bob: After over a decade of using GNU/Linux full time it's easy to forget what a paradigm shift it is. Probably like most people reading this, I am the local laptop fixer uperer and just fixed another one with a dead hard drive after being dropped. This time I installed Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS. I think it's easier for new users than Debian because it has an app boutique with explanations of each app. The first thing the new user starts doing is "looking for a list of installed programs". "I need to find which ones to remove. You know, the ones I don't want." Me: "You mean like the crappy spyware stuff that comes on new Windows laptops. This isn't Windows, so you don't get that kind of crap." I showed them how to use the app boutique to install or remove programs on the system. Apart from that they were already familiar with using LibreOffice and preferred Firefox to Chromium.

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 11:33:44 +0000

After over a decade of using GNU/Linux full time it's easy to forget what a paradigm shift it is. Probably like most people reading this, I am the local laptop fixer uperer and just fixed another one with a dead hard drive after being dropped. This time I installed Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS. I think it's easier for new users than Debian because it has an app boutique with explanations of each app. The first thing the new user starts doing is "looking for a list of installed programs".

"I need to find which ones to remove. You know, the ones I don't want."

Me: "You mean like the crappy spyware stuff that comes on new Windows laptops. This isn't Windows, so you don't get that kind of crap."

I showed them how to use the app boutique to install or remove programs on the system. Apart from that they were already familiar with using LibreOffice and preferred Firefox to Chromium.