Re: [Fsfe-uk] Linux for Kids Briefing

[Paul Tansom]

On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 00:14:03 +0100
Paul <address@hidden> wrote:
> > For those with sprogs, I've finally found the time to get my "Linux
> > for Kids" briefing online:
> > 
> > http://www.fraw.org.uk/pubs/cltcpb/cltc_pb-02.html
> 
> Nice. I disagree though over the choice of distro. Richard (my 6 year
> old) has had a linux box (or access to a linux box) since he was 2 and
> all of them have been RH or FC boxes. He's never had a moments
> trouble.
> 
> Personally, I would advise the use of FC or Mandark. I'd never
> recommend Debian. I just don't like it as a distro - it certainly is
> easy to get running (but then so is FC, SuSE and Mandark), but it's
> not as good as it's cracked up to be. I'd prefer to use Slackware over
> Debian!
> 
> A while back, his box went sploogie and I needed to resort to using
> gnoppix to find the problem and get things working again. Richard
> played with gnoppix and found it a pain to use.
> 
> That said, he is kind of a fun with machines - his record is to take
> down his schools Win2003 server system in less than 11 minutes!

With absolutely no intention of starting a distro war, but in an attempt
to point out that choice is what its about, and people choices vary...

I would have to say that I would choose Debian over RH or FC for what
are probably very similar reasons to those you choose RH or FC. I used
to use RH, but got thoroughly fed up chasing RPM dependencies round in
circles and tried Debian. I believe that RH has come a long way since
then in this respect, but a recent brush with RH Enterprise Workstation
I found use to be akin to pulling teeth with a mole wrench. Some of this
is obviously familiarity, but for my personal use I would, and do, go
for Debian every time. I'd also recommend it, or a derivative, over and
RPM based distro - but this is based on my personal experience and not
yours.

Opinions are all down to personal experience, so I would go ADSL for
broadband because I've had fewer problems than NTL cable. I prefer to
use XFCE4 over Enlightenment that I used to use, Gnome which I used
before that or KDE which I personally dislike. At least with Linux we
have the choice, although we can be guilty of defending our choices
rather vehemently. Perhaps it comes from being the under dogs to the
Windows majority. I remember it being similar when I used OS/2. :-)

-- 
Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. | http://www.aptanet.com/