End of the XP era, pretty much.
Microsoft has announced that Windows XP(tm) will no longer be available for most platforms and users after June 30th. This move makes sense for them, but it's not necessarily beneficial to their customers.
Luckily, there are options.
The new version of Ubuntu offers some great tools to make the switch from MS-Windows(tm) (or dabbling in Linux, if the user has high-end games he or she still wants to run under MS-Win) a whole lot easier than it has been in the past. However, one thing that is not mentioned in the following article is a recommendation for choice of window manager. The default Ubuntu desktop is Gnome, which feels more like MacOS(tm) than like MS-Windows(tm). For users looking to have a familiar desktop, go with Kubuntu/KDE. Read More about Wubi, the Windows Ubuntu installer.
Ubuntu is making great strides in becoming the sort of 'default' Linux for reluctant MS-Win users. I think that's a good thing, because helping Win users switch is a Good Thing in my book, and since Ubuntu is built on the rock-solid Debian distro, I have great confidence in it. Read more about Ubuntu as a societally reckoned default.
I also read an article where the author trashed Linux because, basically, he felt that the install process was exactly like Windows(tm) (put CD in, follow prompts, on first boot, huge security updates, forced reboot, and not everything worked automagically). I'd like to say something about this.
His faulty perceptions come from a huge error in approach. Linux is not MS-Windows(tm). However close the basic user experience may come, they are not the same thing. Expecting a Macintosh computer to act like a Windows XP(tm) machine would never have crossed this guy's mind, so I hardly think it is fair for him to expect a Linux machine to be exactly like the MS-Windows(tm) interface. That said, many, many portions of the UI and the user experience in general are very similar. The author of the article, which I will not link, chose to be nit-picky and focus his whole article on three or four minor (given the proper paradigm) issues.
For one thing, he complained that the security updates required him to reboot his machine. For those of you who don't know, that almost never happens on a Linux machine when updating. There are very few instances when you have to reboot after an update. Even if you replace or update a large portion of your background services (called daemons in the POSIX world (Under DOS, they were called TSRs)), all that is required is to restart those individual services. No reboot is required. The most likely and notable update that requires a reboot is updating the kernel, the very heart of the operating system. Yes, he did need to restart after the first update (going, incidentally, from a CD installer that may be many months old to an up-to-date dynamic repository), but it will probably be many months before he is required to reboot after an update again. Comparing that to the Win32 world's "Oh, I see you installed a program/peripheral/service. You must restart to continue."
An article on why Linux doesn't require a reboot on update
For example, as of this writing, I've upgraded my gateway firewall's software a few times, and it hasn't required a restart. Current uptime: 15 days, 1 hour 53 minutes. That length of time ago is, by the way, the last time the power went out here for more than five minutes, so I shut it down manually.
Another article worth a read: Things the author of the article can do easily in Linux but can't in Windows(tm)
Luckily, there are options.
The new version of Ubuntu offers some great tools to make the switch from MS-Windows(tm) (or dabbling in Linux, if the user has high-end games he or she still wants to run under MS-Win) a whole lot easier than it has been in the past. However, one thing that is not mentioned in the following article is a recommendation for choice of window manager. The default Ubuntu desktop is Gnome, which feels more like MacOS(tm) than like MS-Windows(tm). For users looking to have a familiar desktop, go with Kubuntu/KDE. Read More about Wubi, the Windows Ubuntu installer.
Ubuntu is making great strides in becoming the sort of 'default' Linux for reluctant MS-Win users. I think that's a good thing, because helping Win users switch is a Good Thing in my book, and since Ubuntu is built on the rock-solid Debian distro, I have great confidence in it. Read more about Ubuntu as a societally reckoned default.
I also read an article where the author trashed Linux because, basically, he felt that the install process was exactly like Windows(tm) (put CD in, follow prompts, on first boot, huge security updates, forced reboot, and not everything worked automagically). I'd like to say something about this.
His faulty perceptions come from a huge error in approach. Linux is not MS-Windows(tm). However close the basic user experience may come, they are not the same thing. Expecting a Macintosh computer to act like a Windows XP(tm) machine would never have crossed this guy's mind, so I hardly think it is fair for him to expect a Linux machine to be exactly like the MS-Windows(tm) interface. That said, many, many portions of the UI and the user experience in general are very similar. The author of the article, which I will not link, chose to be nit-picky and focus his whole article on three or four minor (given the proper paradigm) issues.
For one thing, he complained that the security updates required him to reboot his machine. For those of you who don't know, that almost never happens on a Linux machine when updating. There are very few instances when you have to reboot after an update. Even if you replace or update a large portion of your background services (called daemons in the POSIX world (Under DOS, they were called TSRs)), all that is required is to restart those individual services. No reboot is required. The most likely and notable update that requires a reboot is updating the kernel, the very heart of the operating system. Yes, he did need to restart after the first update (going, incidentally, from a CD installer that may be many months old to an up-to-date dynamic repository), but it will probably be many months before he is required to reboot after an update again. Comparing that to the Win32 world's "Oh, I see you installed a program/peripheral/service. You must restart to continue."
An article on why Linux doesn't require a reboot on update
For example, as of this writing, I've upgraded my gateway firewall's software a few times, and it hasn't required a restart. Current uptime: 15 days, 1 hour 53 minutes. That length of time ago is, by the way, the last time the power went out here for more than five minutes, so I shut it down manually.
Another article worth a read: Things the author of the article can do easily in Linux but can't in Windows(tm)