A Neowin Guide to Linux Distributions

[Checky]

Afternoon...

Basically after a lil help starting out with Linux... basically just want something i can have a serious play around with and hopefully not kill my old comp too much

Machine Specs

475Mhz Amd Processor,

128megs Ram ... old crappy ram remember :blush:

As Much Hdd space as anything should need

Ati Graphics card,

Eventually i would like to run linux on other machines, just want to get started with Linux, and hopefully learn more from there... :whistle:

Checky

{edit} - would also possibly like to be able to get some of the stuff i use in Xp now to work on it also, Winamp, Msn and so on... is there Linux versions of these proggys or would i have to do something magical to have em on a Linux machine?

[BananaMan]

Afternoon...

Basically after a lil help starting out with Linux... basically just want something i can have a serious play around with and hopefully not kill my old comp too much

Machine Specs

475Mhz Amd Processor,

128megs Ram ... old crappy ram remember :blush:

As Much Hdd space as anything should need

Ati Graphics card,

Eventually i would like to run linux on other machines, just want to get started with Linux, and hopefully learn more from there... :whistle:

Checky

{edit} - would also possibly like to be able to get some of the stuff i use in Xp now to work on it also, Winamp, Msn and so on... is there Linux versions of these proggys or would i have to do something magical to have em on a Linux machine?

Welcome to Neowin! :D

I would probably go for Slackware for that system. Mandrake and Fedora would work, but they'd be a bit sluggish. I found that Mandrake was a bit of RAM hog, as well.

As for Winamp, there is XMMS, a complete Linux clone of Winamp 2. For MSN, you can use GAIM, which also works with AIM, Jabber and I think Yahoo! as well.

[Checky]

Thank you :)

will have a look at getting Slackware tonight when i gets in :)

*guess's this could be fun*

Checky

[markwolfe Veteran]

475Mhz Amd Processor,

128megs Ram ... old crappy ram remember  :blush:

As Much Hdd space as anything should need

Ati Graphics card,

Should be OK for most things. A bit more RAM never hurts, and the "heavier" Desktop Environments (like KDE and Gnome) may be sluggish, but you will be able to use IceWM, TWM, or other lighter Window Manager ok. [Linux GUI Overview: you have XFree running a Windowing System - but that is not a manager, it lays the groundwork. then you have Window Managers that handle the windowing. on top of that, you can have a full Desktop Environment, with all the bells & whistles. You are going to probably be at the basic Window Manager level. There are many to choose from)

would also possibly like to be able to get some of the stuff i use in Xp now to work on it also, Winamp, Msn and so on... is there Linux versions of these proggys or would i have to do something magical to have em on a Linux machine?

Your distro you choose will be able to do these things. Again there are lots of choices. mplayer or xine are common media players, and gaim or amsn can do your msn messenging. (gaim can do yahoo, aol, icq, msn and more. amsn is strictly for MSN messenging, but looks a lot like the MS version). There is a program called 'wine' that can run some Windows programs, but I recommend a "native Linux" solution over a wine solution any day. :yes:

Hope that helps. :)

(your next question of "which distro" has many, MANY answers. Pick one that is noob-friendly, and go with it.)

[LeoKesler]

Are there a live-cd with gnome interface ?

[markwolfe Veteran]

Are there a live-cd with gnome interface ?

Knoppix: KDE

Gnoppix: Gnome

[b0rk]

What is a good / supported free linux distribution I can start with? :turned:

[kemical]

What is a good / supported free linux distribution I can start with? :turned:

are you serious?

[b0rk]

Yeah, I'm serious. I was going to learn Red Hat, but they stopped caring about the home users, and most of the other distributions are now not for free.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Yeah, I'm serious. I was going to learn Red Hat, but they stopped caring about the home users,

RedHat is a company, not a group of teenage hackers. They have stockholders to answer to. They have always (and STILL) release the source to their Linuxes (including their Enterprise servers, I beleive). They just stopped making .ISOs of them. They spun-off their home/hobbyist market (which has always lost money for them) as Fedora Core. It is free (libre) and free (gratis). To start slagging RedHat for "no support" when their source is still freely available would make as much sense as slagging Gentoo because they offer only source to download and compile (no .iso images there, either).

and most of the other distributions are now not for free

There are free (again, I assume you mean 'gratis') releases of almost all linux distros. Even Lindows has so many 'free download" offers, that it can be considered a "free beer" distro... Mandrake, SuSE, Debian, Slack, Gentoo, RedHat, Fedora are all available free for download. Legally.

Try any of the major distros. I am a RedHat guy since RHL 5.1, and use Fedora now. It is what I am used to, and it performs well for me.

[b0rk]

There are free (again, I assume you mean 'gratis') releases of almost all linux distros. Even Lindows has so many 'free download" offers, that it can be considered a "free beer" distro... Mandrake, SuSE, Debian, Slack, Gentoo, RedHat, Fedora are all available free for download. Legally.

Try any of the major distros. I am a RedHat guy since RHL 5.1, and use Fedora now. It is what I am used to, and it performs well for me.

