RH/Fedora provides a set of GUI configuration tools that let you tweak your configuration parameters without terminal/CLI access. From my limited experience, SuSE provides a similar feature. As for Ubuntu/Kubuntu, I'd be darned if they didn't.

^ now without gui visible anywhere how?vesa may be ur answer.but many times the N00b's will get panicked by the black screen with login prompt just for the same reason.Let the users learn atleast 10+ commands essentially needed(ls,mv.cp,rm,cat,tac and more) atleast the bash serves here good with bash_completion option,u dont need to remember every commands and TAB completion etc gaves u excellent support.
Also I feel it is a must for N00b's to know some CLI commands as via this kind of forums how can we help them from their problems?esp GFX one.

daihard:

Yes, Ubuntu has a full suite of config GUIs.

deepclutch:

I know from message boards and chatrooms that there are a lot of people who hate Windows, but when the terminal is mentioned, then Linux is no longer an option. They don't care about Linux tradition; they just want their point-&-click desktop to work. And with today's Linux distros, it does.

As far as helping someone through the terminal, you still can. They don't really need to know or understand the commands you provide beyond their desired level of knowledge; they only need to enter them and let them work.

Cheers

^hmm seems the problem as per ur reply Windows Users are spoonfed by M$.they are too *weak* to face the real world challenges )

A good and pretty fair article that from IOL.

It could have mentioned that Linux now do have a high end fancy desktop in Beryl and Compiz, and it needs a lot less from the hardware then Vista needs.

On the problem side, I think the biggest problem is hardware support. It doesn't take much before a new user gets into trouble trying to get a slightly none-standard component to work. There are for the most part help available from places like LQ, but still.

For a business that is trying to decide between Vista or Linux, this is not a problem since they are likely to have a relatively standard hardware portifolio and certainly very few exotic video cards etc.

I recon more business people will shortly be following Mr Mike S Dell and installing Linux on their laptops

Using personal computers does not have to be "real world challenges."

For most people, the computer is a tool that helps make their life easier. If they feel that Windows does the job and is worth paying money for, it's their choice and I have no problem with that. For those who don't, there are alternatives. Linux is one of them.

It may not be fair if they expect Linux to work exactly like Windows right out of the box. They are not the same, after all. However, a lot of people only know Windows. If they switch to another OS, they want to be able to do so with ease.

IMO, latest desktop offerings such as GNOME and KDE are designed to do exactly that; making it easier for the Windows users to move to Linux.

Nothing that results in an 8 day downward tear in stock prices for its parent company can be that good.

hmm..many are pessimistic about the approach of GNOME though(I-die hard GNOME user btwn).but Kde sure helps win users moving to Linux by the very similar menu and in other features eye candy.
GNOME tends to be too simple.do GNOME meant to be used by geeks?there are more than a couple of popular wm's that can help making it complex for a newbie Linux/Unix user/windows to Lin Mover.but can be there for geeks.
the HIG of GNOME fails.its user base is reducing day-by-day.although ppl like me and many others likes and prefers GTK2 over qt.
Hello GNOME devels does it helps u killing all negative replies?

Funny you should say that. The conventional wisdom is that GNOME is designed for the average user who doesn't want to tweak the reasonably-configured default settings. KDE, on the other hand, provides more flexible custommizability, which us "geeks" appreciate but not John Doe.

BTW, as you can see from my signature, I am a KDE user.

gnome is good cairo excels
theres few outthere (perhaps macos) that is able to draw wigets??/ windows?? like that!!!
most PC users i know do not know what a partition is and they dont care!!!
they show the cash it works they are satisfied!!
the linux installer demands too much technical information to be usable by an average user
some out there has never seen a command line
my dad bought my first pc in 1994 or so it was a 486 with msdos 6 the only command line he ever typed on dos was "win"

Sure.I use GNOME only.but still i feel my original reply needs to be heard by GNOME devels.
But may be the future will be good for XFCE,if GNOME grows this damn fast downwards in popularity(Human Interface Guidelines!!!)

Why is it always assumed that Windows users have no experience using a CLI?

because most things in windows is found in control panel when i was on windows i never find any need for cli the os did every thing for me even networking on my network if it didn't find any solution it contacted ms for solutions
in linux cli seems to be at the heart of the os with enhance capabilties which will never (i'm sure of it) see their days on a windows systems

lol

You remind me of my days with windows- downloading drivers that weren't included with the OS, editing the device manager to manually install devices that windows couldn't detect, editing the registry to disable malware so it could be removed or to correct a problem caused by a faulty patch or help alleviate the threat from a vul that still hadn't been patched, and let's not forget the persistant crashes, fatal errors, and all the anti-malware slowing the system to a crawl.

If Windows works better for you then by all means use Windows. But it has never been a "get-in-and-drive" OS for me. Linux is.

Cheers

lol
it never worked out for me too don't worry but doing all the things you mention for an os that was paid for didn't seems to be worth it
i really never learnt much from my windows experience than i have with linux
anyway what i wanted to say is that with windows i never use my scripting skills C C++ knowledge to fix problems
the cli in windows has no virtual consoles or pipeline or advance tools like vi so even if you were proficient with the dos command line no way are you prepare for a linux shell