Which Linux & why?

[tiro_uspsss]

ok, I have a spare box here.. I wanna try out Linux for my first time ever!

recommend me a Linux distro, & why u recommended it (I just dont want everyone recommending ubuntu, just cause.. its the 'in thing' if u get what I mean ) maybe if pplz could mention a list of which distros they've tried..

TIA!

[Logos]

hi tiro!

first thing you gotta know about Linux is that the OS itself (system) is independent from the graphic interface. So you're gonna have to make a choice, at least between the main 2 GUIS. One of them is called Gnome, and the other one KDE. Many distros have the two versions available.

So very quickly:

Gnome, a very simple interface, I personally don't like it. Not much to do with it but if you look for simplicity and stability, you could go for it. Gnome is the GUI in use in Ubuntu (just as an example, not an advice)

KDE, much more sophisticated interface, extremely customizable, a wonderful interface in my opinion. I'm a KDE guy . You will find KDE in Kubuntu for instance; but, again, not an advice either: Kubuntu is very unstable, and there are other options for KDE: my favorite is PCLinuxOS: http://www.pclinuxos.com/ This one is extremely stable, and very well updated. Visit their web site and their forum, it's interesting.

I still have to admit that that the best support place on the Web about Linux is the Ubuntu forum. Lots of infos and useful tips and how to there. You can still go there, even if you run another distro (just don't tell them ).

Seriously, the best way for you to decide is to download a couple of ISOs from several distros: don't install anything to hard disk yet. Just boot the CD you got from the iso, it's very often a so called "Live CD". That will give you the ability to play around with the OS in RAM without putting your other OS and data at risk.
Once you've made your choice, be very careful before you install and go through tutorials about how to partition your HDD for Linux, how to dual-boot etc...Good luck!

[Scubar]

Gnome and Compiz Fusion FTW!!! = Ubuntu

I used to like KDE but since starting to use Gnome i find i am far more productive and its much sleeker and cleaner

[Logos]

Gnome and Compiz Fusion FTW!!! = Ubuntu

I used to like KDE but since starting to use Gnome i find i am far more productive and its much sleeker and cleaner

Compiz Fusion is available in any distro (not KDE or Gnome dependent either)
Linux + Debian + Gnome = Ubuntu

[Scubar]

Yea i know its not KDE or Gnome dependant. It just looks best with Gnome, and as it comes standard with Ubuntu its very good indeed.

[Logos]

oh...

[tiro_uspsss]

hi tiro!

first thing you gotta know about Linux is that the OS itself (system) is independent from the graphic interface. So you're gonna have to make a choice, at least between the main 2 GUIS. One of them is called Gnome, and the other one KDE. Many distros have the two versions available.

So very quickly:

Gnome, a very simple interface, I personally don't like it. Not much to do with it but if you look for simplicity and stability, you could go for it. Gnome is the GUI in use in Ubuntu (just as an example, not an advice)

KDE, much more sophisticated interface, extremely customizable, a wonderful interface in my opinion. I'm a KDE guy . You will find KDE in Kubuntu for instance; but, again, not an advice either: Kubuntu is very unstable, and there are other options for KDE: my favorite is PCLinuxOS: http://www.pclinuxos.com/ This one is extremely stable, and very well updated. Visit their web site and their forum, it's interesting.

I still have to admit that that the best support place on the Web about Linux is the Ubuntu forum. Lots of infos and useful tips and how to there. You can still go there, even if you run another distro (just don't tell them ).

Seriously, the best way for you to decide is to download a couple of ISOs from several distros: don't install anything to hard disk yet. Just boot the CD you got from the iso, it's very often a so called "Live CD". That will give you the ability to play around with the OS in RAM without putting your other OS and data at risk.
Once you've made your choice, be very careful before you install and go through tutorials about how to partition your HDD for Linux, how to dual-boot etc...Good luck!

wow! thanks for all the info!

[Logos]

wow! thanks for all the info!

no problem

[tiro_uspsss]

oh...

so that fancy GUI there isnt as stable as a more plain'n'simple GUI?

[Logos]

so that fancy GUI there isnt as stable as a more plain'n'simple GUI?

this GUI you see on the picture comes on top of another GUI: Compiz Fusion on top of KDE in this case. Compiz Fusion is just the 3D desktop component; it is very stable as long as you don't add unsupported or known unstable features, and if you got the good drivers.

OK when you start to run Linux for the first time, try not to think immediately about the 3D Desktop. Run Linux in 2D first and get used to it. You can always go 3D later.

