Linux Noob - Which Distro?

Nevablade

Nevablade

Nevablade

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I have been using Windows as long as I can remember but after looking at Vista I realised it was time to get out.

I have never used linux before and I am aware that there are a fair few distros out there that emulate the windows GUI pretty well, which is the best to use?

At the moment there is nothing specific I need from it I just want to get used to the way linux works and then mabye move away from the windows like environment.

:confused:
 
Ubuntu is probably the most n00b-friendly distro, it uses the Gnome desktop enviroment with you should be able to work your way around without too many problems, KDE is slightly more like windows so if you want to try that then Kubuntu fits the bill :p

Good benefit of both of those is that they come in a Live-CD form, so you can try it out (albeit slowly due to running off the cd) without installing anything to the hard drive, and then if you like it there is a simple gui based install you can run off the cd :)
 
Ubuntu all the way. I run it on all my home machines now. When you've got it installed I reccomend you install the Automatix script tool. It installs for you many of the plugins, applications, codecs, drivers, and other things that Linux rookies can find difficult. Having a tool to set them up for you makes it that much easier to kick proprietary operating systems to the curb. :)
 
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I got a mate who found Ubuntu to be the perfect distro and he has both his Machines running it.

I myself have found Ubuntu to be a total pile!!!

Thats the nature of the beast I suppose?

I started off with Mandrake... Used it all the way up until 9 and then it started to lose the plot a little and 10 was awful.

Mandrive has gained some respect back from me, but its still missing an edge to make me come back full time, however, I do feel that Mandriva is a lot more friendly than Ubuntu.

SuSE is another Option.. I recently toyed with Open SuSE Slick and I liked it... a lot, but hated Yast.... Once you pass the installation procedure, which is bad at best, and oyu get it up and running, you are laughing.
 
Yeah, I got FC5 a week or so ago, and funnily enough, I never knew FC4 came out???

I keep meaning to give it a shot, but I just have the time... Will do soon however cos FC had a nice feel to it. I was only put off because it was getting too cartoonish, but then again, they all seem to be following this line to a point with the new themes that seem to be coming out as of late.

I am more of a no-theme-at-all kind of user... I suppose that why I like my Ataris so much. None of this eye candy rubbish, just straight and functional.
 
Thing is you can change the theme/gfx very easily. For me its more down to the package manager, and debian package management is much better than rpm from my experience.
 
Una said:
Thing is you can change the theme/gfx very easily. For me its more down to the package manager, and debian package management is much better than rpm from my experience.
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Yes, for a rookie installing and managing programs can be difficult. Most are migrating from the Windows system of installers that unwrap and copy loads of .dll's and other files to a particular directory then execute from there. Having something handy like synaptic at your disposal makes it trivial to find and install thousands of programs.

Synaptic FΤW! :)
 
I would try slax kill bill.

Infact ive never properly used linux till 5 mins ago and everything is supported and works out the box, its a live distro as well so it doesnt install anything to the hdd. :)

Has all the functions you really need, msn, music, internet browers (posting from it now) etc.

My experiance with ubuntu was rather bad, i might try it again though.
 
I wouldnt say my first attempt at ubuntu was bad... Rather that it seemed bare compared to say FC, SuSE, Madrake/Mandriva etc.

I have always much preferred the RPM way rather than DEB but on that note, DEB is vastly superior to RPM, but again, RPM is improving every day, so...

Catch 22 for me there.

I have just downlaoded Ubuntu 6.06 on CD, DVD and the DVD of Kubuntu ( Wow, all those ( almost 8GB ) in under an hour = 5w33t ) so I will be giving ubuntu another play in about 10 minutes time ( once I get away from the missus eh lads )

We must also appreciate that while Lay-Z-Boy said his experience with ubuntu was bad, he also does state that he is not really a linux user. In my experience with it, I had an early version, and just didnt give it a fair run, plus my dislike for Debian ( Dislike caused by not knowing over any other reason whereas I know the RPM you see ) so in both our cases, we should not really comment on it in any negative way as we have both not had enough use out of it.

As I said previously, a mate of mine wont use anythign else anymore cos ubuntu does it all perfectly for him.

Thats good to know, and its pretty much the main reason I am giving it another play too! - plus if I have any problems, my mate knows it better than I, so I know who to call.
 
I dual boot xp and fedora core 5. If it wasn't for my 'need' :p for directx games windows would be long gone.
Unbuntu is very easy to get your head round and can be run off a live cd without installing, so you can give it a go first.
It's only when you have used a linux distro for a while you realize how over complicated windows really is.
 
I have been playing about with ubuntu for the last few hours now.

Still dont like it.

I tried the x64-DVD version.

Still got the xubuntu, and stock ubuntu ( Both x86 ) and tomorrow I will try the X64 Version of kubuntu but so far, still not impressed.

One small annoyance is that it simply will not let me run anything as root... Seen half a million questions about this, so I will have a look later at the replies to those.

One small utility I do miss though with not having KDE ( Kubuntu, yeah, I know, but while Im here... ) is KDF

Is there a gnome equivalent to this??? Only, I find that a really useless tool, but I find myself using it all the time... 60 trillion gig and I need to know if an app has just used up 0.0000001% of my drives, or 0.0000002%... Important to know these things you know!
 
FatRakoon said:
One small annoyance is that it simply will not let me run anything as root...
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try gksudo command, you really don't need to be root sudo root is good enough. Running as root takes away all the security that Ubuntu has.
 
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No no, I meant I cannot SU anything.

First thing I do when I get a TuxBox setup, is su hdparm but it would not go.

Then I tried logging in as root but it would not let me? It would not accept the password or with no password?

Is there a default root password with ubuntu?

anyway, In new to debian based distros so I never used gksudo, but never the less I will have a play later on.

Next up, is xubuntu anyway, which should be fun... What interface does that do I wonder? Iquite like BB and XFCE
 
as far as I know su doesn't work but sudo and gksudo do. you can change the root password by typing 'sudo passwd' in the terminal. you will be prompted to enter a password twice then voila!
 
I've been playing about in the last few weeks as I'm building a NAS server. I was looking at FreeNAS but it is still beta and buggy so I'm leaving it alone for a bit. Then I tried openfiler but I cannot create a non-corrupt CD so I'm using CentOS which openfiler is based on. Centos is basically a redhat distro (from my understanding) and it's quite good with gnome GUI installed. It is based onRPM though, and I find it very difficult being a complete noob. When you find the right RPM, it's fine, as it does stuff automatically but it's hard to find (for me) the right RPM. Ubuntu was a no go as the live-CD function doesn't work (known issue apparently on 6.06 Dapper drake).

I think stuff which has a good GUI like Gnome is ok for a noob but as said, ubuntu is probably the first port of call.

NB - I'm a 3 week old noob so please, feel free to ignore all of the above.
 
KangooVanMan said:
as far as I know su doesn't work but sudo and gksudo do. you can change the root password by typing 'sudo passwd' in the terminal. you will be prompted to enter a password twice then voila!
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Oh, SUDO does work yes, I just meant that I had to mess about before I could even go root to do some adjustments, and this is not how I like to work... I want to dive in and get filthy straight away, but instead I had to dive in another way to how I am used to... Still getting dirty I know, but it was just different to how I like things.

Much the same way in some respects to how SuSE, supposedly, being an RPM based distro, quite often needs SuSE-specific-RPMS rather than stock RPMs to work... Sort of making it yet another package based distro... You now have :-

Source based
DEBian
RPM Based

And of course

SUSE-RPM Based

Anyway, Im waffling.
 
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