JoHideo Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 I've been looking in to putting Linux in on my old computer just to give it a try. I've never used Linux before and I was wondering where exactly should I start? Which distro would be best for me and my system? My system I will be putting this on is a 700 mhz P3 with 640 mb ram, a SB Live! Value, and Geforce2. So, where is one to start in this Linux game? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantra Locust Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 There are a few distros I'd look into, such as Red Hat, Mandrake, or Ark Linux. You can search on google for info on each. Personally I'd go for Mandrake, unless you want to persue a career being a linux technition or something, in that case, I'd go for Red Hat. If you want a distro that's windows xp'ish, then go for Ark, but understand that's it's still in beta :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eevoo Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 First time, I say go with Redhat or Mandrake, or even SuSE. Fedora would be good also. Then after you have played around a bit with those, move to Slackware or Gentoo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR_Candyman Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 honestly, I find Slackware to be thew easiest if you're willing to put some time into learning to do what you want. If you just wanna install something and start doing stuff, downloading rpms like mad, then I'd suggest Fedora. I would suggest Jamd, but they merged with Blue, Jim quit development, so there's no available distro and I'm not too hopeful about a good solid finished product. Jim was great in the respect that he made his distro truly stand out...shame he left... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tran Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Well if you want to jump into it then go Gentoo but for someone who wants to take it one step at a time, I'd suggest Fedora, even Mandrake. Eevoo has got the list down pretty good so there's not much I can add except that the Fedora Project is basically RedHat rebadged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draelas Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 well i started playing with linux about 1.5 years ago... when i started i tried read hat, mandrake and suse. i found red hat had a few too many advanced features which confused me. then i tried mandrake and the installer was freaking awesome...soooo easy and does a lot of it for you. and it has a lot of gui based programs to do configuring for you and make it a lot easier. suse is very good and just getting it all going for you with no real hasel, but also not the greatest for learning cuz it does it all for you. so if you wanna do what i did i would go with mandrake. its a good starter distro and you can learn quite a bit. but it takes a while to get used to the filesystem...but once you have that down it all falls into place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tran Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 And once you're ready and comfortable with Mandrake (or whatever distro you choose), go for "harder" distros (they're not that hard once you feel comfortable to move on) like Slackware, Gentoo or Debian if you wish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoHideo Posted January 30, 2004 Author Share Posted January 30, 2004 OK, so Mandrake seems like it could be a good choice. Where can I get it? Is it available for download at a site or do I have to buy it. What is the latest version and all that jazz? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tran Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 You can download Mandrake free. -Official Mandrake Site: Mandrake Linux -Download Site: LinuxISO - MDK Download Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chipi Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 If you have some time to spend and you want to learn a little, I'd go with Debian (maybe Bonzai). It's a fast distro with great community, and it will do just what you want it to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoHideo Posted January 30, 2004 Author Share Posted January 30, 2004 Right now, I don't have an exorbitant amount of time, but I have some which I want to devote to learning Linux. I'm going to stick with Mandrake most likely, but I've come up with another question. Should I go for 9.2 or 10 Beta 1? Is the beta stable enough to be worth trying? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaKeY Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/index.html based on the mandrake live cd. very easy and suprisinly peppy for a live cd. easily installed to harddrive too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suddenly_Dead Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 My first (and currently only) distro was gentoo. Trying to get it up annoyed me to no end, but now it is up it's more or less good. I personally might go for Mandrake 10 once that's final, (at the moment they supposedly have no 3d acceleration). edit: For me gentoo took a week (or more) to get working the first time, and almost that much time the second time around because of problems with the video card driver and using the new linux test kernel =S. Hence I want to switch to a more painless one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Derf Veteran Posted January 30, 2004 Veteran Share Posted January 30, 2004 So, where is one to start in this Linux game? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Knoppix will run off the CD-ROM so you can find out how well your hardware is supported. When you want to, you can choose to install it on the hard drive (which will speed things up nicely). When Knoppix is installed on the HD you essentially have Debian which is one of the most professional (and completely free) versions of Linux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eevoo Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Right now, I don't have an exorbitant amount of time, but I have some which I want to devote to learning Linux. I'm going to stick with Mandrake most likely, but I've come up with another question. Should I go for 9.2 or 10 Beta 1? Is the beta stable enough to be worth trying? Most of the time the betas are pretty stable. But if you break it, you'll learn more. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Septimius Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 Fedora has worked quite well as my original distro of Linux. Eventually switched to Mandrake and prefer it overall, but it's a good start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beh Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 which distro is the best for a home workstation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaKeY Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=40533 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeWolf324 Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 which distro is the best for a home workstation my vote is Mandrake..runs perfect at my home workstation. i couldnt be happier. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 my vote is Mandrake..runs perfect at my home workstation. i couldnt be happier. :D Yeah. Couldnt agree more, ive just installed it on another of my machines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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