[tiro_uspsss]

this GUI you see on the picture comes on top of another GUI: Compiz Fusion on top of KDE in this case. Compiz Fusion is just the 3D desktop component; it is very stable as long as you don't add unsupported or known unstable features, and if you got the good drivers.

OK when you start to run Linux for the first time, try not to think immediately about the 3D Desktop. Run Linux in 2D first and get used to it. You can always go 3D later.

okely dokely

[Serra]

I'm a Debian fan myself. Stability, compliance, security... all top notch. The downside though is that the one thing you need to learn (right off the bat) is how to get your hardware working properly on it. A lot of current stuff can be made to work almost right out of the box on the most current flavour, but that's not always the case.

Because I wanted a "quick" setup to sandbox some programs in, I recently opted to use Ubuntu (a "friendly" version of Debian originally). While it is easy to use, I can't begin to count the number of bugs I've seen. Coming from a Linux flavour where they'll wait as long as they need to before calling something "stable", it's borderline intolerable to me. Still, I do have to admit it's easy to use.

So for my 2 cents I'll say this - if you've never used Linux, start with Ubuntu. Once you get everything set up and learn how to do a bit of basic scripting and see how getting around works though, switch to Debian. You'll notice that a lot of little quirks just disappear... and your Linux abilities will go up 10 points while figuring out how to work compatibility.

Oh, and I too am a KDE man (and I prefer vi ).

[MikeB12]

give mepis a try. I'm using it on one of my crunchers... nice easy install, good wireless compatibilty. very user friendly too..
http://www.mepis.org/mirrors

[enteon]

once you learned your way around in linux (i learned most things the hard way ) ...

for stability and so on: debian stable

if you like having bleeding-edge software: sidux (debian sid -> unstable)
anyway, i'm still really surprised that the source of 98% of the errors i got in one whole year using sidux... was me

small distro: puppy

fast distro: gentoo
(hate it since it took me 3 hours to install it, just to discover that it just would not run my wifi... good thing i had debian dvds lying around for fun )

and now, the world's most holy secret!!! The Best Linux Distro EVER

... 'linux from scratch' ...

play around with live-disks and try using different distros for a couple of months. took me almost 3 years to find 'my' distro
enough now... let us alone...

[WrigleyVillain]

Hah. GUIs. Noobs.

[Logos]

oh I forgot, another good way to try distros, without burning CDs, is to launch your iso in a VM (virtual machine), either using VMware player (you'll have to create the VM with another software) or more simply with VirtualBox. Boths are also available in Linux itself. Just be aware that graphic hardware acceleration is not supported in VMs.(there must be some non-free versions of VMware that do support it, workstation version...) but you don't want to waste your money for that. So I'd say either go Live CD, or Virtual Box in Windows. Virtual machines are a good way to try different distros rather quickly, but you should take your time, before you decide which distro you really want to install.

ps. Virtual Box lets you create the VM and play it, and it's freeware.

[B.E.E.F.]

Ubuntu. Large userbase. Great compatibility.

[KTE]

Guys who start need to do a lot of reading and I mean a lot.
Then experimenting and then asking the qs you stumble on.

At first it all seems difficult as in anything but once you understand it, it won't be. There are many many weird problems in it though because most users aren't as proficient in Linux as in Windows so they can never figure much out
Support is also not as good in many aspects but better in others.

Just keep in mind, it is totally different to Windows. Looking at the glass GUI covering and thinking its similar is the biggest mistake you can ever make.

I use many, but if I'm on a new system and I need no quirkiness, easy install/hardware support, I always choose the most stable Ubuntu 32b build. Saves me much, experience has taught me the hard way.

Start off VMWare/Live CD and then move up
Give as many as you can a try but first ones I'd recommend are Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Kubuntu - Fedora Core - PCLinuxOS - Mandriva - Slackware - Gentoo. You can download ready made VMs to run for free and test them out, even a 1GB 2.6G P4 single core system can run them fine.

Slackware in VMWare: http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?i...kware11va5.png
Kubuntu in it: http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kubuntupi0.png
PCLinuxOS in it: http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pclosxu8.png
Fedora Core in it: http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fedora7bg9.png

My (new) Ubuntu 8.04 build: http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?i...eenshotir4.png

You can download the VM images here for already configured full builds (very easy): http://www.vmware.com/appliances/

[Scubar]

I like your Gnome theme, KTE. Whats it called ? Vista theme or something like that i bet.

[Serra]

I personally don't like the idea of telling first time Linux users to try it out in VMWare. Why? Well, if you're just interested in seeing what it looks like, it's fine... but you're going to learn a lot more by actually using it as a desktop OS.

