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

[Fulton Green]

I was working on a response to this, then it got way too long, so I figured
it's best saved for a presentation or an article somewhere.

But to summarize what I was writing (and this is strictly from a user-
experience perspective), IMHO you have to have four elements in place at a
minimum for transitioning from "the dark side":

- Graphical file shell to obsolete the command-line shell
- Internet browser + plugins
- Groupware
- Office suite

Well, duh-uh. Yeah, I know.

For overall environments, if you had to make the decision today, it'd be
KDE 3.x hands-down. I will admit, though, that GNOME 2.x seems much nicer
now, esp. w/the anti-aliased fonts, and that may make for a better
environment for your users, esp. given that most of the other solutions I
recommend are of the GNOME/GTK bent. KDE 3 seems a bit more stable, though.

Anyhow, realistically, you're gonna need either a KDE or GNOME environment
to appeal to the average Jane or Joe. Both have capable file managers.
GNOME's (Nautilus) seems slicker, but also bloatier.

For Internet browsing, the solution must use the Mozilla Gecko rendering
engine. The default engine in Konqueror simply isn't very compliant with
more recent stylesheet and scripting standards. Supposedly there's a way to
tell Konqueror to use the Gecko engine. In addition, you also have to
support Acrobat (and it's mostly there for both environments) and Flash
(I think Macromedia is actively supporting Linux) viewing. The streaming
media stuff probably won't be as important for a lot of office environments,
and if it is, it's time for the Crossover Plugin.

For groupware, Evolution seems to be it.

Office suites are a bit thornier. You want something that at least
behaves like Office apps, and solutions abound in that arena. But you also
need for your suite to generate M$ Office-formatted docs in addition to
reading them. I think OpenOffice is able to do that, but StarOffice may have
better features in that area. I don't think the other suites are able to
write out to the "Office ABI" (i.e., the proprietary formats) yet.

Just the $0.02 I scraped off the floor last night so I could do laundry,

Fulton

On Wed, Aug 21, 2002 at 08:18:21AM -0500, 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?

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