Good Distro For Little Sister/?

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DR_K13

2[H]4U
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Apr 21, 2004
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So my Little sister keeps messing up her Windows 2000 system with viruses, ad/spyware/ etc etc. No matter what I do to lock down the system, run spyware/virus scans everyweekend, she still borks it and I am sick of dealing with it, I am installing a Locked down Linux distro , Only question is what distro. I use Gentoo and Ubuntu at home and Suse on my Folding farm. Of course Ubuntu and Gentoo would not be a wise choice for her.. I like the Way Suse looks for Linux noobs. But I think its still too complex for her. I caught myself looking at (cough) linspire (cough) for her to use. But I have heard nothing but bad things about that Distro. I burned a copy for the hell of it, and checked it out and it looks very " Windows-ish" what is I want for her. Any adivce on other distros or linspire itself? Thanks.
 
How are the other systems 'too complex'? Since you're going to be admin on the box, the only important thing to her, really, is going to be having a well-configured desktop environment which both Ubuntu and SuSE are going to do equally well.

Personally, I'm a big fan of APT, so I'd go ubuntu.
 
ameoba said:
How are the other systems 'too complex'? Since you're going to be admin on the box, the only important thing to her, really, is going to be having a well-configured desktop environment which both Ubuntu and SuSE are going to do equally well.

Personally, I'm a big fan of APT, so I'd go ubuntu.
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I love APT and Ubuntu as well, however, I dont want her calling me everyday to have me help her with things. That is what I am doing now, and I am trying to get away from that.

When I meen " to complex " I meen to complex for her to install things that she needs. or use things that she needs, Command line is not an option for her, she is a typical "point and click user" so I need someting like linspire. PCLinuxOS looks cool too.
 
I don't know too much about Linux, but it sounds like you may want her to have a complex distro on her box. That way she can only do what she knows how to do and won't be able to mess up other things. Just mho.

I have found SimplyMepis a very easy transition for basic use as a Windoze user attempting recovery.
 
For her something like Linspire may be a good choice. I have not tried it myself, however. Xandros may be another good choice. I have never used that either.
 
I don't get why you can't setup a "User" account on the Windows box and then just show how to run executables with administrator priveliges for installing stuff. :confused:
 
neo86 said:
I don't get why you can't setup a "User" account on the Windows box and then just show how to run executables with administrator priveliges for installing stuff. :confused:
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Spyware can still install itself. I am running a regular user account at home on my XP box and I still get junk installed. I am even a FF user!
 
drizzt81 said:
Spyware can still install itself. I am running a regular user account at home on my XP box and I still get junk installed. I am even a FF user!
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I did it with my parents' computer and didn't have any issues even after a few months.. and they were using IE. :p I guess there's a difference between XP and 2K in that type of account?
 
neo86 said:
I did it with my parents' computer and didn't have any issues even after a few months.. and they were using IE. :p I guess there's a difference between XP and 2K in that type of account?
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Not many. At work all the workstations buttoned down tight. We run NOD32, spywareblaster,Adaware,spybot,MicrosoftAntiSpyware,etc,etc. Plus we have Moonwall before the router , A Hotbrick router . Antivirus & malcode scanners on the servers, and we still get spyware/adware/viruses. I even put Zonealarm on the Office girls computers. ( who knows what they do all day ) and they still get Bugs. :mad:
 
DR_K13 said:
Not many. At work all the workstations buttoned down tight. We run NOD32, spywareblaster,Adaware,spybot,MicrosoftAntiSpyware,etc,etc. Plus we have Moonwall before the router , A Hotbrick router . Antivirus & malcode scanners on the servers, and we still get spyware/adware/viruses. I even put Zonealarm on the Office girls computers. ( who knows what they do all day ) and they still get Bugs. :mad:
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Makes me wonder what kind sites they were visiting. :eek:

The computer was patched regularly so perhaps that had something to do with it. I suppose my parents didn't browse many different sites in the first place though.
 
neo86 said:
Makes me wonder what kind sites they were visiting. :eek:
...
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That's why he said "makes me wonder what they do all day"... *cough*p0rn*cough*... ;)
 
Same thing happened with my little sister (16)
Moved her from Win2k to Mandrake 10, she was happy as a clam... though she missed photoshop... never got around to emulating that
 
1c3d0g said:
That's why he said "makes me wonder what they do all day"... *cough*p0rn*cough*... ;)
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It's sad how forgetting to type the word "too" can make you look illiterate. :p
 
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