My little sister wants to try Linux... (success)

[Lepard]

Her system is as follows:

AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB PC2100 RAM
Geforce 3 TI 500 64MB
Creative PCI Sound Card
Belkin 802.11g Wireless PCI card

She's currently using my old WinME installation disc.

She uses AIM, Yahoo and MSN Messenger to chat with friends, so I would need a program for that. I figure OpenOffice would be essential for homework.

Also she uses her wireless card to connect to the internet, and I've heard that Linux still has problems with wireless connections... so which Linux variation do you guys think would make it an easy transition from the Windows world.

UPDATE: PAGE 2 has some extra info for my laptop and dual booting.

 

[g8wayrebel]

Just to see if she likes it , try KnoppixSTD.
It will give her the basics without needing to abort her current system totally.
If she likes it and can navigate it , then go to a full blown install.
Knoppix is a bootable cd. You have to burn it as an ISO after download to use it.

It has all the basics for navigation and office within the ISO , so she should be able to do nearly everything she does now with nothing but this boot.
Good luck.

 

[GML3G0]

She'll probably like KDE better, so go with something KDE based.

Frugalware. Try this out. It's Slackware based and has a package manager.

Kopete (AIM/MSN), amaroK (amazing music collection player), Opera (web browser), K3b (burning CDs). Should be easy enough for her to use after you set it up.

Download the Slax LiveCD and run lspci in the command line to see what chipset that wireless card uses.

 

[Addikt]

Yeah, I'd definitely recommend KDE for learners...I learned on a KDE interface superimposed over a RedHat distro. I found it pretty easy, you should also get her a copy of Sam's Teach Yourself Linux in 24 hours, or 7 days, or however long it is...

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: Lepard
Her system is as follows:

AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB PC2100 RAM
Geforce 3 TI 500 64MB
Creative PCI Sound Card
Belkin 802.11g Wireless PCI card

She's currently using my old WinME installation disc.

She uses AIM, Yahoo and MSN Messenger to chat with friends, so I would need a program for that. I figure OpenOffice would be essential for homework.

Also she uses her wireless card to connect to the internet, and I've heard that Linux still has problems with wireless connections... so which Linux variation do you guys think would make it an easy transition from the Windows world.

Well as far as the hardware goes, the graphics card should be supported and should work well with the supplied driver. I'm pretty sure the PCI sound card is supported. Now the belkin card is where there may be a hiccup. That chipset is a broadcom chipset. There are drivers for it in linux, but they've only recently been admitted in the kernel and from their website it seems 2.6.17-rc2 and above should have it. I doubt you'll find many distros that will use this kernel version right now. Pretty soon there'll be easier support for that card, but right now its going to be much harder.

Perhaps Mepis might have that driver in module form. My best bet would be Mepis as far as hardware detection and ease of use.

Oh yeah, forgot. You could always use ndiswrapper (uses windows drivers and runs as a module), so i'm pretty sure that'd work.

As far as chatting goes, gAIM is my favorite and supports a crap load of different chat mediums (msn, aim, yahoo, irc, icq, jabber, etc).

My top three recommendations for a distro (in order of preference) are 1) Mepis, 2) SuSE, and 3) Ubuntu.

 

[xtknight]

I think Mandriva 2006 or OpenSUSE 10.0 are more noob-friendly than Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) (graphical install and more things automatically configured), but Ubuntu is not hard to use either. Ubuntu does have a great package database and community.

For example though, in Ubuntu my friend had to find some peculiar switch in alsamixer to get his sound to work where (at least on mine), SUSE activates the same-labeled switch automatically for you. And gaim came with more plugins enabled by default. It has a graphical install as well, and the kernel-source automatically unpacked itself upon installation. And I didn't have to add umask=0022 to fstab just so a regular user could access the disk, SUSE solved that for me. Nit-picks, I know, but I'm sure there's more advantages. For a beginner, every little thing matters though.

Interestingly enough however, SUSE did not have remote desktop in the GNOME control center like Ubuntu and Debian did, which may be crucial if he/she needs help setting up his/her Linux. A quick 'vino-preferences' solved that for SUSE though, after disabling the SuSEfirewall2. I have tried a lot of Linuxes and that is just my experience. I have loved SUSE ever since I tried version 8. More than Redhat, more than Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Mandrake, or Mandriva. It wasn't that the others drove me crazy, but SUSE has always seemed more friendly and I like that.

