Help on Linux

[Eagle101]

I know everyone got a different taste and i should try all of them to see which one i like, but i really need help on this..

I am looking for a distro that is easy to use, but at same time learn alot about linux. Also a distro that i can completely switch from windows to that distro and never come back...A user friendly distro that my family can use it too...An not complicated distro...

Please Help

* I looked at some Ferdora 3 screenshots and they looked nice, anyone tryed it? *

[El_Cu_Guy]

The Definitive "Which Distro" Thread

[markwolfe Veteran]

The above link will help.

However, you want a Linux that is "easy to use". Let me tell you that my 3 year old can use my Linux box to do age-specific tasks (including playing UT2004), so "using" Linux is easy enough for anyone, really.

Learning Linux (and properly administering it) is a different matter. Windows users are just that - "users". Some become "power users" and do some administrative functions, but it doesn't compare to Linux. You will need to really LEARN about your computer. You will learn to properly manage it, including creating a limited account for yourself. After all, you are just a user, too. You will need to take time to learn the file structure, and what config files are available and how to adjust them to suit your needs.

Scared yet? If so, Linspire and Xandros are probably the options for you. Very little command line interaction, if any.

[Eagle101]

What about Fedora Core 3?

[markwolfe Veteran]

  eagle101 said:

What about Fedora Core 3?

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I use Fedora. I like it (probably because Red Hat was the first distro I tried, so my brain is adjusted to working with it.

It is easy to install and use.

You will likely want to make a few adjustments to it when you install it.

1) add MP3 support (not included due to mp3 patent issues)

2) add NTFS support, if you are dual-booting (not included for the same reason as mp3)

3) make sure that unneeded services like sendmail are off

4) add hardware support for your nVidia or ATI card (if you have one of these)

[blik]

I dont want to troll and turn this into a this distro is better than that one thread, but I would seriously suggest Ubuntu, Its extremely noob friendly, and worked out of the box for me and many others. You can also try the Ubuntu live CD so you can play around before actually installing anything onto your hard drive.

[beh]

I would say gentoo, but the install isnt too friendly. I have been hearing good things about the Ubuntu aswell so maybe try that. The install is supposed to be much easier.

[Lokheed]

No one in their right mind would give a rookie Gentoo.

Stick to Ubuntu and Fedora Core. Both are really great, graphically filled, easy distros to administer and use. Like Mark has stated, using Linux and learning Linux are two different things. I find the best way to learn anything is to be thrown into it, but thats just me...sink or swim type of attitude. If you are this type of learner, then Gentoo might be right for you down the road but not before you understand the basics.

Directory structure is key. Where Linux keeps everything really helps a ton to know. You also need some working knowledge of hardware for Linux. If you call your tower your CPU then dont even bother, you arent going to last very long.

If you know Windows in and out (goes beyong point and click) and consider yourself a strong power user in Windows, then moving to Linux and getting a good working knowledge of it shouldnt take you longer then a few months. If you think that viper gives well rounded and concise advice on Windows services, well you are in for a beating.

We learn through pictures before we learn written words and numbers...for this reason use a "GUI based" Linux distro to start with. Learn what you can and then progress into command line and all the fun Linux has to offer. From device recognition to video playabck, Linux is more robust and a better environment then Windows can ever be.

Use Linux for a while and you will see just how slugish and inept Windows is in many of its tasks. Hey Windows is a great tool for anyone new into computers, but as our generation grows, so does our knowledge in this field...its time to step up and dump the training wheels and move to that "big kids" bike. You get a lot of falls, scrapes, and bruises along the way, but you cant cling to your tricycle forever ;)

[ponytail]

Xandros is a very newbie friendly distro quick install (20 minutes +/- 5) and based on Debian Linux.

Mandrake is also newbie friendly as is Suse Linux. I use Fedora Core 3 and my wife and kids use it as easily as they use the XP box in the other room.

[hornett]

I really like FC3. Had a few issues with my nvidia card, aside from that it was easy peasy to get everything setup.

:)

I heard the new release of Mandrake is going to be very good too, but personally I prefer Gnome.

[Lokheed]

  hornett said:

I heard the new release of Mandrake is going to be very good too, but personally I prefer Gnome.

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Mandrake is a Linux distribution.

Gnome is a desktop manager.

???

