On Monday 04 April 2005 11:35, Abhishek Daga wrote:

Having being tormented by hajaar trojans, popups on home PCs using Windows platforms off late, I have converted them to Redhat 9.0 in the face of lot of scepticism and criticism from other users of the family.

Their main concerns are: a) Ease of use b) Ease of use.

To be able to use linux successfully as a desktop for non power users, these are the barriers I faced.

a) Plug n play for devices such as USB Web cam, USB Hub, USB Card

Debian sarge (PCQ DVD) works with USB hub and USB card readers. Which Camera? model no. vendor name.

Reader. b) Internal Modem Dlink 560i+++ installation woes and lack of a versatile dialer to just click n connect for non root users.

???. KPPP is click and connect as is wvdial and pon. Just create a desktop icon to wvdial /pon and poff. Also add these users to the group dialout. Use the kuser package in kde to do this.

c) Winmodem detection and configuration woes.

Winmodems are not supported due to patent and NDA issues from the chip vendors. So buy an external modem. Or use M$ software and grin and bear.

The question is: Which linux distribution can I use which will act as an effective desktop for home users which will overcome atleast most of the difficulties faced above.

IMO Debian sarge fits the bill completely except for the internal modem.I have completely clueless people using Sarge (including two sixty two year olds) with tata indicom, dishnet, incable, sify etc. They use webcams, usbflashdisks, burn cds and announce that they use debian linux with a smirk at their peers when someone sobs about virii, worms, spyware.

I am leaning towards the opinion that redhat 9.0 is not the best out there. (duh!). But whats a near ideal replacement?

There is no replacement for GNU/Linux ;-).

rgds jtd