Again, I don't feel that you've read my post.

1) Download ISO.
2) Burn ISO.
3) Reboot.
4) Use easy and familiar GUI environment.

This is a cakewalk! Step 4 depends on the liveCD you choose, of course - one must use one like, say, PCLinuxOS which uses descriptive names for application launchers! Like "file manager" instead of "dolphin" or "konqueror".

One of many side jobs I've had, long ago, was providing on-site tech support to windows users in their homes. I always brought a LiveCD if only to quickly and unambiguously discriminate between hardware and software issues.

Some people thought that PCLinuxOS was MS windows! When they saw their computer working, they wanted to get time critical tasks done (I really have to mail in my homework before 5pm today...) under linux first, before fixing their machine.

These were some seriously computer-incompetent people, and no one ever had any trouble finding and using the webbrowser, with no help from me.




Exactly, and thereby resulting in a working computer. This is a very reasonable and easy way to fix ones computer. You are correct that if if if a person depends on some specific software, or has a strong prefernce or investment in windows, then in those limited cases it is by no means a 'good solution'.




See, there you go again. In real life, if a person was previously a car instead of bicycle, there are probably many good reasons that they would want to continue doing so (distance to work, quantities of groceries purchased, etc). Do you assume this applies to windows and linux???

Of course there are gamers and other demographics that would prefer windows, period. Many of my customers only used a web browser and a media player. That was all they every did on the computer. Other would occasionally get some pictures off a digital camera or type a letter. All super-easy to do with most linux-based OSes.






For many, that is "look to the lower left. Click there for a menu. Find the web browser".

You are right, for a certain demographic. Those that have the most to 'lose' though, are often the ones who are the most interested in learning (hence the existing knowledge base).

This is very different in business vs personal settings, as those in business are forced to learn things they would not otherwise care to learn.



Wow. Just....wow. Have you ever, personally used the Linux EEE PC? I handed on to an 80yo woman who had never used a computer, and was afraid of them. She loved it. She had no trouble navigating the interface.

How about moblin? have you ever used that?

Why are you propagating all these myths and lies?





Both cars and bicycles have there uses, much like both windows and linux have there uses.


You really didn't answer that question.

I disagree with you massage guy. Linux is great as a server and not for the average computer user.

Someone might say, all I use a computer for is internet and email, so you recommend that they install Linux. The problem comes when they buy a new printer or iphone, video game, some software program, etc, etc, & expect it to work. Well they find there's no printer driver for Linux, their iPhone, game & program won't work. While there may be ways to workaround some of these issues, it's just not gonna fly with the average user.

Linux is for servers and uber nerds IMHO

That argument doesn't hold water anymore - maybe 5+ years ago.
All of my printers are supported, right out of the box ... AAMOF,
all my printers have been successfully "auto-detected" (I primarily
use SuSE Linux). I can even access multimedia files on my iPhone.

That whole, "Linux [distros] are not for desktop use" is ludicrous.
Look at all the number of large corporations using it on the
desktop. (for example Novel's SuSE Enterprise Desktop or
Red Hat Enterprise Desktop).

Try this as a comparison - go out and buy a copy of Windows.
Install it on your PC - good luck having it detect all your
hardware successfully. I'm not talking about a pre-loaded
Windows machine. The story I hear from folks in this situation
is that Windows needs to go out on the Internet to find the
drivers ... and what usually happens is that the driver for the
network card is unavailable (on the install DVD/CDs), so the
user is tasked with having to find the driver while at work or
at a friend's house, burn it to CD, then bring it back home.

Every distro I have tried in the last couple of years (and I try
many popular distros) has been able to auto-detect all my
hardware and install the drivers appropriately, out of the box.
(And my desktop machines are all hand-built using individual
component hardware. My laptops are all usable with Linux).

I have personally met and spoke with a couple hundred
"average Joe's / Joan's" who are successfully using a Linux
distro at home on a desktop or laptop ... even my 3 kids
(14-18) all use SuSE Linux on their laptops (very current,
modern laptops) - they are using Linux by choice, not by
my suggestion. Non of these people are "geeks" by any
stretch of the imagination. (I've written a Linux book and
am interviewing people for an new, upcoming book).

I will agree if you're a hardcore game player, and you want
to run a broad spectrum of games to play, Windows will
be the better choice - actually, a dedicated game console
would be better.

That might be true now, but the way linux advances with drivers and ease-of use by every release, it's only a question of time when it's really going to give the micro$oft empire a run for its money.

I was very impressed the improvement of the Ubuntu and ..and pretty much all other major Linux distributions just over one year.

The current Ubuntu 9.10 is really close to be a very idiot-proof system. Only if the companies would start providing driver support, Micro$oft would sink faster than the Titanic.

I also like how one community (IBM PC) is pretty much baby-sitted by everyone, but also undermined and pick-pocketted by corporations raping them for tiny little programs to pay for, while an entirely different community (Linux and somewhat OSX- which is based on Linux) is enjoying much more freedom and free-to-use freeware. This picture on my profile was taken by a webcam (3 years old) through linux, using an alternative webcam software, compatible to about 40 different webcams and took me about 1 minute to find it and install it, by simply typing in "webcam" into the "software center" of Ubuntu. It also offered me another 3, so i picked the one I liked to most. I also added special effects to make me look a lot more evil than I am.

Hawaii,

Before you can reasonably disagree with me, you have to understand what I said.

Can you specify some claim which I made, which you disagree with?

Mainly that the cure-all solution the the OP's freezing computer is to install another operating system.

While I'm not a Micro$oft fanboy and have tried different flavors of Linux myself, the majority of the time I'd recommend the average computer user to use Windows. Why, because everything is made for it and it is what software and hardware makers support.

This topic has gone a completely different direction from the OP who seems to have disappeared. Like I stated before, this freezing issue he's having could be for a thousand different reasons. There's probably a hundred unneeded programs running on startup, not enough ram memory, and/or a failing hard drive. Linux won't fix the issue if it's a hardware problem.

I thought that you didn't disagree with any specific claim. Good luck with your impressions.