PenGun wrote:just brew it! wrote:whm1974 wrote:You do have a point Captain Ned. However even I and others have given links to documentation in HTML and PDF intended for new users, they still don't want to read it.
It is not the formatting that is the issue, it is the non-newbie-friendly content.
Bingo. The proper way is to just dive in and splash around. I can recommend Slackware for this.
You get an ncurses (cute coloured command line graphical interface) install with control over everything you install. Go everything the first time. Much simpler. The network questions will educate you to some extent and even if you can't understand them will probably hook you up anyway. If not running 'netconfig' after you get a prompt will allow you to try as many times as you need.
It will set up your x windows system and will install a serious suite of tools to build whatever you might want to build, from source. The right way to do things.
I'm not really kidding, but I understand most people just don't care. It's the best way to learn about *nix though. Your cute, direct to X, systemd systems, are not going to teach you much. .
If the goal is to become a Linux guru, and the person in question is OK with a "dive straight into the deep end, sink or swim" approach with (possibly greatly) delayed gratification, then I suppose there might be some merit to this. I tend to think that it is the wrong approach for the vast majority of users though; most will give up before they manage to get a truly useful system up and running, or ditch it when it eventually breaks and they can't figure out how to fix it.
OTOH, if the goal is to keep the rabble out, and limit Linux use to the high priesthood who have passed the trial by fire, yeah fine.
I tend to believe that a better approach for those new to Linux/UNIX is to provide an easy path to set up the most common desktop and server use cases, with the potential to "dive deep" if the user is curious, or has an unusual use case that isn't covered by the standard installer. Ubuntu (and its Mint derivative) generally do a pretty good job of this. Debian is a reasonable compromise between the hand-holding of Ubuntu and the minimalist approach of distros like Slackware and Arch.
I'm not terribly happy with the way systemd is being foisted on most of the Linux community, but unless Devuan manages to reach critical mass (or someone manages to make a distro based on Slackware that has the user-friendliness of Mint) I think we're kind of stuck with systemd for now, given that Redhat and Debian have both adopted it.