I'm so exited that I cannot stop my impulse to not going to buy any magazine for a month , to be sure escape from free Debian dvd/cd/64/ppc/sparc/i386* waste ... save the planet

I installed a Debian 4 - 64 bit version about two months ago as a testing snapshot.

And I intend to use the 32 bit i386 (i686) as the Desktop and Networking workhorse for our company.

It really is a WOW system, Fast and powerful, Debian 4 is a towering testament to the dedication of its developers. Provides the best representation of the fantastic world of Linux productivity with reliability and security inherent in its design.

The office productivity gained with the use of the ISO world standard compliant OpenOffice 2.0 is perfectly suited to getting tasks done.

Good HP printers just work, Nikon cameras download pictures great, and of course networking is the middle name of Linux by design.

Debian is the heartbeat of so many other distributions of Linux, the whole world is a better place for its existence. Fantastic news.

As much as I like Linux (I am using it to power my e-mail/web server at home), I still have not installed Linux as my desktop "du jour".

Why?

Two simple reasons (well, three really):

1) I got annoyed when Fedora stopped distributing the source code for the OS and got the royal run-around trying to find somewhere to download it. I know, I know... but I am a newbie of sorts and trying to figure out which of the damn myriad versions of the code was the one I needed was starting to get to me.

2) Codecs. Learn to love them. I have "Media Player Classic" (not Windows Media Player, thank-you-very-much) and WinAmp running on my laptop. I get a new file I can't play in either of them... not a problem... find the codec, install it, and ALL my media applications can now understand that file format. Everytime I try to view a file in Linux, I once again get the run-around trying to find a program that will interpret that particular codec.

3) Open Office. Well, I tried. And apart from the fact I couldn't find anything in the menus (OK, so I've been using MSWord for too long), the fact I couldn't get the damn thing out of "print layout view" (or whatever it is called in OOorg) and into a "bulk-editing" view really pissed me off. And I looked.

Yes, yes, I know prople are going to tell me thousands of ways to achieve the above... but look at it this way... I am an IT professional, working with MSWindow and Unix-derivatives all day... and these three simple task *really* pissed me off simply because I could not find the options. And that's it right there - I COULD NOT FIND THE OPTIONS (assuming they exist in the first place). Help files didn't. Looking through menus got boring real quick.

Bottom line, there are still a lot of improvements required to the "user experience" before Linux comes in out of the Servers and into the Desktop at my house.

May it get there soon so I can give MS the flick once and for all.

Oh, and since we're onto the wishlists... anyone know where I can find a good MSExchange Server alternative? I need to set up Sync-ing between PDAs and a Linux mail server and would rather not go down the Exchange/Outlook path.

I've been helping my dad with his new Dell computer over the last few weeks. He bought a Dell due to the previous quality of support. But this PC came with Vista on it; while the hardware was fine the software was unusable. After spending the best part of 2 days of his relatively short life expectancy trying to progress the broken Vista installation, it was stuck in an infinite loop. I had Ubuntu and all the applications he immediately needed (OpenOffice, Evolution and Firefox) running within half an hour of starting on it. It was late on a Sunday, and Zen Internet were able to talk him through getting him online the next day quickly and efficiently. Converting his Quicken accounts to GNUCash took him and me a similar amount of time.

My mum now reports he is spending 2-3 hours a day on it. Going onto broadband at the same time has obviously helped greatly. 7 years ago when my Dad bought his last computer I wouldn't have dreamed Linux would be usable enough for him now, though I was using it myself for about half my work even then. I can even run an emulation of his Ubuntu operating system as a virtual machine on my Kubuntu system using Vmware to help talk him through what he needs to do when he has a problem - and these have been very few and minor.

For anyone who has been stuck with Microsoft applications for long, changing to a new system will take some effort. But I don't imagine going from XP to Vista will be easier than going from XP or earlier to a usable Linux such as the Debian-derived Ubuntu. If an 87 year old can successfully change to Linux who can't ?

Richard: Unfortunately, you just made part of my point for me. Had you told me that your 87yo dad had ditch Vista (a pox on MS) and installed Linux and all the application HIMSELF, I might have bowed to you and tried again. Instead, you're telling me you installed it for him... and I'm pretty sure that you know your way around Linux (based on the way you talk about it).

I like Linux. What it does well, it does AMAZINGLY well... but what it does porrly, it does so in an appalling way.

I stand by what I said in my previous comment... I enjoy Linux as a bulletproof Web/Mail/SQL etc server, I use FireFox and Thunderbird, my media player is MPC and I find that most of my software needs can be supplied by OO or FSF software... but I still find Linux infuriatingly small-minded when it comes to end-user-oriented multimedia applications.

Actually I think you miss the point - his 87yo dad would not have been able to install Vista (or XP) *either*... the only reason people say Windows is easy to install is that they usually never need to install it!

Aubry Thonon

I work with media all the day

I listen and even watch almost all the time i use my computer

I use VLC for playing all media types except real media I use Real player enterprise

When i use Ubuntu I found the great VLC

and the real player gold (more similar to Real player enterprise)

VLC doesn't need any codecs to play any thing

Even I see that the gamer will still in windows as most gaming companies work for money and only money

At last it is better for business men to use a friendly Linux at their laptops