I’ve been having a go at figuring out Linux recently and have, to date, installed three different packages. Fedora didn’t work, but Kubuntu and MEPIS both seem to be alright. I like MEPIS better because it’s geared towards more towards a novice user. I’m running them all within Virtual Box (which allows me to run them without creating new partitions and everything that accompanies it).

So far, I feel like an alien using the systems but have figured out a few things. I tried to install Flock but apparently there’s not an easy way to do that in Linux. I’m debating whether to make the effort of going into the shell now or to just use Firefox or Konqueror. I’m not very thrilled with the way Linux seems to keep all the packages on the system, ready for installation. Most of them will never be used and I think we should be able to delete them entirely. If there’s a way to do this, I haven’t found it but will keep looking.

So far, I haven’t found anything that would entice me to use Linux as a bootable system on a machine. But I will keep experimenting and see if I change my mind after I am more experienced.