[olug] advice picking distro for Mac users

[Obi-Wan]

On 11/13/2013 11:37 AM, Tim Larson wrote:
> I'm setting up a 2nd computer in the house now that the kids are 
> getting old enough to be using a computer more. I've been out of the 
> desktop scene for awhile, but I still want to go Linux to save myself 
> the admin headache of dealing with Windows. There's only one 
> Win-specific app they'd need, and I've already confirmed that will run 
> fine in an XP VM. (BTW, if you've got an old copy to sell, contact me 
> off-list.)
>
> Seems *buntu is still the pick for the casual Linux desktop user to 
> get up and going easily, and fairly hassle-free to keep updated. 
> Everyone is familiar with Mac OS to some extent, so a version that 
> feels somewhat similar to that would be great. Some reviews say Unity 
> is a good fit for Mac users. Some reviews say the Xfce desktop is 
> Mac-like. Maybe there are others. I'm soliciting more opinions and 
> comments to help me make my decision. Apart from an annual upgrade I 
> won't be using the computer at all unless there are problems, so a 
> major goal is to set it up such that the non-tech-savvy will not 
> create nor encounter many problems.

I think Unity is probably a fairly intuitive interface as long as the 
user doesn't have lots of muscle memory for older gnome versions (like I 
have).  I despise Unity, personally, because it's too different.  For a 
newbie, it's probably a good fit.  I run Xfce on my Fedora laptop, and 
while it's definitely more similar to old gnome, it's very simplistic 
and perhaps not as intuitive to a newcomer.

-- 
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