Thoughts from a new user

[Worm]

Hello,

Background: I was looking for a better Linux for my 6 year old. I had bought him a Mirotel computer from Walmart.com with Lycoris. It works well enough for him (web games and other browsing mostly) and it was easy to use. However, I was disappointed that it was using outdated apps and they could not be upgraded by me because no development tools were included. Those were sold separately. I wanted another simple distribution that has what he needed. I have checked out MEPIS, ArkLinux, and Knoppix because they were reviewed as some of the best for new Linux users which he was. I am a long time OS/2 user who has used a myriad of OSs over the years so nothing intimidated me about Linux. Installation on his machine is difficult because of the way Microtel paritioned the system. I wanted to test something on my OS/2 machine first which has plenty of drives and space.

I ran the Live CD and it is the only distribution so far that has worked on my OS/2 machine which is all SCSI and has a complicated setup. MEPIS could not use my SCSI CDROM and Ark failed partway through the install. Both claim they are working on installer issues so I am hopeful of trying them in the future.

Here are my comments coming from someone expecting "easy" initial use based on reviews and where Knoppix lies in the world of Linux versions. Meaning it appears targeted towards Windows dual boots or converts rather than long time Linux gurus. Note I used knx-install from the 3.3 CD, not the latest release from just a few days ago that I see was announced. Maybe some of this was addressed. I must say knx-install handled my partitioning scheme I wanted to use perfectly which I was very happy about. I love the way it asks what services to start instead of just making the choice. This way things that can be started can be and things that should not be are not. I still have not figured out how to get some things started in Lycoris which I can do since it all sits behind my hardware firewall. I know I can hand edit files but a naive Windows convert would never want to do. I want to make these comments as those type of people think. Placing it on the HD from CD went without a hitch. I only have some comments about how the default users are setup.

1. The desktop needs to be populated with more things other than floppy and trash. Lycoris provided a SMB browser, an equivalent of My Computer, a trash can, and a Konqeror which opens in ~. Not too cluttered but not empty. The KDE launcher in Knoppix had a good collection of programs visible which partially makes up for the empty desktop, but a few more items on the desktop would be good.
2. I had all kinds of trouble with LNNeighborhood seeing the Lycoris Samba shares. It would not connect even though the command line stuff worked. I Googled and went through this forum here and found numerous recommendations for Komba. I downloaded it and it worked perfect right away. Perhaps ditching LNNeighborhood for Komba is needed. I suspect 95% of Windows users would have never figured out what was wrong with LNN and not found the hint of trying Komba.
3. Same thought for KPackage. It would not work when I tried to update or install packages. I found references to Synaptic being easier to use and tried it. This worked beautifully right away. I would recommend including it and placing it on the desktop or launcher so people see it right away and then can immediately update their installed packages compared to the CD. I thnk this would be a great oooh and ahh factor if they doa couple clicks and voila! all updates applied. My OS/2 has been like this for years and the first few times I used it, I was awestruck by the simplicity of it all.
4. Easier to find Volume control. The sound was WAY too loud for my speakers and I did not want to turn them down because then OS/2 was too quiet. I had to Google and forum search to find out KMix had the volume control and then placed an icon on the launcher. It would be great if this was there right from the start.
5. I had a problem with sound during Flash plugin stuff on the Lycoris machine and also this one. I solved it on the Lycoris machine after much hunting by using the arts sound server with KDE. It was solved on the Knoppix machine right away (because I knew what to do) by choosing Control Center/Sound&Multimedia/aRts/Start aRts soundserver on KDE startup. Is this not checked by default because it causes problems with other programs which I have not uncovered yet? Seems like a good idea to enable it from the start unless it breaks more things than it fiixes, but having skipping/missing sound on flash animations I would think is one of the first thigns windows converts would notice given the prevalent use of it on the web today.

I don't want to offend anyone ny seeming to complain to much. I really like this Knoppix 3.3 distribution. I just want to make some comments that may be used to improve things more for future releases to further enable Knoppix to gain in popularity. Thanks for reading this far.

[turbine]

I agree with your suggestions. I don't see how your excellent post could possibly offend anyone, so I wouldn't worry there. In addition I would like to mention I started off with Knoppix, found several things that just didn't work. That lead me to learn that it was based on unstable Debian. That lead me to look into Debian. There I learned that there was stable Debian. I got it and have been quite pleased. But, what I'm getting at is that in installing Debian I noticed that there is such a thing as Debian Jr. Didn't check too closely but it seemed to hint that it has stuff for children. Might be something for your 6 year old.