Matthew, you told a pork pie

> since Corel abandoned its effort, no vendor has concentrated
> strictly on making Linux friendly enough for newbies
 
Mandrake and SuSE have for years both been heavily focused on making things
easier for newbies. I favour Mandrake, friends favour SuSE.
 
For an example of an isolated feature aimed in this direction, this Mandrake
8.2 box has a standard-looking menu layout, plus a couple of useful extras,
one labelled `What to do?' which has entries like `Use the Internet' leading
to the most common tools (mail, web, news, ICQ, IRC, AIM, etc).
 
This is but one feature of scores. HardDrake sorts out new hardware amazingly
well. In the case of a software modem with only proprietary drivers, it
referred me to a website that I could download the drivers from.
 
While Mandrake and SuSE are obviously putting a huge amount of effort into
making these things easier, and getting results (e.g. WalMart are ramping up
to ship PCs with Mandrake pre-installed, the French government has also
granted them a contract to supply, and never mind the newbie focus 'coz the
Linux audience apparently likes them as a server too), RedHat haven't been
idle, and nor have other teams like Debian. Have you tried Debian Jr - for
kids! - yet?
 
Another distribution which (sigh) needs mentioning is Lindows. Easy to use,
yes, but also running as root, and potentially with no password. Expect to
see cracks targeted at that vulnerable arrangement as Lindows gets market
share - if it does, they're not exactly bending over backwards to comply with
the GPL for the software which they have already fielded.
 
Finally, while Gentoo isn't so easy to install (and what newbie installs
their own OS anyway?), it certainly is easy to maintain and runs well on
older, less able hardware.
 
Returning to the main point, ease of use: it isn't everything, but in this
case you can have your cake and eat a certain amount of it too.
 
For example, if you equipped a new computer lab with dual servers and 20
Mandrake LTSP terminals all built from COTS hardware, you would have 20
easy-to-use and even MS-Office-compatible workstations with 17" screens,
accelerated 3D, sound and optical mice for around AUD$20,000+GST (USD$11,300,
GBP£7,400) including hubs/switches and cables. Power on, and in seconds
you're working. I have a baby network like this running in my shed as I type.
 
Ease of use goes beyond clicking on WIMP features. You can layer Mosix onto
this and have the equivalent of a 37GHz supercomputer at your disposal for no
extra cost beyond labour (install package, configure, start service). Updates
can even be completely automated by running one service. That's a lot easier
to do than drumming up the money to buy a supercomputer, and demonstrates
ease of use for the support people as well as the users.
 
You really should know what you're talking about _before_ you put finger to
keyboard for an article... and a public error requires public correction.
 
Cheers; Leon
 
 
PS if you're a SlackWare fan: you haven't been overlooked. SlackWare have
never claimed that their distro is easy to use. If this is a deliberate
policy, while it costs marketshare it does drive up the quality of
fana^H^H^H^Huser.