 

[drag]

The wireless will be difficult. You'll have to connect the computer to a ethernet cable during the install. You'll have to use ndiswrapper-based driver (sub-par) to make a windows wireless driver compatable in Linux. It uses a broadcom chipset which will be unsupported by your distro. There are ndiswrapper howtos floating around.

There has been very recently added support for it in the Kernel, but no distro is going to provide support for it yet. In another 6-8 months most everybody should support it in their next releases. It'll be in kernel 2.6.17 (current very latest kernel is a 2.6.16.xx series)

For a distro Ubuntu is fine. Make sure that you read the faqs and have media stuff and browser plugins all setup for her and such.

My opinion the #1 absolute best distro is one that you use. You'll be supporting it and if you use a distro then that will be easiest for you to support her. I've tried setting up distros for other people that I don't use that are suppose to be 'easier' and whatnot, but it always takes longer to fix stuff because I am unfamilar with it. (I use Debian)

For IM stuff Gaim should work well. Also AIM and Yahoo stuff will have native Linux clients, but I prefer gaim. MSN won't have a Linux client, but gaim should support it.

For homework there is OpenOffice.org, of course. Also there is Abiword and Gnumeric from "Gnome Office". Also there is Koffice, from KDE. Probably want to use 'rtf' format for stuff she needs to turn in or whatnot.

If she needs a printer then get/hope you have a Epson or HP.

 

[GML3G0]

Originally posted by: drag
If she needs a printer then get/hope you have a Epson or HP.

I recently bought the Samsung ML-2250 laser printer and was surprised to find that Samsung included an installer for Linux on the CD. Same thing with Cowon's media players. They sell them claiming they work out of the box in Linux, and they do. I wish more companies would do the same.

 

[Kaido]

Linspire: The World's Easiest Desktop Linux!

http://www.linspire.com/

 

[Addikt]

Nice, very user friendly...but it costs money while KDE is open source. Honestly I think KDE is the way to go, as far as the distro I don't know pick one KDE comes as part of most of them. I didn't mind Gentoo but I did not have to set it up I heard that, that is a pain.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: drag
The wireless will be difficult. You'll have to connect the computer to a ethernet cable during the install. You'll have to use ndiswrapper-based driver (sub-par) to make a windows wireless driver compatable in Linux. It uses a broadcom chipset which will be unsupported by your distro. There are ndiswrapper howtos floating around.

There has been very recently added support for it in the Kernel, but no distro is going to provide support for it yet. In another 6-8 months most everybody should support it in their next releases. It'll be in kernel 2.6.17 (current very latest kernel is a 2.6.16.xx series)

For a distro Ubuntu is fine. Make sure that you read the faqs and have media stuff and browser plugins all setup for her and such.

My opinion the #1 absolute best distro is one that you use. You'll be supporting it and if you use a distro then that will be easiest for you to support her. I've tried setting up distros for other people that I don't use that are suppose to be 'easier' and whatnot, but it always takes longer to fix stuff because I am unfamilar with it. (I use Debian)

For IM stuff Gaim should work well. Also AIM and Yahoo stuff will have native Linux clients, but I prefer gaim. MSN won't have a Linux client, but gaim should support it.

For homework there is OpenOffice.org, of course. Also there is Abiword and Gnumeric from "Gnome Office". Also there is Koffice, from KDE. Probably want to use 'rtf' format for stuff she needs to turn in or whatnot.

If she needs a printer then get/hope you have a Epson or HP.

Like drag ensure all your software works. If it does work know how it does work , because if it isn't a simple plug and play it can create problems. Ubuntu is great. GAIM is good and supports MSN, but this is limited support. File transfers suck, you can't "wink" a person or send them a flash picture (Although atleast the newer versions will acknowledge that it SHOULD have been done to you). You'll want to move up to atlesat Gaim 2.0 (beta 3 for now) to get the custom icons...else you'll never see it.

For homework Oopen Office is great

Oh and might I add, Samsung printers work also. I've never had a problem with one! In fact Ubuntu detected automatically.

Btw I suggest Gnome over KDE.

 

[Brazen]

I suggest Gnome over KDE, too. I've been a KDE fan for years, but KDE has always been designed for the power user and Gnome has always been designed for the noob. Also, Gnome seems to be surpassing KDE in cool features while still maintaining it's simplicity. After years of prefering KDE, I have switched to Gnome, but I have always recommended Gnome to non-techie users.

