(OT) Which flavour of Linux?

[The Natural Philosopher]

the position of any sane man..

I just wanted to use the joke.

Better still.

[Graeme]

Thanks Adrian. Similar ordered Thursday evening, posted Friday, arrived Saturday. All for less than a fiver.

[Graeme]

Excellent, thank you. I will certainly try Mint, as recommended by Another Dave.

OK. The machine we're using already has XP installed, and we're running Ubuntu from the CD. Next step is to partition the hard drive, using Gparted, but that is new territory. However, should things go wrong, loss of the XP installation will not matter too much, as there is no data there.

That, sadly, is what we're lacking. We live in a village, and I'm sure there must be someone here using Linux, but I have not found him yet.

TBH, I'm still not entirely sure WHY we want to play with Linux, or what the advantages are - which will probably open the floodgates :-)

Yes, it is running, and we can access the web, and doubtless do other things, but, apart from the often discussed security implications, why would we use Linux?

[The Natural Philosopher]

speed, cost, security and a deep seated hatred of Microsoft :-)

[Graeme]

Indeed. I'm not sure that he knows. This post is in danger of wandering off on a tangent. Son is addicted to his PC and Xbox, and spends hours fiddling, watching tuition type films on YouTube, experimenting, and generally poking around, but without any real sense of purpose. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as he is learning all the time. I suspect that he has come across references to Ubuntu, and just wants to know more. Again, I see that as good.

Probably the latter.

OK. Going back a step, his only interest seems to be software based. I'm not sure that he would even know how to connect the usual plugs to the back of a PC. He has certainly not looked inside one, and I have not encouraged him to - I don't want him accidentally touching the wrong parts, but perhaps I'm over cautious.

I wonder whether starting with DOS is a good idea. My first real exposure to PCs was an ancient Apricot, running their version of DOS

1.something, from memory. I learned a lot, just playing with it, and writing simple batch files. I still have a 386 somewhere, with DOS 3.3 and W3.1 installed, and should perhaps encourage him to play with that.

[Graeme]

[Graeme]

In message , T i m writes

My philosophy in a nutshell :-)

[Alan J. Wylie]

This is uk.d-i-y remember.

Why would we want to take an alarm clock to pieces? Why would we want to run a 1972 Land-Rover? Why would we have a set of security Torx screwdrivers in the toolkit? Why do we have boxes of springs in the shed that "might come in useful one day"? Why do we read Axminster/MachineMart catalogues cover to cover?

MS (and to a greater extent Apple) has a "Big Brother knows best, now don't worry your pretty little head about it" attitude.

Linux is more "here's a big bag of bits. Have fun. If you break it you get to keep all the pieces".

For an inquisitive 9 year old, many components of a Linux distribution might be a bit too complicated, but if you want to poke around in the innards there is nothing to stop you.

You get all the tools free - compilers, interpreters. Back on the languages thread, have a look at KTurtle - based on Logo.

There are plenty of people around willing to help, too. Have a look on

to see if there is a group near you.

[Bob Eager]

It doesn't have much wrong with it, I just need to get the time...it's an

11/23.

[Bernard Peek]

Probably. All of the high-voltage circuitry is in the power-supply which is a sealed unit inside the case. Poking around with a screwdriver might wreck the power supply or the motherboard and create a few sparks but won't hurt him. PC power supplies can deliver up to 50A but at no more than 12v.

No, DOS is too limited and too reliant on the CLI.

[T i m]

May I suggest the next step is actually running Ubuntu within Windows.

Windows-based Ubuntu Installer: If you put the CD in whilst in Windows you get a menu pop up (wubi.exe on the CD) and the second option is to 'Install Inside Windows".

This has several advantages.

You create some space on the std Windows drive so you don't have to play with partitions (assuming you have some space etc).

You can uninstall Ubuntu with Add / Remove.

You don't have to muck about with Linux boot loaders (that can get a bit tricky). You just get a typical Windows multi boot menu that you can play with (set default OS and timeouts etc) in Windows.

AFAIK in use it looks and works like std Ubuntu (I'm not sure if it fully but don't know).

Just though it might be worth a mention / reminder. ;-)

Cheers, T i m