Wanna get to know linux...what distro should I run


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if u want to learn linux in general then i'd choose something mainstream like redhat or suse and run it without any graphical interface ;)

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Timmay is joking with the 'no graphical interface'.... I hope... :rolleyes:

As nice as the terminal is, its nice to be in Xwindows.

Don't get something like LINDOWS, because yes, its insanely easy, but its like TOO simplified... I don't classify it as linux anymore, because its too..... ughhh.... like OSX or Windows...

Gentoo is good, Mandrake is very user-friendly, and so is Knoppix.

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I fourth Gentoo.

If you want to be really hardcore though (gentoo handles all of the compilation for you, so the compilation process is really quite easy... I've been using gentoo for about 2 months, and although I'm fairly proficient with configuration and making sure things work correctly, I only have a foggy idea of how things like autoconf work and such.), I'd recommend Linux From Scratch, http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ . Be prepared for a *LONG* process though - you'll have to type almost everything in by hand.

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I would suggest a distro like Mandrake. It's very easy to get up and running. When you've got it running then you can dig in and see what's under the hood. You can still edit all the configs by hand even though there are gui programs.

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i tried to install gentoo :blush: ....but it was quite hard for me because i've never done ANYTHING with linux...so i wouldn't really recommend gentoo. i foundit quite hard to install.(i didn't even finish the installation because i gave up on it.)......i think im just stupid :D

P.S. i read through the whole gentoo installation instructions and i still couldn't even get the stage 3 installation going :blush: ...if you could help me that would be great :D

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Slackware. Easy to install, pain in the ass to use. I'm going to indulge in Debian in a few days, you might want to try that as well.

P.S. i read through the whole gentoo installation instructions and i still couldn't even get the stage 3 installation going  :blush:  ...if you could help me that would be great :D

Where are you stuck? BTW, go with a stage1 tarball instead of stage3, you will have a fully updated system, since you control everything which is copied to your HD.

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well...i really don't know any of the commands to even start to set up stage 1,2, or 3.... :blush: ...so theres a start.....i really want a step-by-step walkthrough of the installation.....(I am n00b times 7 with linux) :D

thanks!

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well...i really don't know any of the commands to even start to set up stage 1,2, or 3.... :blush: ...so theres a start.....i really want a step-by-step walkthrough of the installation.....(I am n00b times 7 with linux) :D

thanks!

The Gentoo Linux Installation Handbook - that's about as step-by-step as it gets :) If you have two computers, you can view the handbook side-by-side with the installation process.

If not, what you can do is, when you've booted up off the livecd, press ALT+F2 to go to the second console. In there, type 'links www.gentoo.org' (I hope your net connection is automatically configured; else, you're going to have to print out the seciton of the guide dealing with net connections). This will load up a text browser. Assuming the LiveCD supports it (i'm not sure if it does), you can try links -g -driver fb www.gentoo.org - note that this may not work and may lock up your computer (that's okay, jsut reboot), but if it does work, you get a nice graphical webbrowser. Then, by pressing ALT+F1 to go to your 'working' console, you can follow the instructions (using ALT+f2 to switch back and forth as necessary).

If you still run into problems, let us know how far you got and what is keeping you from proceeding.

Hope this helps, and good luck :)

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Gentoo.

ebuilds are bleeding edge, documentation is excellent, forums and irc room is pretty good, hardcore for those who want it, yet easily customized. Its package selection is amazing! You'll learn a hell of a lot trying to set it up too.

Gentoo only takes a few hours to get a base system up with fluxbox. It takes forever if you compile kde, but you can safely ignore kdeedu and all that other crap like assistance technology (for handicapped). kdebase, kdelibs, kdenetwork, and kde are all you really need and that doesn't take too long at all. Gnome is even faster. most of the stuff in gnome you don't really need.

Give it about 8 GB of disk space and it will be quite happy. if you got 512 or over, don't bother with a swap file. I haven't found any need for it. Performance doesn't increase at all. Oh and try the prelinker. For openoffice, emerge the binaries. that'll save quite some time without any loss of speed.

Just be carefull what you emerge, if you got firebird, don't bother with mozilla, if you got kmplayer don't bother with xine, or gmplayer or mplayer gui etc. Or you can if you wanna try everything out but it'll just take longer to compile.

When you're installing it, the first thing you should do when you hit the console on boot, is hit alt-f2 and then type "links2 http://www.gentoo.org" and navigate to the documents.

You should choose a nice and high console resolution when you see the bootscreen. Something like 1280x1024. Once you get fluxbox and firebird you can start doing other stuff much more easily while you compile. It doesn't take too long to get to that stage, esp if you use grp and firebird-bin.

Edited by Goalie_CA
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Gentoo takes 2 days to compile.  I recommend Slackware 9.0, not 9.1.  It's very difficult, bit it will teach you a lot! :) If you can use that, you can use anything.

Just because you can't connect to the net in Slackware 9.1 doesn't mean you should discourage others from using it. I think 9.1 is great, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to use a decent distro.

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Gentoo.

ebuilds are bleeding edge, documentation is excellent, forums and irc room is pretty good, hardcore for those who want it, yet easily customized. Its package selection is amazing! You'll learn a hell of a lot trying to set it up too.

Gentoo only takes a few hours to get a base system up with fluxbox. It takes forever if you compile kde, but you can safely ignore kdeedu and all that other crap like assistance technology (for handicapped). kdebase, kdelibs, kdenetwork, and kde are all you really need and that doesn't take too long at all. Gnome is even faster. most of the stuff in gnome you don't really need.

Give it about 8 GB of disk space and it will be quite happy. if you got 512 or over, don't bother with a swap file. I haven't found any need for it. Performance doesn't increase at all. Oh and try the prelinker. For openoffice, emerge the binaries. that'll save quite some time without any loss of speed.

Just be carefull what you emerge, if you got firebird, don't bother with mozilla, if you got kmplayer don't bother with xine, or gmplayer or mplayer gui etc. Or you can if you wanna try everything out but it'll just take longer to compile.

When you're installing it, the first thing you should do when you hit the console on boot, is hit alt-f2 and then type "links2 http://www.gentoo.org" and navigate to the documents.

You should choose a nice and high console resolution when you see the bootscreen. Something like 1280x1024. Once you get fluxbox and firebird you can start doing other stuff much more easily while you compile. It doesn't take too long to get to that stage, esp if you use grp and firebird-bin.

Thanks for the tips ;)

I have a question. I have no idea what some guys are talking about when they say I'm gonna need to compile. It's not the same as popping in a bootable cd and install?? I downloaded two isos (athlon-xp-1.4-20030911-cd1 and cd2) from a pub. Are these not what I should be using?

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:D Excellent choice

I'd recommend you take a look at the Gentoo Handbook - Installation Documentation. It outlines all your installation choices from there.

Basically, you have four choices - stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, and stage3+GRP.

Stage 1 is where you learn the most - you compile everything from scratch (or rather portage does it ;) ). Stage 2 comes with the basic compiler utilities and such (gcc, glibc, gettext, binutils) already compiled, but you compile the system stuff like grep, bash, sed, cat, etc. Stage 3 comes with all of that compiled, but you need to compile X and a desktop environment if you want a gui. Stage3+GRP comes with the stage3 stuff, plus extra binary packages such as OpenOffice, X, GNOME, and KDE.

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