Linux Distros for n00bs?

[cessna152]

Hi,

I'm looking a for a Linux Distro that would be good for a beginner to linux. I've looked at Gentoo, Lindows, RedHat, Mandrake to name a few. What would you guys suggest? Reasons for your suggestion would be great also. I'll end up dual-booting this with WindowsXP.

Thank You :-D

 

[Maetryx]

Without hesitation: Mandrake.

 

[IamDavid]

I would go with Mandrake.. I tried a few and its the easiest to install and overall the most user friendly..

BTW: Don't be freaked out by the way people talk about linux.. I found Linux is not as hard as many wold like you to think.. I think its more of a ego trip them to say hey know something you don't. Enjoy Linux and don;t get to frustrated when you first learning.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: IamDavid
I would go with Mandrake.. I tried a few and its the easiest to install and overall the most user friendly..

BTW: Don't be freaked out by the way people talk about linux.. I found Linux is not as hard as many wold like you to think.. I think its more of a ego trip them to say hey know something you don't. Enjoy Linux and don;t get to frustrated when you first learning.

Let me guess, you haven't bothered to learn the command line interface have you? If I put you in runlevel 3 you wouldn't have a clue what to do, right? The scary thing about X and KDE/Gnome is they make it easy for you to screw up and you don't really learn anything using them.

 

[IamDavid]

Let me guess, you haven't bothered to learn the command line interface have you? If I put you in runlevel 3 you wouldn't have a clue what to do, right? The scary thing about X and KDE/Gnome is they make it easy for you to screw up and you don't really learn anything using them.

You see, that proves my point.. You talk as if to use Linux you have to know everything about it right away and because you happen to know more then me that you are some how "better" then the rest of us . Have you ever stopped and thought maybe this is why Linux has never been more mainstream?
It amazes me how people on this board and many others talk. You would have us believe installing and using Linux takes some kind of superior knowledge. When in fact, it don't. I think if someone can figure out the inner working of Windows then they will have NO problems with Linux..

 

[cessna152]

Please don't fight

I'm not totally clueless about linux. I've just never ran/installed it on my own computer. I've used commandlines before. I'm looking for a nice distro that would be a good introduction. IE. something that a friend who knows windows could use and one that a linux user would not shy away from.

I've heard many good things about Mandrake. My only hesitation is that it looks so much like Windows and acts like it. My intention is to learn about Linux not to run Linux(did that make sense?).

 

[TheOmegaCode]

Originally posted by: IamDavid

Let me guess, you haven't bothered to learn the command line interface have you? If I put you in runlevel 3 you wouldn't have a clue what to do, right? The scary thing about X and KDE/Gnome is they make it easy for you to screw up and you don't really learn anything using them.

You see, that proves my point.. You talk as if to use Linux you have to know everything about it right away and because you happen to know more then me that you are some how "better" then the rest of us . Have you ever stopped and thought maybe this is why Linux has never been more mainstream?
It amazes me how people on this board and many others talk. You would have us believe installing and using Linux takes some kind of superior knowledge. When in fact, it don't. I think if someone can figure out the inner working of Windows then they will have NO problems with Linux..

Well, a lot of linux users really couldn't care less as to whether the operating system will go mainstream, or get support for the newest game, or has a nice looking GUI.
A lot of Linux users (myself not included, because I'm still a newbie) get sick of the same questions. After the 1700th time you've been asked "what's the best distro for a newbie," it starts to sound a lot like, "which distro will wipe my ass for me, so that I won't have to."

I started off with Mandrake, and I really didn't like it. It was buggy as hell and installing software was a pain in the ass, be it a program that wouldn't compile, or dependency hell. Not to mention when something would break, I'd have no clue how to fix it (because it did everything for me). Luckily for me, I had a friend that knew FreeBSD so he showed me that an install w/out a smiling star was painless. The ports collection solved about 80% of software problems.

I've recently started using Linux again, (Debian 3.0 "woody") and I like it just as much as FreeBSD, if not more. If you really want to learn Linux, my vote would be for a distro like Debian, where you actually have to read and ask questions.

 

[Toxic]

I've always liked SuSE, but to each his own. Debian is always an excellent choice. I don't really think it matters which distro you choose, just choose one and get on with the fun.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

I'm going to have to side with toxic on SUSE(8.0 for me)..I personally like it and doing online updates thru YAST is a breeze. Besides, configuring all my hardware was a snap too.

EDIT: I have allways found redhat to be a pain in the arse to get config'd and running.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: IamDavid

Let me guess, you haven't bothered to learn the command line interface have you? If I put you in runlevel 3 you wouldn't have a clue what to do, right? The scary thing about X and KDE/Gnome is they make it easy for you to screw up and you don't really learn anything using them.

