Thanks Anthony. I must admit I had omitted to mention live distros as well. It is the ideal way to test drive some distros before installing one. You have users who are willing to try something different (Linux) so you are ahead of the curve. At home if my wife walks up to the computer and it's booted to Linux she calls me right away asking how to "get out of this stupid thing" (please forgive her ignorance...). Generally it's just to surf, so I've tried to convince her to fire up FF rather than rebooting, but no way. Actually even when in Windows if I have FF open, she closes it and goes to IE (partially because of the GUI differences, partially because that's where her "favourites" are - slight difference in terminology can throw non-technical people for a loop real quick - such as panel vs taskbar or start menu). She is as non-technical as they get. Your typical end user. They have their comfort zone and don't wish to leave it, even for a promise of something more secure. Because for many users security is an after thought (unfortunately that's the case for some businesses as well). Useability is the primary criteria. If they aren't using FF yet, would be a good idea to get them onto that within Windows so at least that will be a familiar environment when they change over. Likewise have them go grab Open Office for Windows, gaim for Windows for their IM sessions, the Gimp for Windows. Immerse them into as much of a common environment as possible before the change over if this is something that won't be happening for a little while (i.e. maybe when purchasing a new PC later this Spring or whatever the case is for them). If the change over is to happen right away, still wouldn't be bad to have those apps on the Windows side as well. So get them into a useable distro based on their needs. Later on maybe you can convert them to becoming power users and maybe trying other distros. Just remember, you are ahead of the curve with these people. You don't want to provide them with an experience that will cause them to turn around and go back to Windows exclusively. On a side note in relation to some of the replies to my earlier posting, I did note the insecurities of MS Windows vs Linux, but only in passing as it was not the focal point of the discussion (yes auto install of plugins is dangerous, I thought it was obvious that I was alluding to that). As for user friendliness of MS Windows vs Linux, well in media training they tell you to admit the obvious (if your company obviously screwed something up, don't try and deny it as it will only hurt your credibility). The obvious as it comes to user friendliness is MS Windows is more user friendly than Linux (for the masses - remember we are talking about the masses who've grown up on Windows). And yes there are bad programmers in Windows. But there are also good ones (same applies to Linux and all other environments). We are really straying from the original topic with that discussion. As was suggested by some, live distros Leon. Good way to see which environment they prefer and which one is the most intuitive to them. Personally I really like SuSe 10 live environment (but I learned Linux on a course where we used RH9 so I stuck with FC - comfort zone, it's all about comfort zone - but I know I'll be eventually dual booting to SuSe and other distros as well). I know there are efforts to have FC as a live environment. But not sure how polished it is yet. Thanks, Jacques B.
