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Linuxblog Introduction: We took an average windows user, gave her a handful of distributions of Linux, and forced her to use each distro for one week. We gave her alsaconf, email servers, and mounted her windows partition to the fresh install. Then, we faded away and quietly watched her in her new environment. You too can join us by reading on…
Here I am the Average Windows User. I think I’m going to like Linux. That is, if we can work out a few things. I don’t think Mandrake is going to be my favorite—I hope. I hope because I really want to find an OS that is easier to work with. I am purposely not taking a lot of suggestions because most people would not have that luxury. I’m the person who just happened to hear that there was something out there like Windows, but FREE–or at the least a whole heck of a lot cheaper. I am the person who is curious but very limited in knowledge. Please keep this in mind as you proceed.
1) Look /Feel – I stand by my initial impression, it’s okay. I have no complaints with the look and how it works. I do however have a problem finding program files, in windows it is easy, go to program files on my drive and find the files. I can’t find any map like that in my desktop and believe me I’ve been looking. I think by now I am so tired of looking that I wouldn’t be able to find it if it slapped me in the face. I do like Gnome better than KDE at this point. I can’t really explain why, I just do. (Score – 7)
2) Performance – It seems as fast if not faster than windows, that’s nice. But I have not been able to “tax it since I can hardly get anything to work. I like some of the programs, I am using open office right now for my log. It works nicely. (Score – 8 )
3) Hardware/Software – This part was infuriating. I will explain, patience please. See below in My Criteria (Score – 2)
4) Upgradeability/Security – At this point, I’m not exactly worried about security. I would never get that far with this “distro. Upgrading certain things proved too difficult for me, others were simple. (Score – 3)
5) Documentation - There is plenty of it, many websites out there but most of them are not catering to new users. I gave up on most of them before finding anything I could benefit from. Even though the kind people who visit this blog offered many good suggestions for help sites, it would have probably taken me weeks to find them on my own. (Score – 5)
6) Installation – Was not any more difficult than a Windows install, possibly easier. (Score – 
Now we talk about MY criteria:
This is my first entry in the experiment that I have been volunteered for by my husband. I said I would do this because I like the idea of a free operating system and I’ve always heard my husband talk about how great it would be if we could use linux instead of windows. Here is my chance to find out if this would ever really be an option for us.
I’ve been neglecting the ‘experiment’ for the last couple of days. So, I’ve decided to post the things that will be considered when we review the 5 picked desktop distributions of Linux. This will not be a “normal” Linux review in the sense of that word…instead we’ll opt for a largly ‘new user look’ at how each desktop distro performs for a new user and how it asthetically feels for that new user because, let’s face it, if something doesn’t work or looks unpleasant for a new user right away…they’re going to run back to Windows quick fast and in a hurry. It is also important to note that my wife who knows little of Linux will be taking these distributions for a drive from install to remove. Here I am rambling again! Ok, without further adieu, here it is:
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