Which OS to use?

[Burninator]

In this brief questionaire, I wanna exclude Windows due to I wanna get familiar with a form of linux.

I am a complete nub going into Linux and would like some suggestions on which form to get and I really have to clue to whats out there. I just would like some ideas that I can research further and decide in the end. But if you could each give your own perferance and maybe a few reasons why that would be great. Thanks for your time.

 

[Crusty]

Mandrake

 

[djdrastic]

Knoppix -hdinstall

Doesnt get better than that 4 a noob

 

[rock]

I wanna exclude Windows due to I wanna get familiar with a form of linux.

Yes, Mandrake 9.1 with KDE/IceWm Desktop environment/WM would be what i had suggest.

[+]
- Easy setup/install (and practically no post install configurations required)

- Very good support and detection for different hardware(well this again is changing with
other distros. I remember Redhat 9 giving me tough time configuring my sound card...
Getting it to work was really fun, but mandrake did it automatically for me)

- Very user friendly (this again has changed drastically with other distros aswell)

- Very good software bundling

- Very good documentation bundling

- Very good support and community forums.

No single distro is 'THE' distro. Try different distributions till you find the one which meets
your preference. It's all about your freedom to choose ... the Linux world.

And be sure to skim through the very informative HOWTO's and FAQ's which get installed
with your new distro.

 

[dpm]

Mandrake is still a great learner distro.
Running knoppix from a cd is a good taster, but you won't really learn anything till you've got a distro installed and running constantly.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: dpm
Mandrake is still a great learner distro.
Running knoppix from a cd is a good taster, but you won't really learn anything till you've got a distro installed and running constantly.

A Knoppix install to the hard drive as a far better learner distro than mandrake. Mandrake does most of the setup for you and is one of those distros that aspire to the home market. Debian (which is what knoppix really is) is a good middle-field distro, niether for the home users or for the uber geeks. Mandrake is for the home user, and Slackware is for the g^H^H^H technically capable and those that aspire to such heights.

 

[rANGER11]

mandrake or redhat will get you running linux easily as far as the install goes. Personally I would still reccomend gentoo - yes the install takes some time but trial and error is what makes you really learn linux. Gentoo has an incredible support forum, support documentation and I personnaly think the portage system is easier than rpm's. gentoo.org, forums.gentoo.org


good luke, pm me if you need help w/ anything