Hello,

Steve Bellovin wrote:

>I'm going to be setting up a new NetBSD box for a long-time Windows 
>user.  The applications are comparatively casual -- web, email, some 
>word-processing.  I'm curious what environment people would recommend 
>-- KDE or gnome, for example.  What mailer would be most familiar to 
>someone used to Eudora?  (Mozilla or Firefox are obvious choices for 
>someone who's been using Firefox on Windows.)
>
While using neither KDE nor GNOME myself, I would recommend KDE over GNOME
because - IMHO - KDE is a little more intuitive and more similar to the 
windows desktop,
making the transition less painful.
You could optionally install both and set up a login manager that lets 
the user choose
what window manager/desktop to run.
Have you thought of XPDE? =)

I don't know Eudora, so I can't really compare here. Myself, I am using 
Thunderbird
most happily. I like it very much, since it does the job and is very 
easy to use. Also, the
spam filter is great. And when going for Mozilla/Firefox anyway, it fits 
in good.
I don't think anyone could have a hard time learning to use it. =)

Also, kMail is very good. At least it was, when I last used it (~a year 
ago).

Sylpheed doesn't look as cute, but depending on the kind of user you are 
setting the
machine up for it might be a good choice as well.

Kind regards,
Benjamin