Hi.

First the good news!

I have persuaded a fellow teacher here in Indonesia to buy a notebook and go 100% Linux! The cost savings for her are enormous! I have successfully installed Mint Linux. Lords of Kobol willing I will be able to announce a victory soon! Now excuse long post but I am supplying maximum information.

This teacher is NOT computer literate and so will be my proof that Linux is now ready on the average users desktop.

However, I need a couple of software suggestions. Her primary requirements are internet and video download and play for student language learning.

So my questions are:
1) What is a good, low overhead virus checker for Linux (since this notebook will be online)? My netbooks are firmly OFFLINE. Indonesians are also total facebook addicts. Ditto firewall.

2) What is a good, reliable streaming video capture utility? I have found ‘Ant’ under Firefox (in Windows anyway) less than reliable and have to rely upon realplayer. I don’t like it but it works and one reason I have to stick with Windows for the internet – for now. My teacher friends NEEDS to download video material for demo. What is a good browser/video downloader combination for Linux?

3) Also, In Slackware I can compress or decompress using the CLI. This teacher needs everything to be GUI. What are good GUI compression utilities? (They may already be there under Mint, to be fair but I am flat out right now. We have to buy the laptop with one hour to make a decision - such are our schedules. So I have not had chance to look over Mint fully yet but I have to get this notebook to the teacher soon.)

Everything else I think I can cover.

Please note: I am going with Mint Linux KDE edition after careful research into distros (thank you ‘Distrowatch’ and ‘Blogspot’) So I want Mint Linux to be made to work for this teacher rather than swapping and changing the distro because XYZ distro is “better for beginner/non-techies.” However, I do NOT mind people recommending other good, easy to use distros because I like opinion and sharing and I would like options if Mint really does fail. But I have gone with Mint after careful consideration and so, while I invite alternative recommendations for non-techie users for reference, please help me make Mint work for this user.

The notebook spec is: An ASUS Celeron 877 dual core, 2GB RAM, 500GB HD (which I have partioned into OS drive, data drive and swap space) and basic Intel graphics chipset. Nothing special but we were on a tight budget and the 500GB HD is BIG for Indonesia. Also hard disk are REALLY expensive here – the most expensive component in a computer. Flash disks are dead cheap though. It does come with slimline DVD R/W and a nice, free carrying bag.

If I can really make this Linux fly for this teacher I have other teachers watching who may convert! Linux in Indonesia would open up computing to people who simply cannot afford Windows software.

Many thanks in advance. I will be offline for the next couple of days so will pick up recommendations when I can. As I say, do suggest distros if you like but let’s keep it cordial and make Mint work first. Sorry about the long post but I hope I have made everything clear especially as I will be on the move for a bit. I hope to set this machine up fully on Monday.

While Linux is not imprevious to malware I seriously doubt 99% of Linux users need a virus checker. If you do use one it can quite easily throw false positives and make your friend believe she has a virus when she does not.

I use Download Helper and DownThemAll for videos and anything else I can get actually. If one does not work the other always pics up for videos at least.

Hmmmm, not sure I can answer that. My compression utility is built into my right click menu so I am not actually sure what it is.

For KDE it's Ark.
http://utils.kde.org/projects/ark
jdk

Thank you very much gentleman. I have had chance to look at Mint now and Ark is present. Other things are not. Just got to get onto the wireless network at work now and then download.

Many thanks indeed.

No virus checker? Linux is THAT safe?
That will sell Linux to a lot of people.

BTW, I demo'd Slackware 14 to my wife's cousins yesterday. Result: A queue of people now shoving their netbooks into my hands to put Mint Linux on them. I had to bat them down!
"I've got two teachers with no working laptops at all guys! They take priority! I'll get to you!"

Methinks I'll have a victory post soon.
Thanks again.

Actually, if you are going to host MSWin files on this or or pass them through this, you should look for a tool eg CLAM-AV, which is an anti-virus tool that runs on Linux, which checks MSWin files.

Linux viruses are very rare (something like 99% are MS specific), but it doesn't absolve the user from being careful eg use a browser like firefox with add-ons such as noscript, https-everywhere, ghostery.

There are cross-platform malware progs that rely on abusing the browser & rootkits do exist.
Have a good read of the Security forum, inc the Sticky posts there.

1) You don't need one. The linux architecture itself prevents viruses from harming the system.

2) VLC is probably the best and, sice it is also available on Windows, the migration will be more soft.
If you just mean "downloading videos from youtube", Firefox + Easy Youtube Video Downloader will do the trick. Anyway, if you'll use Firefox browser, any plugin you actually use in Windows, will be available on Linux too.

3) As you've already been said, Kde has it's own archiving tool (Ark) that is integrated with file manager and will work smoothly out-of-the-box. Zip, Bzip, 7zip, Arj, Tar, Iso, Dmg, and other "public" archive formats support is installed by default; for proprietary formats like rar or ace you may be required to install optional packages depending on your distro: i'm sure googling for something like "mint ark rar" will tell you everything you need to know about the os support of that format.

P.s. very good job, man

Many thanks to all.

Good information. I hope to put up a victory post later.

The teacher in question has had no problems with Mint Linux. I was expecting a host of queries, confusion and lots of setup. OK, I was very careful about installing and making sure she had the kitchen sink!

Almost nothing!

She is using her laptop quite happily and now showing Linux off to fellow teachers in the school!

Also, I have demoed Slackware 14 and Lubuntu to my wife's cousins.

Result: Both cousins positively forcing their netbooks into my hands to install the software, along with the father! I am having to keep them at bay due to lack of time. But there should be at least two other converts.

I can see Linux taking off here in Indonesia now...

Thanks again. Your help has made for a happy, contented teacher - who put a lot of faith in me! I am pleased I did not disappoint.

1 members found this post helpful.

the best virus checker on any platform is the user. basically not logging in as root (or administrator) and blindly clicking accept on every pop-up is a start.

even with the few linux viruses that exist if it infects a limited user it wont be able to wreak havoc on the whole system.

I'm glad to hear your work has been such a success. You might find this useful when looking for software, although it's best to try the repository first.
http://linuxappfinder.com