[Alien]

Originally Posted by Cobbydaler

If you're not already booting another distro with XP then you don't have to use this way; but you can use your existing bootloader & install the Kubuntu GRUB to the partition where Kubuntu itself is installed. All you have to do then is edit your existing GRUB menu.lst by copying the main Kubuntu menu.lst entry into it.

For example, my menu.lst at the moment looks like this:

I'll bear that in mind if I ever get to that stage, thanks. ATM, I still don't have any distro installed as yet.

Originally Posted by Cobbydaler

If you're just installing Ubuntu alongside XP there's no advantage as it's not that easy to edit the XP bootloader.

The alternative CD is still graphical, but more like the the old DOS chunky graphics, no command line stuff, just arrow & tab keys to navigate, no point & click...

That's good to know, I've dealt with something like that before with... Mandrake, I think it was. I wasn't sure which alternate CD to try, & then I thought "sod it, I've got broadband & enough HDD space", so queued up all 4 [32 & 64bit versions of Kubuntu & Ubuntu, incase the alternate version of Kubuntu is better behaved than the Live version]. The 1 downside to this idea is that I finally saw the dreaded traffic shaping in action.

Originally Posted by xpod

*buntu [especially] is actually quite possible to use without ever going near the command line.It's there and if you want to learn about it great but the reality is that you dont need to go near a terminal if you dont want to..
Not in Ubuntu.Normal usage can easily do without it.
It would be mad not to at least learn the basics though imho.
ALT-F2(in Ubuntu) is comparable to the Run dialogue in Windows though and just as easy to use for gk/sudo commands and suchllike

Well that's good to hear. It's 1 thing to be able to learn it as & when I have the inclination & time to do so, but it would be a pain to have to be forced to learn it, just to do basic stuff or get stuff to work.

Speaking of getting stuff to work [& going off on a bit of a tangent], please tell me that someone's come up with some proper drivers for the Logitech MX1000, or at least a tool to map the commands/functions I want to specific buttons on mice with more than 3 buttons. It was rather annoying using the Back button in Firefox only to have it do paste-from-clipboard instead of making Firefox go back a page.

Originally Posted by xpod

I'm also not so sure it's Ubuntu that needs to do anything to win over Windows users......if anything i think it's the Windows users that need to do more to win themselves over,if their at least trying Linux of course.

I have to disagree quite strongly on this 1. A lot of Linux users want more Windows users to make the switch to Linux, but the majority of Windows users tend to be fairly content with Windows. I'd also say that the majority of Windows users that do decide to give Linux a try only do so out of curiosity, rather than need. If they needed to switch to Linux, then perhaps I could see your point about them being the ones to put in a bit of extra effort, but if you're only trying something out of curiosity you don't want to spend hours tearing your hair out in frustration, or googling & trawling endless forums & mailing lists just to get it to work; something that Windows tends to do most of the time without much effort at all. To me, it's kind of like the difference between staying in a hotel, & roughing it in a tent. Whilst there are some who would choose the tent [especially if it was given to them for free], most people would rather the comfort of the hotel.

Originally Posted by xpod

Not quite that long hopefully...
Most Windows users(owners) i know though have generally had pc's for years & years but...... many still could'nt tell you the difference between Windows and the pc itself so i dont think time has much to do with it.

Well, my first exposure to proper PCs was with the 386s we had at school, but we weren't really allowed to experiment much with them, just use them in the manner dictated. [Although that didn't stop us using the head of the computer department's login details to play Lemmings when he wasn't around, so that he wouldn't be able to prove who'd been running what. ] I believe they were running Windows 3.1 [or was it 3.11? maybe Dilli remembers ].

I didn't really have much of a chance to freely experiment with x86-based computers until I got my first [a 286 laptop with 640KB RAM & DOS, second hand for £20] in 1997. A few months later I fished the case & motherboard of a 486 out of a skip, & bought the rest of the parts, & worked my way up from there.