[BadVista Advocate] Linux for Newbies

[Matthew Flaschen]

member greenarrow1 wrote:

> Now if the user knew exactly what distro they wanted there was some 
> information but for a user who did not know anything about Linux and 
> wanting to learn the basics where they would understand what is written
> there is really not much available.

Well, this is the problem.  It is impossible to teach a newbie "generic"
GNU/Linux.  They need step-by-step instructions, with precise detail,
and you can only provide that for a particular version of a particular
distribution.  So hopefully they /will/ hear of a distro by the time
they get serious about installation (I think this is actually fairly
common).

If not, they still need to find distro-specific instructions when they
search for "Linux tutorial" or whatever.  The solution there is
Google-bombing.  Because of the nature of GNU/Linux, though, no
distribution is dominant to become the standard site for such searches.

So the best thing to do is recommend a distro to people in person.

Matt Flaschen