The Wall Street Journal published an article today by Mark Golden, a reporter who tried to switch from Windows to Linux. He had problems with the switch, which he wrote about in "Out the Window" (it's free, so go check it out). Don't flame the guy, please. Yes, he made some mistakes that a knowledgable Linux user wouldn't make - like trying Fedora Core, for instance (*snicker*) - but he's complimentary of the OS, and he seems to really want to like it. I wrote him the following email, which I hope helps him.

<begin email>

Mark, I enjoyed your article on Linux. I'm a die-hard Linux user myself, and the author of three books on Linux & open source software, but I certainly understand the problems newcomers to the OS will have.

I myself use K/Ubuntu on all my machines; in addition, my wife - who's a lawyer, not a computer person - also uses it, with my help. If you have the time & inclination, you should give it a try as well. It comes in two flavors - Ubuntu, which is based on the GNOME GUI, and Kubuntu, which is based on the KDE GUI. Many of the distros you were using (SUSE, Xandros) were KDE-based, although some were GNOME-based (Fedora). KDE is far slicker, IMHO, as well as more "Windows-like". Because of those reasons, I'd recommend Kubuntu.

http://www.kubuntu.org

The current version of K/Ubuntu is 5.10; sometime this June, the next version, Dapper Drake, AKA 6.06, will be released. I'm running the beta, & it's really good. When it comes out, download it, or go to the web site & request a free CD to be shipped to you, and give it a try.

Thanks for trying Linux, & thanks for being patient. It's developing quickly, and it really does get better every six months!

Scott

</end email>

Go read his article, and if you have some nice, constructive advice, send it to him. If you're just going to flame him & make Linux users look like hotheads & jerks, please don't bother.

I'm not really much of a Fedora fan - my tastes run more towards Debian - but a lot of people really love that distro. If you want to find out more about the various flavors of Fedora Core, definitely check out "The evolution of Fedora Core Linux", which is just that: an overview of the 5 versions of FC we've seen, along with screenshots and more. It's pretty cool, and even I - a non-Fedora user - found it very interesting, if nothing else than from a historical perspective. I love stuff like this. Anyone know of any others?

(Check out all of our posts on Fedora Core.)