Al-Mann Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Hey all... My son wants to try out Linux. My 12 year old son... I've tried out Fedora, Slackware and Ubuntu before, but i get frustrated with them. I'm not able to figure out how to install/run apps... But enough of my lack of patience... Anyway, I was hoping y'all could suggest a good (read that as easy) distro that would be good for a beginner. The computer is an old Dell. It has a 333MHz Celeron with 196MBs and a 20GB HDD. Thank y'all for any all suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwhall Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Hey all...My son wants to try out Linux. My 12 year old son... I've tried out Fedora, Slackware and Ubuntu before, but i get frustrated with them. I'm not able to figure out how to install/run apps... But enough of my lack of patience... Anyway, I was hoping y'all could suggest a good (read that as easy) distro that would be good for a beginner. The computer is an old Dell. It has a 333MHz Celeron with 196MBs and a 20GB HDD. Thank y'all for any all suggestions. I've used Slackware for many years and definately wouldn't suggest that to someone who isn't very familiar with *nix type operating systems. My guess would be Ubuntu, which you have seemingly tried, and maybe open suse. My guess is that with the amount of folks running ubuntu, that their forums are probably littered with a lots of helpful howtos. Maybe Mandriva also. I have heard it is user friendly, but I have no personal knowledge to back that up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I would recommend you try PCLinuxOS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Behemoth Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 (edited) With a 333 mhz processor I would suggest something not as 'bloated' as ubuntu or Fedora, maybe Puppy Linux or TinyMe? TinyMe is a mini distro built for older hardware, based on PCLinuxOS, which Kreuger suggested. It is supposed to be user friendly and aimed toward the linux beginner. Puppy Linux is made for older hardware as well, and runs entirely from RAM. Plus, they have a nice size community, so getting support should be pretty easy. I think both of those fit your requirements of usability and lightweight. Hope this helps. Edited January 17, 2009 by Behemoth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spd21 Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Ubuntu has been easiest for me when i began with Linux, everything you need is just a search away in the Synaptic Package Manager, it comes in a 'stripped' version too available on the Ubuntu website :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-KJ Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Xubuntu worked well on my 7 year old laptop. It's lighter than Ubuntu and has the same feel, but aimed at lower spec systems if I remember correctly. The last time I tried this was a year+ ago, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garthfluff Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I'd say Ubuntu, just for the massive wealth of information on their huge forum. No matter how obscure your problem is, it's usually on there somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_was_here Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 For that old computer, better Xubuntu than Ubuntu. And if you need help installing apps: Installing software in Ubuntu To run the application you just need to find it under the Applications menu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digitalx Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 ubuntu is about as simple as linux gets imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR_Candyman Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Really dwhall? I didn't "get" linux until I installed Slackware. Before that, ya, I could do the basic install and run, but anything hard than that and I was stuck. Somehow I found Slackware easier to set up and to do everything I wanted with. Of course this was when there were far fewer distros (it was in the 90s) so SuSe, Red Hat, Mandrake and Debian were the only other popular ones (not like Linux was popular back then at all, ha!). I suppose it's different for everybody but when it came between Ubuntu and Damn Small Linux, my girl picked up on doing stuff with DSL a lot faster and everything sunk in, where it didn't with Ubuntu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwhall Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Yes really. I used redhat for almost 5 years before switching to slackware. I personally think they go hand in hand. Without my redhat knowledge, slackware would have been 100x harder to learn. Getting myself somewhat familiar to linux before jumping into something like slackware was a great benefit to me. Running slackware forced me to learn the inner workings of linux and in a round about way tought me about how other operating systems work as well. So no... Someone with really no linux experience I would not suggest slackware or any of the Bsds'. Once one is somewhat familiar with linux operating systems, and want to go deeper, then I would suggest running something along the lines of slackware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japlabot Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 go Xubuntu for starters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyro Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 lol at all ubuntu posts , what can i expect. anyway. give him http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ if you want to keep him busy and make it learning experience :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadaaron Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 lol at all ubuntu posts , what can i expect.anyway. give him http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ if you want to keep him busy and make it learning experience :D best idea, give him some more pointers dude for it apart from that link. Get that 12 yo educated in linux! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyro Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Lots of guide everywhere on LFS http://www.linuxjunkies.org/html/Linux-Fro...atch-HOWTO.html example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted January 17, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 17, 2009 Kids pick up on Linux quickly. Probably because they aren't as encumbered by thinking "the way it works in Windows is how computers should run". On a 333MHz processor with 192MB of RAM, I would not recommend throwing a full Gnome/Ubuntu install on that. Something with XFCE or less would work much better. That puts you at Xubuntu as your heaviest recommendation. I think Puppy and DSL were both mentioned. Both of those would be good choices, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR_Candyman Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 ya, DSL runs FAST on old hardware. You would think the machine's new ;) seriously though, it is pretty darn quick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al-Mann Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Kids pick up on Linux quickly. Probably because they aren't as encumbered by thinking "the way it works in Windows is how computers should run".On a 333MHz processor with 192MB of RAM, I would not recommend throwing a full Gnome/Ubuntu install on that. Something with XFCE or less would work much better. That puts you at Xubuntu as your heaviest recommendation. I think Puppy and DSL were both mentioned. Both of those would be good choices, too. So I installed Xubuntu on the old Dell. It was slow as poop! So I gave up my Torrenting machine for his Linux usage. It's a Compaq P4 (1.6GHz) with 768MBs of memory. My intension was to reinstall Xubuntu to the 20 that was originally in the Dell. We got the HDD swapped over and he wanted to see if it worked. It started right up, it even detected the 1440x900 resolution of his monitor that the Dell's video did not (or could not). He actually thinks it's kinda cool. He has a pet mouse and the default wallpaper/logo of Xubuntu has a mouse on/in it. Yet when I ask him if he's done anything on it except play some of the games he responds with "I don't know how to code so what else can I do with it?" So I guess my next question now is... Should I do a fresh install on the newer computer or should it run fine with the previous computer's install still on it? Or with the extra power behind it, might a diff'rent distro be in order? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted January 19, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 19, 2009 Well, XFCE runs the same apps as a "full" Gnome does, so you don't really gain anything by switching to Gnome just because the computer is more powerful. (unless you prefer Gnome to XFCE, but that is just a matter of taste, not capabilities) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyro Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 let him try gnome and see what he prefers, chances are he will get bored by both of them , make him learn basics of Linux , removing deleting moving files by command line , zipping unzipping , source code compile , make binary rpms , troubleshoot dependencies , switch between stable and beta repos etc. then he can even pick up coding in bash , awk/gawk/sed, perl , python and stuff. then give him more powerful machine and let him code in Eclipse IDE then if he starts making applications and stuff , send me his resume :p (juss kidding). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lechio Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Install KDE and let him try it out. To install a different desktop there is no need to reinstall the entire OS... You can keep you current XFCE and install GNOME, KDE, (...). To install KDE: synaptic>search for "kubuntu-desktop" To install GNOME: synaptic>search for "ubuntu-desktop" The option to choose what desktop to use will then appear in the login manager. KDE would be a better solution for him than GNOME as it is more intuitive to use. Install the KDE games and educational programs while you are at it. The name of the package for KDE is "kdeedu", search for "educa" in synaptic. It contains learning games, tools to help him with his homework, word games, (...). He doesn't need to be a "coder" to enjoy a Linux desktop... :) Have a look here too: http://edubuntu.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhozemphtekh Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 kids re way more open minded than adults, they get things pretty quick. always in the search for new stuff to try and see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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