 

[BML]

Try Ubuntu its the #1 choice. I have been a slackware user for years and have had problems with wireless and other things. I installed Ubuntu on my laptop and everything worked. Wireless, sound, and video. I opened up the network adaptor settings and my home wireless was there. I was amazed. By default it uses Gnome which is pretty easy to use. They even have a live cd that works almost as well. Heck they will even send you cds for free. Give it a try i bet you will love it.


Distro Watch

 

[BML]

Originally posted by: Brazen
I suggest Gnome over KDE, too. I've been a KDE fan for years, but KDE has always been designed for the power user and Gnome has always been designed for the noob. Also, Gnome seems to be surpassing KDE in cool features while still maintaining it's simplicity. After years of prefering KDE, I have switched to Gnome, but I have always recommended Gnome to non-techie users.

Hotdog Flavored Rig? Guttermouth?

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: BML

Originally posted by: Brazen
I suggest Gnome over KDE, too. I've been a KDE fan for years, but KDE has always been designed for the power user and Gnome has always been designed for the noob. Also, Gnome seems to be surpassing KDE in cool features while still maintaining it's simplicity. After years of prefering KDE, I have switched to Gnome, but I have always recommended Gnome to non-techie users.

Hotdog Flavored Rig? Guttermouth?

Nope. Older. Limp Bizkit.

 

[EffeX]

Fedora Core is the best.

 

[pkme2]

Ubuntu is best suited for beginners, and you don't have to a rocket scientist to run it. With Automatix, she won't have to worry about constant updates and that sort.

She has all those standard free programs plus other goodies. You're can setup Automatix for her and step back. I use FC4 and its too much for her at this time.

Checkout the LINUX Anand Tech tread about what's what. Everybody has their own likes, so to save time look at the past postings. Maybe that could help......

 

[BML]

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: BML

Originally posted by: Brazen
I suggest Gnome over KDE, too. I've been a KDE fan for years, but KDE has always been designed for the power user and Gnome has always been designed for the noob. Also, Gnome seems to be surpassing KDE in cool features while still maintaining it's simplicity. After years of prefering KDE, I have switched to Gnome, but I have always recommended Gnome to non-techie users.

Hotdog Flavored Rig? Guttermouth?

Nope. Older. Limp Bizkit.

Older? Guttermouth had 3 cds out when Limp Bizkit was till playing at the Milkbar in Jacksonville.

 

[pkme2]

By the way, Ubuntu has found all drivers, even for old PII computer rigs, to everything today.
Rest assured that you'll not wasting time looking for oddities.
It checks what you got and it works seamlessly.
That's what you want, your time is too valuable and I believe once you setup your sister's rig, that's it!

 

[magomago]

I don't know about Automatix. I have mixed feelings. On one hand if you want to setup a PC quick its nice that the script just loads it all up...

but on the other hand you never really learn what is going on. Learning to use Linux relies a lot on "learning by doing". I can't think of how many times I learned a new command, or found out where something is just by following a simple guide. Automatix dumbs it down to the point where it will automatically "wget" or "apt-get" for you...its great in the sense that a dummy can use it; but if someone goes wrong with their system the dummy will have absolutely no idea where to even begin trouble shooting...and some of the things that it acheives is really redundant.

I'm not saying people should.

But if she wants to install something, and each time she asks you and you tell her to open up synaptic and search...she will learn what Synaptic is and how to use it...if you just give her automatix she will get absolutely confused when something she wasn't isn' there and you start telling of some "weird" way of opening ANOTHEr program to install stuff.

 

[Lepard]

OK I tried the LiveCD option of Kubuntu and ran it for her... she liked it. Im going to let her use it for a while whenever she can so she can get used to it and then go ahead and set up a dual boot option for her.

Thanks everyone.

Also I want to also setup a dual boot on my laptop (A Toshiba Satellite A105-S1014) so I can also learn a bit of Linux... however it has a Radeon 200M integrated card. Any distro you guys recommend?

Here are the exact specs:
Celeron M 1.5Ghz
512 MB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon XPress 200M

 

[thesurge]

does anyone know if the next Ubuntu release (6.06 i think?) will include the kernel that supports the broadcom chipsets? I had Ubuntu running last winter like a dream on my laptop wireless included after some tinkering with the notorious ndiswrapper (dell 600m) but I messed something up when i tinkered too far so i fell back on windows for now. when this semester ends i plan on giving ubuntu a full go but maybe i'll wait until this new kernel is implemented because i would really love to try the drivers.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: thesurge
does anyone know if the next Ubuntu release (6.06 i think?) will include the kernel that supports the broadcom chipsets? I had Ubuntu running last winter like a dream on my laptop wireless included after some tinkering with the notorious ndiswrapper (dell 600m) but I messed something up when i tinkered too far so i fell back on windows for now. when this semester ends i plan on giving ubuntu a full go but maybe i'll wait until this new kernel is implemented because i would really love to try the drivers.