It is also important to add that any Linux distribution can be made to look identical to any other distro. Your graphical environment (KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox, etc.) determine what look and functionality are in your distro's appearance. Aside from proprietary software like package managers, and other distro specific utilities, all distro running KDE will look the same and generally act the same--small variances aside, like compilation of kernel options and version--as any other distro. LFS can be made to look identical to Arch minus pacman and a few other GUI advancements specific to that distro.

Its a strange concept to rookies but learning about the "layers" of Linux is also important. From your OS to X Server to KDE...its a nicely built, structured design, unlike its major competitor which is founded on bloat and burried code all amalgamated into one...

Edited November 23, 2004 by Lokheed

[hornett]

^^ I know, it was perhaps a stupid comment since you can install KDE, Gnome or whatever you like on any distro. However, as far as I remember all the Mandrake was very heavily KDE orientated in comparison with Fedora which is very Gnome orientated (with it's GUI config programs etc).

[slapnuts_ox]

i think he was refering to how mandrake is KDE focused and fedora is gnome focused.

Update: ahh he reposted and beat me to it

[Treefrog]

Ahhh, telling a newcomer to use Gentoo?!? Ohh, that's just mean. Mandrake or Suse would be my reccomendation due to the slick and easy to use gui installation. Mandrake also never failed to detect my hardware, then again I've not used it in a couple years. I've gone Debian with no hope of looking back hehe.

[msg43]

well just make sure you hardware compat. Never really been able to try linux cause my wireless chip and stuff and never able to figure how to get some wireless window driver linux thingy to work. Plus my printer doesn't support linux and my montior has issue with a proper driver go figure.

I've tried quite a few for such a small time I think like fedora 3 the best.

I've tried mandrake and Ubuntu also

[Eagle101]

  Lokheed said:

No one in their right mind would give a rookie Gentoo.

Stick to Ubuntu and Fedora Core. Both are really great, graphically filled, easy distros to administer and use. Like Mark has stated, using Linux and learning Linux are two different things. I find the best way to learn anything is to be thrown into it, but thats just me...sink or swim type of attitude. If you are this type of learner, then Gentoo might be right for you down the road but not before you understand the basics.

Directory structure is key. Where Linux keeps everything really helps a ton to know. You also need some working knowledge of hardware for Linux. If you call your tower your CPU then dont even bother, you arent going to last very long.

If you know Windows in and out (goes beyong point and click) and consider yourself a strong power user in Windows, then moving to Linux and getting a good working knowledge of it shouldnt take you longer then a few months. If you think that viper gives well rounded and concise advice on Windows services, well you are in for a beating.

We learn through pictures before we learn written words and numbers...for this reason use a "GUI based" Linux distro to start with. Learn what you can and then progress into command line and all the fun Linux has to offer. From device recognition to video playabck, Linux is more robust and a better environment then Windows can ever be.

Use Linux for a while and you will see just how slugish and inept Windows is in many of its tasks. Hey Windows is a great tool for anyone new into computers, but as our generation grows, so does our knowledge in this field...its time to step up and dump the training wheels and move to that "big kids" bike. You get a lot of falls, scrapes, and bruises along the way, but you cant cling to your tricycle forever ;)

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Wow thanks alot for taking your time and explaining these things to me, your the best. lol. Everytime i try to move completely to Linux and never look back at windows, something happens and somehow my mind just changes right back to using windows. I have to do something so i can set my mind in linux only? Any tips ? lol

[frission]

i'd highly recommend Mandrake, i used to use RH mostly...but Mandrake is a lot more user-friendly now (i've been using since 8, they're on 10.1 now). they update pretty often and it was pretty easy to install nvidia drivers on it as well. setup from start to finish takes about 20 minutes, and it has amazing hardware detection. try it out, i think they also have a live cd too in case you don't want to commit.

[markwolfe Veteran]

  eagle101 said:

Wow thanks alot for taking your time and explaining these things to me, your the best. lol. Everytime i try to move completely to Linux and never look back at windows, something happens and somehow my mind just changes right back to using windows. I have to do something so i can set my mind in linux only? Any tips ? lol

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I don't think you can force yourself to Linux.

Well, maybe you can, but it would be neither pleasant nor productive. :pinch:

The best advice is to use it as much as you can and do your daily tasks with it.