You see, that proves my point.. You talk as if to use Linux you have to know everything about it right away and because you happen to know more then me that you are some how "better" then the rest of us . Have you ever stopped and thought maybe this is why Linux has never been more mainstream?
It amazes me how people on this board and many others talk. You would have us believe installing and using Linux takes some kind of superior knowledge. When in fact, it don't. I think if someone can figure out the inner working of Windows then they will have NO problems with Linux..

The problem isn't people installing it. With a modern distribution anyone can install it. The problem will be when something goes wrong and they don't have the foggiest idea how to fix it. See I don't know that much about *nix, I learn more all the time but I'm far from an expert but I know that if you shield yourself from the OS with a GUI you are doing yourself a MAJOR disservice when something goes wrong. Linux IS A CLI. Xwindows is a bunch of fuzz that goes on top of that CLI. If you never break the fuzz you will never understand the OS. Linux is NOT userfriendly, Linux is NOT a desktop OS for the masses (yet). I don't like people suggesting that it is. Maybe someday a distribution will become totatally integrated like OS X but it isn't true right now and I can't let you try to convince people Linux is easy. Linux is easy if you don't bother to learn anything, but if you get underneath the hood and try to fix problems yourself it's a STEEP learning curve from windows OS's.

Linux is a great server, someday it will make inroads to the desktop. That someday is not right now, it's small baby steps on the way there.

 

[vash]

n00b distros? Cmon, we have Gentoo and Debian. Definitely the easiest and most user friendly distro's to install, upgrade and administer. Well, if you ask sys admins, that is.

For someone that knows little about linux (and doesn't care to learn too much), get RedHat, SuSe or Mandrake.

vash

 

[AndyHui]

If you just want to use a distro just to get a feel for it with a minimal (ie non-existent learning curve), I highly recommend Knoppix.

It's perfect for beginners who know absolutely nothing about Linux, and requires no commitment. Download the ISO, boot from CD and away it goes. No need to install ANYTHING.

 

[cessna152]

Gentoo it is

Thanks Guys

I might also try out that Knoppix distro. Sounds interesting

 

[n0cmonkey]

I am going to throw my 2 cents in here because, well I can dammit

Distro I started with: RedHat
Distro I learned the most from: Slackware
Distro I would install if I were to installl linux again: Debian


RedHat was nice back int eh 5.2 days, but I wanted something mroe advanced a little later on, and I wanted to be 31337. So I installed slackware. Since I wanted to learn linux/unix and not just say I can use it, I went with one of the few distros out there I could pick up at compusa and would still have to do everything manually. I learned a lot from slackware. Nothinman recommended Debian, and I tried it not too long ago (several months now). Software installation was a breeze, and for that reason alone I would recommend it to anyone. Installing software and keeping it up to date is some of the harder parts of running a linux machine. Debian just makes that simple.

So, in the end you have to answer a few questions. Do you want to be 1337 and learn the system or do you want to be 1337 and say you use the system? Why am I doing this in the first place? Will this help me in any way? Will someone pass me a coke?

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I am going to throw my 2 cents in here because, well I can dammit

Distro I started with: RedHat
Distro I learned the most from: Slackware
Distro I would install if I were to installl linux again: Debian


RedHat was nice back int eh 5.2 days, but I wanted something mroe advanced a little later on, and I wanted to be 31337. So I installed slackware. Since I wanted to learn linux/unix and not just say I can use it, I went with one of the few distros out there I could pick up at compusa and would still have to do everything manually. I learned a lot from slackware. Nothinman recommended Debian, and I tried it not too long ago (several months now). Software installation was a breeze, and for that reason alone I would recommend it to anyone. Installing software and keeping it up to date is some of the harder parts of running a linux machine. Debian just makes that simple.

So, in the end you have to answer a few questions. Do you want to be 1337 and learn the system or do you want to be 1337 and say you use the system? Why am I doing this in the first place? Will this help me in any way? Will someone pass me a coke?

No coke for you, now back in your cage.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: rahvin

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I am going to throw my 2 cents in here because, well I can dammit

Distro I started with: RedHat
Distro I learned the most from: Slackware
Distro I would install if I were to installl linux again: Debian


RedHat was nice back int eh 5.2 days, but I wanted something mroe advanced a little later on, and I wanted to be 31337. So I installed slackware. Since I wanted to learn linux/unix and not just say I can use it, I went with one of the few distros out there I could pick up at compusa and would still have to do everything manually. I learned a lot from slackware. Nothinman recommended Debian, and I tried it not too long ago (several months now). Software installation was a breeze, and for that reason alone I would recommend it to anyone. Installing software and keeping it up to date is some of the harder parts of running a linux machine. Debian just makes that simple.

