Austin Murphy on 16 Jul 2007 20:54:06 -0000


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: [PLUG] [slightly OT] (Mac OS X) Is it me or can't you do this with Linux?

  • From: "Austin Murphy" <austin.murphy@gmail.com>
  • To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
  • Subject: Re: [PLUG] [slightly OT] (Mac OS X) Is it me or can't you do this with Linux?
  • Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:53:58 -0400
  • Dkim-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=cUq8GykEX5bbMkIVMDqi4gTNECgPHGy98iAllYuWp+KK8QLC7MyNQo/4OyEZDcCBigF/yn+uVmIry+sYs9VpllJo03buKAiOXFCZAZfqwplXsg0P1gh8JB+CwInM+6C18z0KrCdfmyzpoObftpdBDWrvfFpCeL8eEHyWCFcwLtM=
  • Reply-to: Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
  • Sender: plug-bounces@lists.phillylinux.org
On 7/16/07, Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net> wrote: 
From: Austin Murphy <austin.murphy@gmail.com>
On 7/9/07, Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net> wrote:
 > And, what suggestions for a Linux desktop distro that minimizes the shock to
> reluctant converts from windows?

Check out "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop."
http://www.redhat.com/rhel/desktop/details/

Red Hat makes a nice polished product that has a good chance of
satisfying Windows users.   I'm not especially thrilled with RHEL in
general, but it has one thing that most other linux distros don't:
name brand tech support.
------------------------

I was actually thinking of trying CentOS, the "community version". So what makes it a good choice, the "enterprise" administration features, or the availability of support? 


It's primarily the support.

There are little GUIs for configuring things like the network settings
or printer settings, but those are pretty common now.

Overall RHEL is pretty dull, but that is kind of the point.  They
don't spend a lot of time making it fun.  They spend time making it
look like it is a unified product meant for getting work done.  This
isn't something that gets the enthusiast crowd excited.

Canonical has a similar support structure for Ubuntu:
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid
I've never used Canonical's support, so I can't say if it is worth it.

The bottom line is:  If your business depends on software that your IT
people don't understand, you need support.  You can get support by
hiring a Linux Admin or by giving your existing support people someone
to call.

Trying out CentOS before you buy RHEL is not a bad idea.  I think
CentOS is more for people who need compatibility with third party
software and want to save some money by ditching RedHat support.
Fedora would be more appropriate for the Do It Yourself-er.

Austin
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug