Newbie questions (was hijacked thread!)

[Jim Cornette]

Bill and Jan Klemme wrote:

> OK, right....here I go at the bottom!  Thanks for the courteous 
> responses and hints. I notice that I am responding to the last poster as 
> well as the entire group, which means that poster will get double.  Any 
> way of avoiding that?  I did not "reply all".

Most of the time the emails just go out to the list. If the sender sets 
the reply to in his email client, it would go to both. (pretty sure why, 
but not positive.)

> It sounds like I may want to go with that "ubuntu" as someone suggested? 
> I love the bits and bytes stuff, but I just do not have the time now to 
> get into that.  I want a replacement for Windows, but want to be able to 
> run my Windows apps (like Quicken and Photoshop, etc). I am tired of 
> firewalls and virus programs and having to buy new ones every year that 
> haven't been debugged yet.

There are financial management programs in Linux which might suffice. 
One can import quicken files. The last time that I used the program it 
was fairly easy to use. I forgot the name of the program but it is in 
the repositories where you could download it and try it out. The add 
remove programs interface may have it categorized by purpose.

Regarding photos, GNU Image manipulation program is a highly capable and 
versatile photo manipulation program and also gave birth to the GNOME 
desktop graphics to an extent. It is worth checking out. It may impress 
you more than photoshop and is free. Though project donations are most 
likely welcome.

> 
> I was led to understand that some version of Linux would be much less 
> vulnerable to hacking and viruses so thought I'd go that route with 
> Fedora.  I would like an OS that would be able to run Windows 
> underneath, but would be very user-friendly...maybe even look like 
> Windows. (My wife uses the computer sometimes too. I don't want to have 
> a lot of explaining to do.) Is a Mac a good solution, albeit an 
> expensive one?

I find the desktop manager most like Windows is KDE. It is pretty 
strongly used. GNOME is the default which I use on most occasions. You 
can have both installed and users can choose whichever version they 
like. There are also many other versions like XFCE, the list goes on for 
light duty to heavily loaded goodies desktop managers.

I don't find a need to know a lot of in depth with current Linux 
installations since most factors just seem to work without heavy 
configuration. I've use Linux since Redhat 5.1 (Late 90s) on a regular 
basis so I might just be used to configuration without a second thought.

There are live CD versions which you can demo without having to install 
them to disk. You could try different distribution versions to see what 
is most to your needs.

Welcome away from the virus kingdom.

Jim

> 
> Again, thanks for the invitation to jump in.
> Regards,
> Bill K
> 


-- 
The cost of living has just gone up another dollar a quart.
		-- W.C. Fields