So, in the end you have to answer a few questions. Do you want to be 1337 and learn the system or do you want to be 1337 and say you use the system? Why am I doing this in the first place? Will this help me in any way? Will someone pass me a coke?

No coke for you, now back in your cage.

HA! Found coke! Have Jack. Feeling good soon.

 

[Flatline]

RedHat, SuSe, and Mandrake are the three I would recommend most for a noob (SuSe if you want to see where things are in "standard" distros instead of the modified layouts of 'Drake & RedHat). If you want to learn the inner workings, pretty much any distro except for something like Lycoris will easily let you do it either through a terminal or runlevel 3.
Why is it that every time some guy asks for some advice on a distro a few people jump down everyone's throat about letting the OS "hold your hand"? Most modern OSes are designed to do just that, and even the most moron-friendly distros will allow you to get under the hood and tinker. Take a deep breath and a couple of valiums and let people learn at their pace; just because you don't want a GUI doesn't mean that no one else should. Personally, I like some of the newer GUIs for linux (KDE 3 is pretty sweet, if a bit bloated), but I always boot into runlevel 3 and I use the command line a lot; doesn't mean I'm better or more knowledgeable than anyone else.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Flatline
RedHat, SuSe, and Mandrake are the three I would recommend most for a noob (SuSe if you want to see where things are in "standard" distros instead of the modified layouts of 'Drake & RedHat). If you want to learn the inner workings, pretty much any distro except for something like Lycoris will easily let you do it either through a terminal or runlevel 3.
Why is it that every time some guy asks for some advice on a distro a few people jump down everyone's throat about letting the OS "hold your hand"? Most modern OSes are designed to do just that, and even the most moron-friendly distros will allow you to get under the hood and tinker. Take a deep breath and a couple of valiums and let people learn at their pace; just because you don't want a GUI doesn't mean that no one else should. Personally, I like some of the newer GUIs for linux (KDE 3 is pretty sweet, if a bit bloated), but I always boot into runlevel 3 and I use the command line a lot; doesn't mean I'm better or more knowledgeable than anyone else.

Ok, I dont believe I jumped down anyone's throat this time. But I am definitely guilty of it in the past. My response to your bleeding heart "lets baby these suckers" post can be summed up quite simply: I cant wait to see you answer the same dumb question over and over again in the forum. It will be good to have fresh meat for the newbies, Im tired of them nibbling on my ankles.

On a less "blood pressure through the roof, why the hell do I do this to myself, yes I know I can ignore the dumb posters but the dog wont let me, why the hell dont they just learn, isnt there a search option here, what ever happened to google, yes I will kill her boy" note, the main reason is what I stated. What do you want to do? Do you want to learn the OS and know what you are doing? Or do you want to be a user? If you want to be a user, your time is better spent other places. If you are intelligent and curious, and want to friggin hack, welcome to linux/bsd/solaris/hp-ux/aix you sick bastard!/whatever. If you know how to use the command line to accomplish what you need to get done, you are better and more knowledgeable than others. That does not speak bad about them, just good about you. They are ignorant, but you took the time to educate yourself. You were curious. You thirsted for something you were not getting anywhere else. And you should *not* think less of yourself or your knowledge because someone else is not on your level. Yes, I am an elitist bastard. You sit there and spend hours upon hours of your life; your time, not your boss' time, but the time you have; learning something. Putting countless hours of time you could be spending with someone special or doing something that isnt looked down at so much by "the cool people" into something that you *ENJOY* and tell me you dont mind someone leeching off your knowledge. Taking that time, effort, and sweat you spent gaining this knowledge, for granted. Tell me that makes you feel good. When someone takes the time to learn the command line in linux, or try something a little tougher, even if it is a dumb idea or they misread something and do something stupid, it shows they are trying. It shows they are putting forth some effort and may deserve a little help, instead of asking for freebies.

Enough of a rant, Im done with these newbie threads.

 

[Flatline]

Damn, Noc, that may be a tad harsh...
I'm not saying that people should have their hands held, just that they have to start somewhere. It doesn't take long, even using a very GUI-heavy distro, before you have to start picking up some tidbits on how things work. I'm not going to say that people should start out with the command line primarily because it's a huge help to have a graphical browser like Mozilla or Netscape or Galeon or Konqueror so that when they do run into problems they can use Google or the distro's site to get help BEFORE posting a question.
I have no problem with someone asking advice on which distro they should use partially because the distro you choose should depend on what you want to do with the system.
I wasn't trying to attack you in any way with my post; I've seen you answer questions for people in 5 minutes that would have taken them days to sort out on their own. What I was saying was that sometimes people need a point to start from.
Frankly, for most things, I agree with you...people should diligently try to work problems out on their own before asking for help; but maybe by setting them out on a good path to begin with, we can avoid some of the more frustrating noob questions you've grown so sick of

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Flatline
Damn, Noc, that may be a tad harsh...

