Microsoft already realized that, which is what started their ridiculous "Get the Facts" smear campaign.

That's not what I said. I said the distribution you're talking about is Linspire, and it already exists. Mepis is a close second, and Ubuntu is a close third. Mandriva and Xandros are also good contenders. Not all distros are "geek" distros. In fact, most are designed to ease the transition from Windows. Only a handful a true "geek" distros (LFS, Slackware, Gentoo, Debian), and even a couple of those are supposed to be easy if you just follow the documentation.

Yeah, a lot of us do, but that won't be accomplished by creating yet another distro. First of all, there is some hardware that Linux cannot support because the driver info isn't released by the manufacturer. Secondly--and this is has been pointed out many times before in other threads--most Windows users never install Windows. People "choose" Windows for the same reason they "choose" Internet Explorer; it's just there when they buy the computers. You have to make a conscious effort to download Firefox (a relatively easy thing to do) and an even more conscious effort to download and install Linux (which is difficult, even if it is easy).

No company would ever create a webpage like this unless it felt Linux was serious competition.

Yes, we agree about the problem. We just differ on the solution.

I've gotten my mom to use Slackware. All she uses is OpenOffice.org and Firefox. That is what most users use. They can usually work on Linux if they don't have to configure it. They don't even have to learn about mounting.

So, why don't we all discuss our asses off, and get to a single conclusion for a great idea to make, so that we van get some serious fire under Microsoft and so on..

If you are in, we could spread the "news" to the world together.. what do you say :-D ??

Kay.. I use debian now and it works fine, but am also learning gentoo at the moment.. so linux is no problem for ME at all, I just want a single system which can it all to get Microsoft run away with their tales between their legs.. and that stuff.. :-)

I am saying that it is already here, in many forms. It is called Linspire, Mepis and Ubuntu. It is really quite easy (for me) to configure a distro like Slackware to do what a person wants it to do.

If it were that easy, Linux would already dominate the home/business desktop market. Don't you think Novell and Red Hat employees and marketing reps already spend many hours and thousands of dollars doing research and brainstorming to get Linux there?

All I'm saying is what the solution is not--another "perfect" distro. The distros are out there.
The problem is how we get people to adopt them. And that's no easy task.

Then we must do something.. It doesn't come itself.. and we could help redhat or Novell to do it.. in some ways

I have a question for you, terfy. What, exactly, is the cause of your desire to overhaul the world? I'm not exactly a fan of MicroSoft either (see my rant here), I don't feel the need to topple their regime, either. Contrary to popular belief, M$ is NOT actually evil, it's just a large corporation, and therefore acts like a large corporation. Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to defend M$, I'm just curious as to why you feel the need to try to hasten their departure. Something tells me you're not just another BSOD refugee.

IMHO, and at the risk of being sacrilegious, a person's transition to Linux follows similar lines to a person's acceptance of Jesus (for you non-Christians out there, I humbly beg your indulgence). I don't mean that it's a religious experience, although for some it seems to be, but rather more along the lines of the more you try to force Linux on someone, the harder they'll resist it, but if you just let them know it's there and can solve many of their problems, they'll try it when they're ready, and the next thing you know they're singing "hallelujah" in the church choir!
You see, Linux, BECAUSE of all its varied forms and distributions, has the capacity to become everything to everybody without adding bloat and sucking up ever more resources, because anyone who wants to can customize a distribution to meet their individual needs, whereas Windows, which is firmly defined by Microsoft and NOT the individual user, can only TRY to do so by adding more and more code in a vain attempt to anticipate every possible need their software may encounter, which results in slow, crufty software!
Linux has made INCREDIBLE inroads into M$'s market share already, witnessed by my comments here, and as I've already said several times, the only thing we, as Linux promoters, really need do is sit back and watch our market share grow bit by bit. What you're declaring to be our weakness, this apparent lack of unity behind one almighty uber-distribution, is actually Linux's greatest strength, and is the reason it has not only lasted so long, but has actually thrived. So sit back, relax, and drink a soda. We're on the right path already!