For example, the first and most annoying thing to figure out when installing onto a hard drive is your video drivers. To learn how to install just those alone you learn how to manage packages, where setting files are, etc. It forces you to do a lot of reading. If you let people just install onto a platform that "just works", the only reading they'll do is optional, and optional means what they *think* they need to know (which is silly, because they're new to Linux, so they don't know what they need to know).

The best advice I can think of is try to go to Linux with a goal in mind. By that I mean, if all a person wants to do is install it and "mess around"... "mess around" is pretty loosely defined and they likely won't learn anything. But if your goal is to install it and write a script that will do some kind of useful work, suddenly you learn about different type of command shells, scripting, the crontab... all these things that you would have no practical reason to just stumble upon. I might re-word it as if you're stumbling, you're just stumbling in a walled-in box... pre-defined goals make you realize that with Linux, unlike Windows, you have to break out of that box.

My thoughts on it...

[KTE]

I like your Gnome theme, KTE. Whats it called ? Vista theme or something like that i bet.

That GUI is heavily modified.
Originally I installed this theme but then I modded it up to something completely different
I didn't intend anything like Vista at all, it's actually quite different once the windows are open but I'm a minimal guy, don't like scrap and a lot of mess on the desktop so kept it minimal.

Mainly because I was testing ATI drivers in there and troubleshooting some hardware - testing PTS with and without Compiz. Lm-sensors was sucky to say the least, SMBus scanning at 0x2e killed another users' system.

[B.E.E.F.]

I personally don't like the idea of telling first time Linux users to try it out in VMWare. Why? Well, if you're just interested in seeing what it looks like, it's fine...

That and most distros have LiveCDs. Knoppix has a save state feature to a USB drive.

[Leora]

Ubuntu and Fedora imo.

[tiro_uspsss]

Ubuntu and Fedora imo.

I remember fedora being the 'in thing' a few yrs back.. could u please elaborate on its pros?

[Logos]

I remember fedora being the 'in thing' a few yrs back.. could u please elaborate on its pros?

just my opinion: Fedora (free version of Red Hat) and OpenSuse (free version of Suse Linux) have been the "in" things because they were the first distros ever. I can't talk about Fedora cause I never tried it; but I tried Suse and it's a brilliant distro: fantastic setup options (can take a while though), great interface, choice between Gnome and KDE during the setup; one click install possibilities from the web site. Some people don't like them because they kinda "sold their soul" to Microsoft...well see for yourself

Only thing I can say they (Novell, Suse owner) pay taxes to MS to get "protected" against what MS calls, without naming any, patent infringements (Ballmer said he would not unveil the patents to avoid that Linux developers would modify anything before being eventually sued). Other distros are paying too, to be protected (I think Linspire, and a Japanese distro, working with Mandriva, forgot its name). That sounds like MS has been adopting some "mafia" ways, like "pay or die" . Fortunately many other distros have resisted so far: Red Hat (Fedora) won't pay, Mandriva...hmm...they first said no, time will tell...

To be complete: Novell defends its collaboration with MS by arguing about interoperability between Linux and Windows (file system, office suites formats etc...). There's a lab somewhere where guys from the two companies are working together. Just an example: at the moment, when you dual-boot Linux with Windows, you can work on NTFS or FAT partitions from Linux, but guess what, Linux file system (Ext2/3 fs or Reiser fs) appears unrecognized from Windows...unknown partitions (there are programs to get access, I don't trust them).One last thing is I recently read Novell was suing MS again for some reason...(about a word suite...) don't know what's going on. Also Novell won a trial against a company called SCO claiming some copyright on UNIX (on which Linux is based); they said they acquired the rights from Novell themselves, but they lost. So theoretically, Novell detains major rights on UNIX/Linux and could sue any Linux Distro if they wanted to; but they say they wouldn't...but they work with MS, see what I mean...

Still I don't think that the Linux community should worry at all, as for instance Intel or IBM are supporting Linux, and thanks Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu), Linux is getting more and more adopted: the whole French administration is switching to Ubuntu for instance (the French Parliament and the Gendarmerie -cops - already have). Governments just can't stand anymore the idea of depending on a single company. By the way the US army is switching/ or has switched entirely to Linux as well (Red Hat and Suse).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08...unix_from_sco/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02...x_integration/

adding: to make things clear, I'm not trying to convince anyone in this forum to switch to Linux (replace Windows). I run both OS, and I like both OS. Windows does things that Linux can't yet, and vice versa. I hate OS bashing in a general way.