Rather than just getting on here and asking "which Linux is best" like so many do, I thought I would give an overview of our current needs, my background and some of my 'eccentricities', and see what you guys recommend as a good match.
System: G3220 processor, 4 GB Ram, 2 TB HDD, Radeon 6570 video card, no Internet 99.999999% of the time
1) Our Needs
This is primarily meant to be an offline only game system for the kids. We mostly play casual games, with a few WWI dogfight & a number of strategy games like Heroes of Might and Magic, hex turn based wargames, etc. Since I don't have a Linux background, ease of installing games, and access to lots of games is a must. The kids would also want to watch videos, and we currently use VLC Media Player in Windows XP and 7.
2) My background
I got started with computers back in the early 80's with a TI 99/4a Home Computer, and was used to the menu system to access various programs. There were times when I couldn't quite figure out my math homework, but I could write a BASIC program on there that could solve it for me. I used a tape drive to save and load programs, and typed many programs in by hand on its rather crappy keyboard. In 1989 I got a 386 system with DOS, which I familiarized myself with. Although I upgraded the system several times, I stuck with DOS for my day to day use through about 1997 or 1998, when I finally installed Windows. For my email, I used pine for about 15 years, initially dialing in directly using Bananacom and later using SSH secure shell client to access the pine email through the Dayton Microcomputer Association. I spent a lot of time on BBS's and playing Legend of the Red Dragon, from the late 80's through the mid 90's.
At one point I was obsessed with getting as much on my tiny 80 megabyte hard drive as possible. I was using Quickmenu from Neosoft, (a shell system) then having the programs I launched decompressed on the fly when I launched them.
I did telephone tech support for a while with Systemax, got a comptia A+ certification, and I believe I've built around 8 or 9 PC's over the years. I tried installing Red Hat Linux back in the 90's and gave up on that. Tried installing Ubuntu about 6 or 7 years ago, but did not know anyone who knew or used Linux, & eventually gave up on that as well. Currently I do freelance writing for a magazine.
3) My eccentricities - or things I like and don't like
My current pet peeve is the fact that DMA switched to using Gmail for their email, after they shut dmapub down. All of those old pine keyboard shortcuts I had memorized became useless! I still find myself wanting to type the keyboard shortcuts sometimes when I'm in email. I hate Gmail, because I'll be logged in to my email in one window, then in another window I'll log in to my Google Blogger account, which will log me out of my email in the other window.
I also still think that a menu system (like my old TI 99/4a) would be preferable to Windows, since it is simple and doesn't use many system resources. I don't really see the need for a fancy graphical user interface, though I'll admit that most people (including myself now, I suppose) have gotten to the point where they expect it. Since I can't have my simple menu, instead at least I can organize program icons exactly the way I like...
Oh wait, Windows 7 only lets you do that on the desktop! Someone in their INFINITE wisdom decided that we no longer needed to organize icons or files any way we like in other folders that aren't on the desktop. When I set up a folder, I want to be able to drag the files or icons inside of it into any arrangement that I so desire. If I'm used to doing writing and always keeping the most recent file in the upper right hand corner of the folder, then I should be able to do that, and nobody should be able to tell me I can't do it that way. The OS should also remember where I put it last, and not try to "tidy up" or move it to where it thinks would be a better arrangement.
I used DOS for nearly 10 years, and so I guess I got pretty used to the text based environment, being able to use various parameters for search, etc. I'm not certain it would be superior to an intuitive and logically designed menu or graphical environment at this point, however.
I don't like things that change without advanced warning. I want things to stay the same unless I change them. I like to be able to customize things the way I like them.
I use handbrake often in Windows, and would probably do the same in Linux to compress files.
I often have the need to resize photos, so I have one of those "powertoys" installed that lets me right click on an image and resize it with a simple menu. I'd love to not only be able to do this, but to tell it the exact size of the resulting file, or even the pixels. (90x90, to create an icon, etc.)
I might also want to eventually hook up an older Canon LED USB scanner to the system, to scan in old documents and photos.
So I want ease of use up front, but might want to customize down the road. Any thoughts on what might be best in my situation? Thanks so much!
