I should hope not... but there are distros you could do that with ... especially if the MIL is a complete newbie ... not having to unlearn bad habits.

To be honest, I didn't think the slack install would really be friendly enough for an older person who can just barely understand double-clicking. (edit: that is that I wouldn't be able to learn enough to configure it that way in a reasonable period of time) The thought was that she wouldn't be able to get it adwared/spwared up as she did have it. They (the professor I work for and his wife) will probably buy a newish system with XP Home or Media Center.

The OS that was on that machine (an 800MHz celeron) was hopelessly locked (win2k stuck on login w/neither password nor install CD) so I figured there was nothing to lose.

In looking at the various distros Slackware looked to be a good one to learn on. I 'm very impressed with the body of work that's out here.

I'm enjoying it so far!

(Back in the day I enjoyed my C64..then Amiga...then my first 486, so I'm comfortable working in the command line environment. (The Pascal and C classes I took using UNIX didn't hurt, either, though I certainly didn't do enough work to still be conversant.))

One of my personal goals around Linux is to be able to ditch Access for MySQL.

Since you don't quote anyone, it's hard to know what you are referring to.
I have read every post in this thread and found NO-ONE insulted at any time.
Savoir-Vivre is french for etiquette. Hard to see how that has ANY relevance whatever.....

Other that that...great post

Hi,

I have not had to ask questions about getting linux working in forums or newsgroups. I searched newsgroups endlessly and found hundreds and hundreds of snobbish RTFM answers to the same questions I needed answered. Instead of finding links or helpful explainations I had to back up and read some other posts until I found civil answers. Those increased my own frustration and made my searches eat up that much more time. I would rather see quetions completely ignored than to have google add thousands more of those kind of replies.

Bill Cromwell

Well I for one am extremely interested in insulting people in general, just not here.

Are there pictures?

@cynedyr It's fairly complicated process. See my Tutorial

It's ironic to see people grumbling about this kind of thread, because in reality, there's no insult hidden in any of this. It's an observation on people and their attitudes: nothing more or less. There's nothing elitist about it. And no specific individual has been targetted either.

It's the same case all over again: "If you feel offended by this, probably you're guilty of being one."

To tell the truth, most of us here always tend to respect a positive attitude, newbie or expert, and if your attitude is poor, you tend to "feel" insulted rather than actively get insulted. I suggest that many of the people who've posted in this thread look at themselves first and ask themselves where they're going wrong with their attitudes. Some people always see the negative side in everything.

I think that we all have a system to judge newcomers to this forum, like it or not. I don't see anything wrong when somebody talks about this. Maybe it's not the politically correct thing to do, but then, that's what happens even otherwise.

On a general note, you cannot stop human beings from being human beings and judging others...

Your attitude is not only insulting but also questionable and hostile,and it causes suspicion for whom you are working for...Somebody who is Linux-friendly does not speak so about the beginners of learning a Linux-system.

I believe it was a fun post. I don't believe the OP intended any offence. Why are people taking such offence? In real life you'd probably laugh when a friend cracks a bad joke.

Why cannot people on these forums learn to relax and not take life so seriously? These issues aren't worth getting worked up about.

To be very frank, I've observed that it's only at LQ that this attitude prevails. On a lot of other forums I visit, people chill out once in a while and accept light-hearted stuff.

I'm sorry to see your negative reaction. Further, I find it quite rude on your part not to quote what you are referring to, and--further--to not reply to my previous response to your criticism. I would take this to private e-mail but you have not offered your address. Mine is available, and I encourage you to use it for further comments of this nature.

I find that most people around here have a sense of humor and tolerate quite a bit of levity. There are, of course, always the sourpusses...
What has happened here is that few people mistook a commentary on human behavior as criticism. Happens all the time.

Thanks! I already have your tutorial bookmarked!

I'm just happy to see that there is a way to do it.

Let's add this funny story to the list:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/24/tuttle_centos/

Specially to PIXELLANY and the other so called ELITE
Boy am I glad you are there .Our community also very much needs its elite
The Elite are those who REALLY know the inner depths of Linux else when I grow in knowledge and the questions become more Elite who the hell will there be to help me .
I recently had a try at helping newbies and it is a very time consumming thing specially as I decided that the correct way was to go into carefully worded detail even if it meant a ten page reply
I think the Elite of Linux must be proud to be the Elite and monitor the Newbie channel but otherwise desist from posting untill you see that us lesser people are going wrong or when you see that a poor newbie has waited two days and not one post in reply to help him
Stay Elite guys and even show that you are a bit elitist we need it also
But let us lesser people try to look after the newbies just watch that we dont give partly incorrect help as I did --When I do that its time for yu to come on line and put me and the person I am tryig to help back on right track

As to Linux not being windows -- Well my greatest wish is that in the future
Linux will be the System of choice for everyone .I dont want to see one newbie give up and go back to windows.

The great thing is that even though Linux is a free operating system I have discovered some amazing things happening with people in johannesburg actually making a good living from Linux and its applications.
A commercialised Linux and a free Linux side by side its great and it leads one way MORE and MORE Linux users

regards
llewellyn

Just as a small note:

Nobody is elite in this community. People use this word in as a way to target experienced Linux users for criticism and to discredit Linux...

I hope that other words can be used to describe experienced Linux users. Elitism is an inherently negative word.