Enterprise open source Toolkit

Ten ways to smooth the switch to Linux

Jack Wallen Tech Republic

Published: 27 Mar 2009 12:47 GMT

...in this category. PCLinuxOS, Mepis, Linux Mint and Mandriva are all outstanding distributions for the new user. Of course, this issue is hotly debated. Everyone seems to want their distribution to be the distro of choice for new users. Suffice it to say there are plenty of Linux flavours for the new user.

4. Have a machine up and running for users to play with
Instead of pulling the rug from under your users with a sudden switch, make a machine available to them to experiment with. Set up this machine exactly as their desktops will look so they can see, first hand, that their future PC will be at least as easy to use as their present system.

You can take this one step further and install a virtual machine on their Windows PC to allow them to play with Linux on their desktop. This measure has the added benefit that if they mess up the install — chances of this are slim to none, of course — it is no problem to recover it because it is being run in a virtual machine.

Even better, but much more time-consuming, is to set their machine up to dual-boot. With a dual-boot setup, they can move back and forth between the two operating systems until they are comfortable with Linux.

5. Remove administrative menu entries
For the new user, seeing Samba, Network, SELinux, User administration, and other related administration tools in the menu can only confuse them.

A control panel, such as the Gnome Control Panel, is fine. But having high-level menu entries will serve no purpose beyond tempting fate. Limit the menu entries to user-specific tasks. When you are training new users, you do not want to have to spend extra time teaching them how to configure SELinux or use Gnome Partition Editor (GParted) — or to have to tell them constantly that they do not need to bother learning about a particular tool.

6. Adopt Adept
Adept, and other simple update and installation tools, are key to keeping users happily computing.

Read this

Feature: Ten key differences between Linux and Windows

One of the biggest problems with new users and Linux occurs when they come to install applications. You do not want to have to teach a new user the ins and outs of apt-get or rpm, as these are tools best suited to users who know what they are doing.

It is far easier to learn application installation if you have a user-friendly, graphical front-end. That is why installations are much simpler with a Ubuntu-like distribution. Because Ubuntu uses sudo, you do not have to worry about teaching users what the root user is. Instead, you can just explain that they have to enter their user password.

That approach to application installation has more in common with OS X than Windows, but it is much easier to teach than having to go through root privileges. Besides, users do not need to have access to the root user anyway.

7. Offer printed materials
Before I go into this, a word of warning: never tell new users to read the manual. That tactic will not get you very far in educating users about Linux. But you do need to have printed material for users to keep with them.

That material should not be generic Linux information, but specific to what they are using. If your users have KDE 3.5 on their desktops, do not give them...