21183008
submission
obarthelemy writes:
Skype having just been borged, now may be a good time to edge our bets and look for a replacement. I'm *not* looking for for something that interfaces with POTS, but just a simple PC-to-PC video chat tool that is very easy to configure and use, reliable, multiplatform (my family has Windows, Linux, MacOS; iOS and Android would be nice extras), and has good video/voice quality. We're almost only skyping with each other.
What would you recommend ?
9772382
submission
obarthelemy writes:
Having at last gotten Linux to run satisfactorily on my own PCs, I'd now like to start transitioning friends and family from XP to Linux instead of 7. The catch is, these guys don't understand nor care much about computers, so the transition has to be as seam- and pain-less as possible. Actually, they wont care for new things, even the upcoming upgrade to Seven would be a pain and a bother, which is a great opportunity for Linux. I'm not too concerned about software (most of them only need browser, IM, VLC, mail and a Powerpoint viewer for all those fascinating attachments). What I'm concerned about is OS look and feel and interface: system bar on the bottom with clock, trash, info on the right, menu on the left... menu items close to those of Windows...
Is it better to shoot for a very targeted distro ? Which ?
Are they themes/skins for mainstream distributions instead ?
I've been looking around the web, it's hard to gauge with distro is well-done and reasonably active, and which does not really work. Puppy Linux also looks good, different but so very easy I imagine I could 'sell' it.
I'm NOT asking whether it's good or bad for Linux to look and feel like Windows. Actually, I'm fairly convinced it is not a good thing, but I don't feel up to training handfuls of newbies and fielding tens of support calls.