As a fellow Christian, I have to agree. A lot of Christians and a lot of Linux-enthusiasts want to evangelize everyone, and it's done out of genuine good intentions (i.e., this has been so great for me, I have to tell everyone about it!), but those good intentions aren't what those being "converted" see. They see a nutcase who wants to force others to be like her.

I've tried handing out pamphlets to strangers. I've tried "evangelizing" Christianity to my friends. It doesn't work. The only thing I've seen that works is modeling (or being a "good witness") Christianity by showing in your own life that it works. Someone will notice and say, "Hey, why do you seem to have it all together? What do you have that I don't have?" If you don't believe me, ask some non-Christians why they aren't Christians. Sure, you'll get a myriad of reasons, but I suspect a large number of them will say that the "Christians" they know are so screwed up, and a very small number of them will say "No one ever tried to shove Christianity down my throat."

Likewise, in Linux, setting up a dual-boot without someone's permission or saying, "I refuse to solve any of your problems unless you set up Linux right now" isn't going to get people to use Linux (except maybe grudgingly).

People will use Linux because they're curious or because they say, "Hey, your system looks cool. Can I have that?" or "How come you don't have all these spyware problems?" or "How much was that software you showed me? Free?!"

My Perfect Distro:

A killer install that amazes the hell out of me
A awsome package manager that does everything
Very Fast
Must boot to the gui or edit a file to do so.
Uses the latest kernel
Has all the great apts that are up to date.

Why is this sounding like Gentoo? Maybe I should give gentoo another shot.

What about Intuitive User Interface (IUI)? (I am not talking about artificial intelligence)

Symphony OS is trying to reach that goal.
http://www.symphonyos.com/

And if we want almost everything in one live cd and user friendly hard disk installation, I would prefer this newer distro, Slynux, which even has windows partition write support.
http://www.slynux.org/

*bows down*

so true.

just a couple of months (maybe weeks) ago everytime somebody told me he has/uses/likes linux, i was like "wtfn00b, what do you need linux for? mswin has anything you need!" and everyone here have to agree how wrong i was.

ive installed linux on my home pc just a week ago (first ubuntu, then debian) and so far i actually cant complain about anything, what wasnt the case when i was first running mswin just after i had installed it (installing 32165321 drivers, antivirus systems, firewalls and thus making it less and less comfortable to maintain).

as for the "dreamlinux", i guess the stuff mentioned in the original post is kinda subjective. what appeals to you, doesnt have to appeal to someone else. therefore, my dreamlinux would be as customisable as possible, from the installation splashscreen up to the font color alpha value of the KDE date/time panel.
you want a graphical installer? pick the one that suits you at the beginning of the installation.
you want to have an installation progressbar instead of the scrolling list of the stuff currently being installed (or both at the same time?)? mark the appropriate checkbox at the beginning of the installation.
you dont want to customize the installer that way? pick one of the predefined installator templates.

im the type of user who likes to have everything under control, customisable, flexible.. thats probably the reason im gonna pick Gentoo as my next linux choice (even tho the stuff being said about Slackware does appeal to me as well.. but i guess having two linuxes on a regular home/pseudowork pc would be a bit more overwhelming, if not just way too geeky).

that were my 0.02$

Hi, I just been away a couple of days.. I will write more sooner..

With my thread I just wanna see a distro everybody know, so they can think. "wauw, that linux is really so famous, and its free, cool, I'll give it a try instead of my crashing windows."

I'm not saying that it is ME who wants a great linux.. I have it cool with debian enough.. But its for THE PEOPLE.... I wanna make all windows user know somehow, that there are other choices than just MSwin.. And to make linux so "cool" to hear about for the generel people, I think we must make one KIND of an Uber-distro...

I just wanna make linux more VISIBLE in the world.. I wanna make it comes in CNN too..

hope some of you understands me..

DjSHY, welcome to LQ!