirrel..."

"Sylvain Robitaille" <syl@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote in message
news:slrnfc1a4o.584o.syl@alcor.concordia.ca...
> I don't know of any "newbie derivative"s, but even if I did, I would
> recommend using Slackware itself. Why go for a derivative when you can
> have the real thing?
>

Agreed. I've got 2 spare boxes to use and can play with it till I'm
comfortable. I understand I need only the first 2 CD's of the distro?
And I've had some experience with Linux in general and Slack in particular a
few years ago.

Thanks for the replies!

> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca
>
> Systems and Network analyst Concordia University
> Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:17:35 +0100, Two Ravens wrote:

> ray wrote:
>
>> I can understand why you'd be attracted to slack, but in all honesty, the
>> average home user, non-geek, is probably going to be much happier with
>> something like ubuntu which is a bit easier to keep going and get
>> information.
>
> In what way, on either point, easier?

Less bothersome - easier to find help - more available software - software
about as simple as possible to install and usually sets itself up working
properly. Other than that, I can't think of a thing.

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:57:35 -0700
"mikey coons" <rukidding@aol.com> wrote:


> Would a newbie derivative be suitable for this, or a full blown
> Slackware install?
>
> Any help appreciated.
> Thanks!
>
>

Possibly worth looking at dreamlinux ( http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/ ),
zenwalk ( http://www.zenwalk.org/ ) and wolvix
( http://www.wolvix.org/ )

I use slackware on desktop / server, zenwalk on laptop and wolvix is
installed on encrypted USB stick.

Might be worth a look at least.