[BadVista Advocate] Linux for Newbies

[nixed]

Matthew Flaschen wrote:
> Jacob Maynard wrote:
>> I hope I can say this without sounding brash, but your tutorial, while
>> very nice in appearance and amount of information, is just another
>> tutorial. What needs to happen is for us to have a centralized place with
>> answers to questions that are not distro specific.
> 
> Information that isn't distro-specific is by necessity somewhat vague.
> Too vague for newbies to understand.  That's why I think newbies have to
> be directed to a specific distro at first.
> 
> Matt Flaschen

Well, there are also books for Ubuntu.  I learned a little bit more 
about the command line interface by getting a book about Fedora Core 1. 
  The only reason I learned more was due to installation of nvidia's 
proprietary drivers.  While I understand that proprietary software is 
not seen in a positive light and can have problems all their own (can't 
be fixed without reverse engineering in a clean room environment, which 
is very complicated), something good did come out of it.  I learned 
about virtual terminals (Ctrl+Alt+F1-12 keys).  I learned how to use the 
init command to change run levels.  If it weren't for the book giving 
step by step instructions, I wouldn't know as much as I do now.  I can 
navigate directories via bash now and use nano to a degree as well as 
text based web browsers.

There are many distributions out there that use the Linux kernel with 
GNU software and other tools and applications on top of it.  I pointed 
towards Ubuntu for one reason: for individuals, it's a great to try.  I 
remember running 5.10 and their help docs had specific step-by-step 
instructions for doing certain things via command line (in many 
instances, you could copy and paste into GNOME's terminal program). 
That's another reason why I liked that distro as one aimed towards those 
who are new to alternative Operating Systems.  What needs to happen is 
similar to that one distro that used features from other distros (before 
SCO backed out and started to threaten everybody with copyright suits... 
a clear drop in IQ points).

Ubuntu has everything a person could generally want from a basic system, 
but lacks a decent control panel.  PCLinuxOS has a control center of 
sorts, but it's a pain to add new drivers to it.  SuSE's YaST was 
decent, but the distro itself is now potentially indirectly controlled 
by Microsoft.  Freespire's hardware detection is decent enough, but from 
what I've been reading, there was too tight of control on the part of 
the Linspire developers/team.  What needs to happen is a creation of a 
new distro that combines features that make the other distros appealing 
into one ultimate distro of sorts (not the ultimate mind you, but one 
that's pretty darn good).  If proprietary drivers are not liked, then it 
would be up to that potentially new distro team and those who support 
only Free Software to provide reverse engineering for hardware drivers 
as well as support for things such as the Open Graphics project (an 
attempt to make an open video card that would work out of the box).

One final note: I would recommend changing the label Free Software to 
something like, say, Freedomware!  A word like freedomware would not 
only imply the potential of the software not costing money to 
acquire/compile, but it would also imply liberty at the same time.  Just 
a final thought.  ;)