Thanks for clarifying the subject for me markjensen :)

Much appreciated!

[metal_dragen Veteran]

...Gentoo because they offer only source to download and compile (no .iso images there, either).

For your information, Gentoo does offer .iso LiveCDs to get you started. They include a portage tree snapshot and stage 1 - 3 tarballs.

[kongit]

For your information, Gentoo does offer .iso LiveCDs to get you started. They include a portage tree snapshot and stage 1 - 3 tarballs.

Yeah, but are those are really "gentoo"? You gotta do a stage 1 to feel all gentooy inside. It is worth it.

[metal_dragen Veteran]

Of course they're Gentoo. The whole idea of a LiveCD is so that you can boot into an installation environment. If you already have Linux installed you could just download the Stage1 tarball and start running. And honestly, I've done one of each stage, a 1, a 2, and a couple 3s, and I've not noticed much, if any, speed difference in everyday use between the 3 types of installs. The one area that was noticeable, for me at least, was in compile speed/time. A stage1 seems to compile programs faster than a stage3, or even a stage2. But for normal desktop use, I've not noticed any differences.

[Jaded]

There is also Xandros, it is a debian based distro. its pretty much for beginners and businesses. It auto-mounts ntfs/fat32 drives, auto-configures samba, includes the crossover plugin, so you can run some window applications, including office products (upto xp). It is extreamly easy to use, as you can use rpm, deb, or tarballs to install applications.

Some faults though are that currently there is 'no' downloadable iso/ftp install. you have to purchase it unless you are willing to wait a couple of months for the demand on their servers to die down. another fault is that it uses a modified kds windows manager, with no option to install gnome. this goes with other managers, as well as newer kernels, as they are modified by xandros

[splatnix]

Knoppix: KDE

Gnoppix: Gnome

Just because I can, and it might be appreciated....

LiveCD concept using Slackware and 8cm/3" mini-CDs:

SLAX: KDE (3.2)

GONX: Gnome

GONX should be released this coming week. It's still extremely new - but you bet your bunnies, I'm on it for my new mini-CD LiveCD distro. SLAX is just *cool* for a LiveCD distro. Nothing like LiveCD Slackware goodness.

I'll give more details on the subject later - I'm getting yelled at that my typing is too loud. Silly 3AM posts!

[shimon]

wats gnome 2.6 based distro?

and why is this the frist post since Mar 27 2004, 12:04

[kemical]

wats gnome 2.6 based distro?

and why is this the frist post since Mar 27 2004, 12:04

thats mar 26th, and gnome 2.6 distro is just a distro containing the latest gnome series.

[neonix]

hey kemical when i read what shimon says it sounds like what distro has gnome 2.6 in it. but it doesnt matter he is banned

[Knight']

hey kemical when i read what shimon says it sounds like what distro has gnome 2.6 in it. but it doesnt matter he is banned

How's Neonix going on? Got a release yet?

[Si Veteran]

How's Neonix going on? Got a release yet?

Group: Banned

I don't think that's likely ;)

[nuka_t]

you should mention mepis on there.

all the advantages of debian, and its got an easy installer and its a live-cd. what more could anyone ever want? best hardware detection of any distro on the planet (from what ive read and experienced).

[Dark_INk]

mini distros like knoppix, and demolinux boot straight from cd, they are great for having a taste of what is like without needing to have a spare machine, partitioning, or geting a new HD. they are also fantastic recovery tools!

yeah- Knoppix rulez! check out the dvd version ppl :)

I use suse9.0 too

[canbeli]

Knoppix cant be used forever. I recently managed to install VMWare on my computer, latest version. GOing to download Mandrake and Fedora, and perhaps install them at the same time. Maybe i will post a comparison.

[junkie]

i dunno how many hungarians visit htis board, but anyways..

UHU Linux

A very good Hungarian distro. It is kind of a mixture of leading distros: the installer and the default 'Bluecurve theme' on most of the applications come from Redhat, and the apt-get packaging system is from debian. It is all packed with good packages, mostly the most popular applications. It comes with several window-managers (Gnome, KDE, Blackbox, IceWM, XFce) to choose from. Very user-friendly, and stable. A very good choice for starters. And it is free to download. 2 CDs, but the 2nd one is optional, since it is not needed by the installer, it just conatins extra packages.

Current stable version: 1.1.1

(1.2 is available to download for beta-testing.)

Website/FTP:

http://www.uhulinux.hu

ftp://ftp.uhulinux.hu/ISO/uhu-linux-1.1.1-cd1.iso

ftp://ftp.uhulinux.hu/ISO/uhu-linux-1.1.1-cd2.iso (optional)

A live version is also available at:

http://www.uhulivecd.linuxuser.hu

ftp://ftp.linuxforum.hu/UHU-Rescue/live_2.1/uhu_live_2.1.iso

(not affiliated with the original UHU project, it is the work of an individual UHU fan)

Note: the live cd, the websites and the UHU installer is in Hungarian. But if you manage to install it (no big deal), it works flawlessly in English too...