I don't know. But if Ubuntu doesn't include 2.6.17 then It'll be easy to upgrade to a new kernel yourself. See here for a example:
http://wiki.debian.org/BuildYourOwnKernel
Another:
http://myrddin.org/howto/debian-kernel-recompiling/

Ubuntu should be similar just as long as they provide their own version of the make-kpkg command.. which I think they do.

How I do it is a pretty lazy way. I goto kernel.org, download the latest sources tarball (or if I have older sources patch them to the latest version), then I untar it in your /usr/src/ directory.

Then I cd into the kernel source tree. Copy the config file from /boot/ for my current kernel, change that to .config. Then run:
make oldconfig
to configure the new kernel with the old kernel configuration.
then I run
make menuconfig
and check for any thing I'd like to change.
Then I run
make-kpkg kernel_image
to build a debian package of my new kernel. Then I install that. If I need to make a initrd image then I run
mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd-(kernel-version) (kernel version)
but it looks like the --initrd switch in those links would eliminate that step.

Then I double check the boot configuration.. Make sure the initrd is in there and that it's correct. Also I make sure that the old kernel menu entry is there so that I can fall back to a working configuration in case something goes wrong with my new kernel.

But I bet that Dapper will have 2.6.17 so that you don't have to worry about that stuff.

Also I want to also setup a dual boot on my laptop (A Toshiba Satellite A105-S1014) so I can also learn a bit of Linux... however it has a Radeon 200M integrated card. Any distro you guys recommend?

Here are the exact specs:
Celeron M 1.5Ghz
512 MB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon XPress 200M

Why not just use Kubuntu or Ubuntu like your going to give to your sister? Both are perfectly capable systems. Should be happy with them.

The laptop should work fine out of the box, even the video, but you'll want the propriatory drivers if you want to have 3d acceleration. I am sure that Ubuntu has on their website very good documentation on how to install it and set it up. It's a pretty common configuration, especially in laptops.

Also take a look at http://www.linux-laptop.net/
There they have people's descriptions on how to install linux on various laptops and what they have working, what they don't, and how they got were they were at. It should be usefull if you run into any snafus.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Also I want to also setup a dual boot on my laptop (A Toshiba Satellite A105-S1014) so I can also learn a bit of Linux... however it has a Radeon 200M integrated card. Any distro you guys recommend?

Here are the exact specs:
Celeron M 1.5Ghz
512 MB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon XPress 200M

Why not just use Kubuntu or Ubuntu like your going to give to your sister? Both are perfectly capable systems. Should be happy with them.

The laptop should work fine out of the box, even the video, but you'll want the propriatory drivers if you want to have 3d acceleration. I am sure that Ubuntu has on their website very good documentation on how to install it and set it up. It's a pretty common configuration, especially in laptops.

Also take a look at http://www.linux-laptop.net/
There they have people's descriptions on how to install linux on various laptops and what they have working, what they don't, and how they got were they were at. It should be usefull if you run into any snafus.[/quote]

Ubuntu would probably give it the radeon driver and crash the x server.. Unless you don't mind playing around in the command line to fix Ubuntu after installing I'd recommend a different distribution. Suse works excellently (wait one more week and 10.1 is going to go final!!!). Mepis would work out of the box too.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: BML

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: BML

Originally posted by: Brazen
I suggest Gnome over KDE, too. I've been a KDE fan for years, but KDE has always been designed for the power user and Gnome has always been designed for the noob. Also, Gnome seems to be surpassing KDE in cool features while still maintaining it's simplicity. After years of prefering KDE, I have switched to Gnome, but I have always recommended Gnome to non-techie users.

Hotdog Flavored Rig? Guttermouth?

Nope. Older. Limp Bizkit.

Older? Guttermouth had 3 cds out when Limp Bizkit was till playing at the Milkbar in Jacksonville.

I assumed you were talking about Hotdog To The Head by Guttermouth which just came out in 2004. I've had the hotdog reference in my sig since before 2004; since 2001 actually, right after Limp Bizkit released the Chocolate Starfish And The Hotdog Flavored Water album at the end of 2000.