[ale] Best Desktop Env or Distro for Windows users?

[James P. Kinney III]

Converting existing M$ users to to the light side is not an easy task.
As far as stability, all of the distros are more reliable than any
win9x, NT4 setup will ever be. NT2k and XP have stabilized the blue
screen rate to be much less noticeable.

At this point it really boils down to an environment issue. As you are
looking at converting an existing, supposedly functional ;) office
environment to a better setup, you will want to minimize the differences
as much as possible. As much as I like and use Gnome, I can't recommend
it for this setting. KDE wins hands down for moving people to Linux from
the dark side.

As much as I like and OpenOffice.org, I would recommend that a full
office conversion use either Star Office 6 or CrossoverOffice and M$
Office2k. Star is cheap and works very well. It is less expensive than
Crossover plugins for everyone. But having the exact application that
everyone is accustomed to running on a new desktop will greatly ease the
transition. Save the Star Office 6 for the new user who can be taught
new stuff. By then, some of the remaining "crunchy spots" (find and
replace with regular expressions) should be running.

The one BIG caveat to "Use KDE" is Evolution. It will feel very
comfortable to M$ users. It works very well and has turned out to be
fantastically stable.

On Wed, 2002-08-21 at 09:18, John Wells wrote:
> As I mentioned in a previous email, I've talked my site manager into
> exploring Linux for site-wide desktop deployment.
> 
> As most (53 of 55) users here are strictly Windows users, I'd like hear
> some opinions on what the best desktop env./distro is for *complete*
> Linux/Unix newbies.  What's the most stable?  Easiest to use?  Most
> intuitive?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> John
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---
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-- 
James P. Kinney III   \Changing the mobile computing world/
President and CEO      \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244             \.___________________________./

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
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