Pre-built linux systems

[NicNac]

I know a few bigger companies are starting to offer these machines I'm not aware of how much the sell for. To me personally I think they are a great idea, If priced right they could be a great way for someone without huge masses of cash to get onto the internet, use for writing documents etc I guess what I'm getting at is would you recomend to someone who is new to computing and at what price would they need to be so that it makes sense to pick one of these linux machines as apposed to a modern computer running whatever operating systen microsoft has out.

 

[NicNac]

yeah I know what you mean about new people to linux, I guess once you have used it for a while its hard to understand why people find it so difficult. I suppose though if you made the desktop or wm easy enough to use/understand it would make life easier. you could however access the system remotely via ssh or whatever and possibly sort out any problems. I suppose if you had the cash you could make it work

 

[NicNac]

Why wouldn't Linux be ideal for a complete stranger to computers? I actually think it's easier for a complete newbie who has never used windows or linux to start with say ubuntu or mandriva. It comes with everything you need preinstalled and you don't have to search the web for programs (.exe files). The thing is just that so many people are used to working with windows and the transistion might take some time...

It depends on what you are using the computer for though I would imagine.

 

[NicNac]

Nice post I agree with most of it. linux to the masses we want that it gets us drivers for stuff and a bit more support because even though lately linux and most things you buy just work out of the box it never used to be that way. I think that let the clueless people have a very basic setup, something that stops them doing too much damage. but as long as there are distros like gentoo for example then we are safe

 

[NicNac]

The eeepc (I own the one of the 700's) when you first switch it on it gives you a very basic gui all nice big icons but when you add some repo's and install a package it gives you a full blown kde desktop.

Maybe something like that would work?

 

[NicNac]

snip..

what do you use that system for? seems a tad overkill to me. Unless your using it for something other than linux

I'm still using athlon xp's/pentium 4's I even have a dual pentium 3 system waiting to be worked on. Thats me though to be honest I like taking systems people think are useless and giving them a use