🚀 go-pugleaf

Robi,

I'd most like to see a balanced article that addresses both the
advantages and disadvantages of Linux.  Writing an inaccurate,
overly-pro Linux article would hurt everyone involved: you, the
magazine, any newbies that get burnt, and of course Linux itself.

From a home user's perspective, Linux comes with a much greater
range of usable software, so you that when you've finally bought
your new computer, it can do something - you don't need to rush
out and  buy another $1000 worth of software.  If you're on a
budget (and who isn't), it might be enough.  If you're not, some
commercial packages are starting to become available, although
they are still fairly rare at the moment.

The major problem with Linux at home is getting it installed, and
having someone to talk to regarding the inevitable problems that
will occur.  With Windows, the computer supplier will perform these
roles for you.  However, few suppliers can/will do that for Linux yet.
The alternative is the various user groups.  However, you would still
want to be fairly confident technically.  (Not that it's hard - I
just upgraded my system by installing Redhat 4.1 from scratch.  Except
for a small hiccup due to my dated hardware, it was a breeze.)

If you haven't got used to the DOS / Microsoft Windows, then *using*
Linux + X Windows isn't technically hard, despite all claims otherwise.
My 5.7 year old can login, start X manually, and start and use a few
simple applications (Xpaint, The Gimp, Lyx, a number of simple X games),
and logout.

Performing system administration and command line work is naturally
much more difficult, but this is a matter of gradually learning and
becoming more confident.  The DOS / Microsoft Windows world is just
as hard.  A popular Australian personal computer magazine, similar to
the one you described, recently ran some "Workshop" articles on
installing Win95 OSR2, and that certainly looked pretty daunting. 
Anyone capable of doing that would also be able to learn to administer
Linux.

My wife and I both use Linux at home extensively: for browsing the net,
for writing technical documents (in Latex), for programming (mostly in
C), and for running extensive numerical computations.  All the software
above is free.  We still have Window 3.1 installed because we need to
use a major statistical package, and to my knowledge none of these have
been released for Linux yet.  We will switch to the first of these
released for Linux.  Then we will have no further need for Windows 3.1.

If the magazine you're writing the article for has a free cover CD, I'd
like to see some space devoted to recent releases/upgrades to the Linux
software.  For example, at the time of writing a new version of XFree86
has just been released.

Best wishes,

Bradley Broom,				 http://www.fit.qut.edu.au/~broom/
School of Data Communications,           Email: broom@fit.qut.edu.au
Queensland University of Technology,     Bus. : +61 7 3864 2769
GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, 4001, Australia. Fax  : +61 7 3221 2384