The hardest part of Linux is learning it as you set it up for the first time. Installation will be a breeze! You will be amazed (possibly even overwhelmed :huh: ) by how much functionality and how many apps are there after your 30 minute install (with only one boot when completely done!). Then the challenge comes as you find anything that wasn't set up optimally (perhaps Macromedia Flash, WiFi, or nVidia drivers, or sound). Try investigating and using http://google.com/linux for linux-specific searches. Ask in the boards when you can describe your problem beyond "sound is not working" and tell us the command you tried and what error was given.

Once your box has been "de-wrinkled", you will have a very reliable PC that responds how you want it to. And you will have learned a lot in the process.

My title says "Linux noob since Red Hat 5.1", and that is the EXACT truth. There are dozens of people on this site that know more about Linux than I could ever hope to! But, I learn more pieces of it, and understand what is going on more and more just by participating in these forums and helping with problems. The community here all puts in their knowledge that they have earned back to those who seek to learn and need help.

Now, I better just submit this post before I get too warm and tingly inside. :cry: :rofl:

[beh]

To those bashing me for suggesting gentoo i said i would suggest it but the install isnt userfriendly, then I said try ubuntu. On another note, I wasnt a linux guru when i decided to give gentoo a try and i didnt know much of how linux worked really, but I learned alot from one gentoo install.

[markwolfe Veteran]

  beh said:

To those bashing me for suggesting gentoo ...

I don't think Lokheed was bashing you. It seemed to be more of an emphatic agreement, as he even posted further in his post that

  Quote

I find the best way to learn anything is to be thrown into it, but thats just me...sink or swim type of attitude. If you are this type of learner, then Gentoo might be right for you down the road

Neither of you suggested starting with Gentoo, and both of you said that it may be a good experience once you have developed a basic Linux familiarity. :yes:

[Lokheed]

Yes, very much was poking fun at the Gentoo comment. Mark summed up my sentiments to a tee. I mean how can I insult anyone for recommending the distro I use and cherish?

Gentoo is rough to install and generally rough to use since all of its proprietary utilities are command line...not for the timid and not for the user trying to stray from the defacto Windows world.

Eagle, like Mark stated above, using Linux on a steady basis and spending the time to fix your problems will wean you off Windows slowly but surely. I myself fell in love with the Linux environment. The crispness and control of Linux. That was my saving grace. I got bored of the same look, the same feel, and the same problems. The same level of control, the same proprietary, licensed to hell programs and utlitlities, the countless amounts of hotfixes, bugs, holes, and security issues. Conscequently I was playing around with VMWare and installed Windows again. I took about an hour turning off services, removing files and setting up the OS to be secure and ready for installation of my programs. I realized then how better of I am in Linux land...it was like I could see clearly...an epiphany of sorts I guess you could call it.

I began on Suse and dumped it within hours. It painted a poor picture of Linux, watered down, sluggish, and bloated. I moved to Mandrake and was very impressed. It did have the odd crashes here and there, the odd glitch but mostly I broke it. Repeatedly I kept breaking it and reinstalling it. Over and over I would monkey with it enough to cause some problem that, using my Windows mentality, I thought needed a reformat.

At this point I was still dependant on Windows...moving back and forth. I then moved to FC2 and was really impressed. Small memory footstamp but had issues with my CD-ROM. My friend had just gotten Gentoo working after days of trying and showed me how fast it was.

I was mesmerized by also afraid. I had seen what the install was like and understood nothing of what: cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-2.6.7-gentoo-r14 meant. Let me tell you how hard it is setting something up when you dont even know what the command you are entering does, but I learnt. And after a while I started to piece together things. Compiling the kernel, where your personal settings are located, what a period before a fall means, whats stored in /etc, and what a vanilla source is. Small nuances and common Linux terminology followed.

It took me 4 attempts to get Gentoo up and running. Now I can do it blindfolded. It all comes with time, the length of time it takes is solely on to you.

My advice is as follows:

• Stick to it. Like Mark said, keep at it. Dont buckle and run back to Windows, stay and try to fix it...google is going to be your best friend.
  
• Subscribe to your distros forums. They are a goldmine of information and technical help.
  
• Search and find all your Linux equivilant programs. Replacement of Windows applications isnt that hard and you really come to appreciate what these people do for you without a monentary reward.
  
• Just keep at it and try them all. If you are short on bandwidth or slow on speed, then really give Fedora Core and Ubunto a shot. But if you have fast line, then download them all. Try Mandrake, hell try Suse. Linux is about choice and thats something a Windows user knows nothing about. What might be right for me, might not be right for you. So try them all.