Life is being a bit harsh to me right now. Thats how life is.

I'm not saying that people should have their hands held, just that they have to start somewhere. It doesn't take long, even using a very GUI-heavy distro, before you have to start picking up some tidbits on how things work. I'm not going to say that people should start out with the command line primarily because it's a huge help to have a graphical browser like Mozilla or Netscape or Galeon or Konqueror so that when they do run into problems they can use Google or the distro's site to get help BEFORE posting a question.

No one is complaining about gui anything. I still think bb is one of the best looking guis I have ever seen.

I have no problem with someone asking advice on which distro they should use partially because the distro you choose should depend on what you want to do with the system.

And how many threads have you seen that list what these people want to do with the system? Ive seen a couple. And I dont believe any of them listed "I want to learn how to use linux because Im curious about things like that dammit!" Not one. The people who think that grab a linux and start fiddling.

I wasn't trying to attack you in any way with my post; I've seen you answer questions for people in 5 minutes that would have taken them days to sort out on their own. What I was saying was that sometimes people need a point to start from.

I did not take it as an attack. Dont worry

Frankly, for most things, I agree with you...people should diligently try to work problems out on their own before asking for help; but maybe by setting them out on a good path to begin with, we can avoid some of the more frustrating noob questions you've grown so sick of

One word. If everyone that has a problem practiced this one word the forum would barely see problems, but would be filled with wonderful "My distro is better than yours because" threads. *SEARCH* Thats the bare minimum. I can deal with the people that refuse to help me help them. I can deal with the people that refuse to follow my advice. But if you refuse to search, I should refuse to help you.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey


One word. If everyone that has a problem practiced this one word the forum would barely see problems, but would be filled with wonderful "My distro is better than yours because" threads. *SEARCH* Thats the bare minimum. I can deal with the people that refuse to help me help them. I can deal with the people that refuse to follow my advice. But if you refuse to search, I should refuse to help you.

Ahahahaha! You hit it, that's my point. You should ONLY come to forums for help after you have RTFM. This means you should have used google and read every website you found, used google and read every relavant post on USENET, and for the love of god, read the HOWTO's. You should have looked through the man pages, looked for help in every concievable place you can think of before you ask for help. This is why people that use *nix every day tell people to RTFM, this is why when people say "I'm going to install Linux" people jump into the thread and say "Why?". It's the reason I posted that they should install in runlevel 3 and figure out how things really work. Because you know what? The GUI tools aren't that good, they actually don't always do what they claim. If all you know is the tool that makes it simple you can't consult the help resources because you don't know the first thing about doing what you are trying to do.

Linux is not a desktop OS for the masses (yet). Sure it gets better every year but it's not even at Win95 level as far as desktop functionality goes. If you want the powerful OS with the slick GUI (to make it easy) buy a Mac. OS X is BSD based, hell you can compile and run apache and just about every other BSD tool you can imagine on a Mac.

 

[Louie1961a]

My vote would be as follows:

If you want to learn linux, and are looing for something to start off with, get Suse 8.1. I am running it on my desktop and my laptop. I like it better than Mandrake 9 and Red Hat 8 (the newest versions of each). I think the YAST2 tool is very slick. I also like that it comes with the Keramic theme. When I tried to install themes and such on Mandrake 9, some worked well (i.e., Acqua), some wouldn't work at all (Alt-clear, connective crystal icons), and some kind of worked (liquid). But other than that, Mandrake is nice. It is probably the best choice if you don't want to pay for Suse. I like what mandrake did to their icons and overall look. It is much better than it used to be. Their configuration tools are much improved. IMHO, it is just a half a step behind Suse, but you have to pay for Suse.

If you don't want to learn linux, and all you do is surf the web, read e-mail, use AIM or ICQ, and maybe create a few basic documents once in a while, then get Red Hat 8 and do a "desktop" install. I think it will be perfect for my family who are basically computer illiterate. It will at least serve them as well as windows, which they are always calling me to fix when they shut down by pulling the plug (ok, I am exagerating a bit..but not much. When you ask my dad what he uses for a web browser, he will say IE. If you ask him what he uses for a homepage, he says IE, if you ask him what his favorite web site is, he says IE. He still doesn't quite understand why the computer has to be connected to a phone line in oreder for him to use IE, but at least he takes my word for it now). Anyway, Red Hat 8.0 will be fine for him.