System: G3220 processor, 4 GB Ram, 2 TB HDD, Radeon 6570 video card, no Internet 99.999999% of the time
1) Our Needs
This is primarily meant to be an offline only game system for the kids. We mostly play casual games, with a few WWI dogfight & a number of strategy games like Heroes of Might and Magic, hex turn based wargames, etc. Since I don't have a Linux background, ease of installing games, and access to lots of games is a must. The kids would also want to watch videos, and we currently use VLC Media Player in Windows XP and 7.
2) My background
I got started with computers back in the early 80's with a TI 99/4a Home Computer, and was used to the menu system to access various programs. There were times when I couldn't quite figure out my math homework, but I could write a BASIC program on there that could solve it for me. I used a tape drive to save and load programs, and typed many programs in by hand on its rather crappy keyboard. In 1989 I got a 386 system with DOS, which I familiarized myself with. Although I upgraded the system several times, I stuck with DOS for my day to day use through about 1997 or 1998, when I finally installed Windows. For my email, I used pine for about 15 years, initially dialing in directly using Bananacom and later using SSH secure shell client to access the pine email through the Dayton Microcomputer Association. I spent a lot of time on BBS's and playing Legend of the Red Dragon, from the late 80's through the mid 90's.
At one point I was obsessed with getting as much on my tiny 80 megabyte hard drive as possible. I was using Quickmenu from Neosoft, (a shell system) then having the programs I launched decompressed on the fly when I launched them.
I did telephone tech support for a while with Systemax, got a comptia A+ certification, and I believe I've built around 8 or 9 PC's over the years. I tried installing Red Hat Linux back in the 90's and gave up on that. Tried installing Ubuntu about 6 or 7 years ago, but did not know anyone who knew or used Linux, & eventually gave up on that as well. Currently I do freelance writing for a magazine.
3) My eccentricities - or things I like and don't like
My current pet peeve is the fact that DMA switched to using Gmail for their email, after they shut dmapub down. All of those old pine keyboard shortcuts I had memorized became useless! I still find myself wanting to type the keyboard shortcuts sometimes when I'm in email. I hate Gmail, because I'll be logged in to my email in one window, then in another window I'll log in to my Google Blogger account, which will log me out of my email in the other window.
I also still think that a menu system (like my old TI 99/4a) would be preferable to Windows, since it is simple and doesn't use many system resources. I don't really see the need for a fancy graphical user interface, though I'll admit that most people (including myself now, I suppose) have gotten to the point where they expect it. Since I can't have my simple menu, instead at least I can organize program icons exactly the way I like...
Oh wait, Windows 7 only lets you do that on the desktop! Someone in their INFINITE wisdom decided that we no longer needed to organize icons or files any way we like in other folders that aren't on the desktop. When I set up a folder, I want to be able to drag the files or icons inside of it into any arrangement that I so desire. If I'm used to doing writing and always keeping the most recent file in the upper right hand corner of the folder, then I should be able to do that, and nobody should be able to tell me I can't do it that way. The OS should also remember where I put it last, and not try to "tidy up" or move it to where it thinks would be a better arrangement.
I used DOS for nearly 10 years, and so I guess I got pretty used to the text based environment, being able to use various parameters for search, etc. I'm not certain it would be superior to an intuitive and logically designed menu or graphical environment at this point, however.
I don't like things that change without advanced warning. I want things to stay the same unless I change them. I like to be able to customize things the way I like them.
I use handbrake often in Windows, and would probably do the same in Linux to compress files.
I often have the need to resize photos, so I have one of those "powertoys" installed that lets me right click on an image and resize it with a simple menu. I'd love to not only be able to do this, but to tell it the exact size of the resulting file, or even the pixels. (90x90, to create an icon, etc.)
I might also want to eventually hook up an older Canon LED USB scanner to the system, to scan in old documents and photos.
So I want ease of use up front, but might want to customize down the road. Any thoughts on what might be best in my situation? Thanks so much!
It's a much better distro now and they are the reason you can use Evolution with Mapi (Exchange server). They created it for Groupwise though originially.
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