Linux Advice

liamcrane

liamcrane

liamcrane

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Hi all

Im looking at playing around with linux for the first time and was just looking for some advice. I think i am going to go with ubuntu to start with, been looking at setting up a Sabnzbd server and feel linux would be a good choice. Just curious to know what version of linux is best to use for this sort of thing? I see there is a desktop and server version of Ubuntu but not to sure which one to go for.

Would someone mind giving me some advice?

Thanks all
 
Personally I use Debian over Ubuntu but they're much of a muchness as Ubuntu is built on top of Debian.

If you want to go with Ubuntu and learn Linux properly then go for the server version, having a GUI available will dilute the experience and you will learn a lot less
 
Thanks for the advice there, i will try the server version first like you mention as i feel i need to get used to the command line again. What is he main difference between the server and desktop versions? is it just the GUI interface you get?
 
I have dabbled in a few distros and it really depends on what you want out of the box. I can recommend Mint as it is pretty sleek and you may as well try a few out by creating live CD/USB is so easy.
 
liamcrane said:
Thanks for the advice there, i will try the server version first like you mention as i feel i need to get used to the command line again. What is he main difference between the server and desktop versions? is it just the GUI interface you get?
Click to expand...

You can install the desktop onto the server version too, if you want to. Not sure what the real differences are but I would just....download a net install ISO, put it on a USB stick and install from that. Just select the base system and standard utilities. Then you can login and only install the packages that you need. You'll end up with a good lean system and learn a lot while doing it. It likely doesn't matter whether you use the client or server version if you do it that way.
 
If you aren't too cli sure but want to "get going" with it id say install desktop so you can get some stuff up and running then slowly push yourself into the cli.

I learned a lot by doing that.
 
Server has a lot of packages remove that are installed by default on the Desktop version
Things like web browsers and officec packages
 
Debian stable netinst is a good starting point.

Code: 
https://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst

Code: 
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/amd64/iso-cd/debian-8.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso

Code: 
https://www.debian.org/doc/

Code: 
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual
 
Steveocee said:
If you aren't too cli sure but want to "get going" with it id say install desktop so you can get some stuff up and running then slowly push yourself into the cli.

I learned a lot by doing that.
Click to expand...

I found the opposite. Going to a command line only version forced me to learn it rather than doing what I already knew.

Debian is the one to use if you want to learn linux rather than have a fancy 'windows'. You'll spend your time messing around with firefox otherwise and won't get anything done.

3 euros will get you a VPS for a year that will force you to learn the command line, since that's all it will do: http://lowendspirit.com/locations.html
 
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Just echoing the idea of going straight to CLI. I learnt a lot more from doing that than dabbling with a desktop GUI.

That said, even though these days I'm completely familiar and happy with CLI linux I find the desktop a bit weird to deal with :p This is despite having used linux desktop for a couple of years in work too.
 
ScoTTyBEEE said:
I found the opposite. Going to a command line only version forced me to learn it rather than doing what I already knew.

Debian is the one to use if you want to learn linux rather than have a fancy 'windows'. You'll spend your time messing around with firefox otherwise and won't get anything done.
Click to expand...
I actually agree with all of this. To anybody who hasn't used a CLI before and/or isn't familiar with the file system structure and I guess what we could call the "structure" of the OS (for want of a better phrase), simply using a GUI isn't going to get you anywhere.

Debian is a great starting point because you can learn all of the basics with all of the most "difficult" bits already sorted for you. Much of what you'll need will already be installed. apt may not be the best package manager (I much prefer yum) however at least you can get going without having to faff about with find the right software.
 
If you want something that looks like Windows then I'd suggest Mint Cinnamon. It's based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian. But it "looks" quite like Windows.
 
If you're a masochist then take a look at Gentoo. Its documentation is brilliant for learning not only what commands do what, but how they do it.

Alternatively you could just take a look at the Handbook, and substitute the Gentoo-specific commands or syntax with whatever distro you go for. The Handbook is available online.
 
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