[oclug] Newbie Question

[Brenda J. Butler]

On Tue, Apr 05, 2005 at 09:27:14AM -0500, Stephen M. Webb wrote:
> On 05/04/05 09:20 am, Frederick Emrich, Editor, info-commons.org wrote:
> > So I am considering a move to OS and looking for information that is aimed
> > at a user like myself (no experience with software coding, but able to use
> > a book to learn to do things like HTML, etc) that will describe:
> >
> > 1) Whys and why nots of OS software
> > 2) How to install
> > 3) What to do when things don't work

> The most agnostic argument in favour of open source software is the cost.  You 
> can pick up a commercial distribution of Linux (say, oh, Xandros 3 Deluxe, to 
> "randomly" name one) for the same cost as a really good computer game, and it 
> will include right out of the box all the usual applications most people say 
> they need -- word processing, spreadsheet, web browser, collections of 
> drawing tools, instant messenger clients, web development tools, various 
> games like solitaire and minesweeper, etc etc etc., and usually upgrades when 
> they become available.  The equivalent from Microsoft will run you well over 
> the price of your computer hardware and will require install after install 
> after install from separate disks.

I thought Stephen gave a great answer.

I just wanted to mention that if you don't want to jump in the deep end,
you can start by getting your toes wet.

Just install one OS program (like a browser, or office software)
and try it out.  Later, install another one.  Eventually,
you'll be used to several OS packages, and switching to a full
OS distro will be virtually unnoticed as all the software you use
on a daily basis would already be the free versions.

So, here's a short list of applications you can start with:

browser - firefox
email - thunderbird
office suite - openoffice (reads/writes MS Office documents too)
drawing/graphics - gimp (heavy-duty)
irc - xchat

Best of luck.  Let us know how it goes!

cheerio,
bjb