On Fri, 2005-02-11 at 13:20 -0600, STYMA, ROBERT E (ROBERT) wrote: > Dear Fedora Advocates, > My brother in law will be returning from Iraq > in another couple of months and one of the things > I am doing for him is to build him a computer. He > is not technically adept and his computer activity > is pretty much limited to looking at his email > on yahoo and a little web surfing. Sometimes he > prints an email or two. > > I am vacillating on building an FC3 machine or a W2k > machine. > > The advantages of the FC3 machine include no need for > antivirus software. Less problems with spyware. No crashes. > and I can set up hosts.allow to allow me to maintain the > machine remotely. > > The disadvantage for this application seems to be getting > the plugins for the browser in place. Streaming video, PPS > files, Java applets, sound files, midi files, etc. HP provides > a pretty good set of drivers for Linux so printing should work > well. > > The question is: Is there a small number of places I can go > to load the bulk of the plugins a general user might want? > > The alternative is to wait till he encounters something he > cannot see and then go find and install the plugins one at > at time. ---- All of the issues about plugins/java/mp3/multi-media are pretty much covered at fedorafaq.org and I don't see them as any major obstacle for using Linux. The major obstacle that people have for choosing Windows or Linux or even Macintosh is perception. Sometimes, there is the added influence of those they know that 'think' they know something about one or the other. I prefer to think that Linux, Macintosh and Windows are all tools and like a tool, has its own strengths and weaknesses and no one system is best for all people all the time. We can argue about which might be better most of the time and that is obviously the subjective issue. Looking at the bundle...If I buy the hardware to build a computer and then buy Windows XP to install on it, I am lacking a suitable Word Processor, SpreadSheet, Presentation program etc. I might download Open Office for Windows and install it or I can buy Word Perfect's Office or Microsoft Office. If I am going the 'free' route on Windows, the only difference between my Linux computer and my Windows computer IS the underlying OS. The perception of software availability for Windows often drives the decision. Of that there are only a few categories...barely sold and often very cheap, massive amounts of 'security' utilities to fix OS weaknesses, and vary expensive productivity software like that of Adobe, Microsoft, etc. Good luck Craig
