| Matthew Rosewarne on 17 Dec 2007 14:33:14 -0800 |
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On Monday 17 December 2007, Gabriel Sean Farrell wrote: > If you're going with Debian, set her up on the current stable (that > would be "etch" at the moment). Keep it updated to security. When > Lenny reaches stable you can handle the dist-upgrade. Use a nice graphical updater (such as the one that is part of Adept) to take care of the security updates. > I'd go with Gnome on the desktop. DVDs should show up on the desktop > when put in the slot. Same for plugged-in USB sticks and peripherals. > Set up Flash for Iceweasel, of course, and you might want to point apt > at debian-multimedia to pick up codecs and such for WMVs, etc. If you > have the time to let her use it a bit and set things up in a way that > makes sense to her, that's best. If you're going for a cheaper machine, I would instead go with KDE, since it has lower resource requirements than GNOME. It is also more familiar to someone who was previously a Windows user, so there should be less of a "culture shock". You can either download the kde version of the installer CD, or run "install tasks=kde-desktop,laptop" at the boot prompt. While it would be even better on the machine to avoid Iceweasel/Firefox (it's *huge*), current versions of Konqueror still have some problems with sites that use JavaScript heavily. You could either check to see if her sites load up in Konq, or use Iceweasel. From debian-multimedia, you should install at least: lame (in case some app needs it to make mp3s) libdvdcss2 (If she has a DVD player) w32codecs (always) I usually install "mplayer-nogui" and its suggestions, even if just to pull in the various naughty non-free things. For office tasks, openoffice.org should be adequate unless she uses it very heavily. It's enormous and glacially slow, but there's nothing else that really does the job at this point. If MS Office is an absolute necessity, I would recommend Crossover (codeweavers.com), which works very well. > I'd go for option 1 and get a used Thinkpad off ebay. Something around > $300 ought to do all that's needed. Here's a good example: > http://ln-s.net/1J$X. I'd be careful about that personally. I'd much rather go for a refurbished/outdated machine from a reputable vendor if you want a cheap laptop. Other than that, I would recommend at least the following packages: adept (Easy to use software manager/updater) gtk-qt-engine (Makes GTK apps look less out of place) kpowersave (For laptops) ksynaptics (For laptops with touchpads) kdegames (Windows users NEED their solitaire fix) The initial setup of a Debian desktop is something of a chore, but the results are generally fantastic. I've helped a user run a similar setup for quite some time, and it has worked out very well. %!PS: If you want help setting this thing up, you can find me on the PLUG IRC channel. I'd be happy to walk you through a few things. Attachment:
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