Linux for the noobs

[You call THAT a pineapple]

Hiya guys, just thought I'd ask your advice - I'm fairly competent with a PCs and XP, but when it comes to Linux I know nothing. I'm about to complete my first pc build and it occured to me that it would probably be easier in the long run if i installed XP and linux from the start. What i'm after is a FREE version that would be suitable for a no0b like myself just to learn the ins and outs (i'm going to do IT at uni next year so i thought i may as well get a head start). I wil probably mainly use it for word processing, internet surfing and tinkering, so it doesnt have to be cutting edge or anything, just no0b friendly and pretty to look at lol, with a good suite of programs. I'm fairly anti-microsoft so if it proves up to the task who knows, one day I may be able to ditch windows!

Also any good sites/info you guys know about regarding installing dual boot linux and XP would be greatly appreciated!

Regards, Daniel

Ps - I'm getting an Athlon 64, so are there any versions that support 64bit processing that newbie like me could use?

 

[drag]

People seem to like Mandrake for newbs, but I tend to like Fedora. I say give Mandrake a try first, and if you don't like it move on to something else.

You can download many free distros at http://www.linuxiso.org/

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Mandrake is arguably the easiest and is still cutting-edge in many ways. You will get all the pretty GUIs and still have the CLI to fall back on. If you really want to learn (as opposed to just using) Linux, go with Slackware or Debian.

There are several Live distros also (which don't require you to actually install) if you want to look at different versions. Knoppix is the most popular of those, and Mandrake has Mandrake Move.

DistroWatch is worth a look also.

 

[skene]

You may also want to checkout ubuntu at http://ubuntulinux.org/ It's based on Debian and one of the easiest install I've ever had as well as great hardware detection. I'd recomend either that one or mandrake for pretty much the same reason. Both are focused on ease of use rather then rediculous flexability and control like gentoo or LFS and the like.
Personaly I use gentoo since it's got good online help and is a great way to learn about linux...but definetly not good for a noob.

 

[HKSturboKID]

http://ubuntulinux.org/ is pretty kewl. Easy install and all the eye candy is there. But remember to read the FAQ online. The root account is disable by default and you use sudo command to do administrative related stuff.

 

[DaFinn]

A vote for Mandrake...

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: HKSturboKID
http://ubuntulinux.org/ is pretty kewl. Easy install and all the eye candy is there. But remember to read the FAQ online. The root account is disable by default and you use sudo command to do administrative related stuff.

That's a good distro to start out with if you want a clean and functional desktop system.

It's also based on debian which is the best (personal opinion) you can get for a wide range of purposes.

Usually people try a few before sticking with one that they like.

Also the easiest way to dual boot is to install XP first. Then you make sure that you can get into the recovery console in case you need to do the fixmbr command. You use that to fix the master boot record in case a Linux install goes bad or you want to uninstall linux.

For the linux install just leave some space on the harddrive unpartitioned (keep in mind the 4 real partition/3 real partitions + 1 extended partion divided up in many logical partitions restrictions) for linux to be installed in.

Around 20gigs would be nice, more is nicer.

Then you install Linux and let the installer take care of the partitioning and setting up the linux bootloader to deal with the dual boot proccess.

Then that should be that. Do a full install if you have the disk space, so that you don't miss anything. Services can be disabled easily and unused programs and developement tools just take up disk space when not being used.

 

[cowdog]

Over the past month I have installed and fiddled with numerous Linux distributions. I had used Linux in the past for specific scientific computing needs, but as far as installation, configuration, and other aspects of Linux, I'm very much a noob working hard to ramp up my knowledge and skills.

Right now SUSE 9.1 (haven't tried 9.2 yet) and Ubuntu 4.10 are my top choices for personal use Linux distriutions. Both had easy installations and nice tools for application management. The gnome-based gui of Ubuntu is very slick. I love the apt-get (just like Debian) command of Ubuntu. You can also include pretty much all the Debian libraries for use with Ubuntu, which is cool; I wouldn't bet on everything to work perfectly, however.

Mandrake and Fedora were OK; slackware was OK too, although the install was harder. Gentoo was cool but not an easy install. Debian testing (sarge) is very nice but doesn't have all the nifty latest, greatest apps.

After all my testing, I have settled on Debian (sarge) for a small workgroup file server and Ubuntu at home (dual boot with XP). Both work great for my needs. I want to check out SUSE 9.2 and Gentoo 2004.3, but I'll save that for a "rainy day."

 

[HKSturboKID]

I also have a few Linux distribution that I am playing with right now. I have Red Hat 9.0 on my laptop which I recently updated to FC2 using APT(Thanks to Drag ). I have Ubuntu installed on one of my desktop Piii 800 and another Fedora Core II on my AMD 2600+ Desktop which I plan to wipe out and put back SUSE 9.1 providing that I installed ubuntu linux over my suse 9.1 pc. Right now, whenever I get some free time, I play with one or the other just to get familiarize with it.

 

[calyco]

Another vote for Mandrake, Ive tried Redhat and a few others and Mandrake is the easiest.

 

[yelo333]

/ME votes for mandrake if you just want an easy linux, votes for fedora if you want one that runs on slightly older hardware, and slackware if you really want to learn the ins and outs of linux

reason I say slackware, and not debian, is slackware is a bit truer to the "standard" setup, whereas they changed quite a bit in debian so apt-get could do it's magic(ex - whole directory structure for modprobe.conf).

 

[HappyCracker]

Gentoo but only because the install docs, various other docs, and the forums are awesome. Usually if I have a problem, someone else has already had it and it's solved. I learned tons by going through the install process, especially a couple times (Damn you Abit and your faulty capacitors *shakes fist*); i started to figure out a lot about what was going on. Granted the install takes some work. Stage 3 wouldn't be a bad place to start, but if you want to jump right in (and don't need your computer for a couple of days, hardware depending) go for a stage 1 install.

 

[You call THAT a pineapple]

Thanks for all the input guys, there sure seems to be a heap of good distros out there! By sheer coincidence this months copy of Atomic (a great magazine - see http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/) came with a version of Knoppix that runs from CD (2gb on one cd - amazing!). Guess I'll play with that for a bit before I commit myself

Dan