So what Linux distro should I look into?

Published on March 20, 2005 By kona0197 In Personal Computing

So I have tried Fedora Core 3 and didn't care for it much! What I am looking for is a easy to use for a noob linux distro that has a easy to use apt get function and is easy to learn. I'm looking into Gentoo and SimplyMepis - should I be looking into any other Distros?

Comments (Page 1)

Jafo

on Mar 20, 2005

"Windows" is easy, I've heard-tell....

MarkMcQ

on Mar 20, 2005

I would definitely reccomend Mandrake, Terry, if you haven't tried that yet. It's a great distro and very good for new users of Linux to learn the basics in. Plus it's also available as one of those 'live' CD based distro's as well, so you can try it before installing to see if it suits you.

Shotgun989

on Mar 20, 2005

As for live cd's, I would recommend Knoppix. Heck, email me shotgun_989 at yahoo.com with your address and I'll mail you the cd incase you are on dailup. Other than that, whatever you can install usually works.

Jafo

on Mar 20, 2005

Oh...party poopers....try DSL then....fits on a mini CD.....total size 50 meg....

paxx

on Mar 20, 2005

FOr a Noob, most definately look into a Debian based distro. SimplyMEPIS is a very good choice. It has a GUI apt get software that makes installing/uninstalling software a breeze. Unless you don't mind paying, then Linspire is also a very good Linux noob choice (it's also Debian based).

Island Dog

on Mar 20, 2005

I use Suse. It's friendly to new users, but is also good for power users.

tjesterb

on Mar 20, 2005

I tried Mandrake 10, but it wasn't a good "fit" for me. I was going to install a Suse partition, but I've heard so many things about SimplyMepis here and on other sites, I think I'm going to try it first.

endtime

on Mar 20, 2005

I would reccomend Ubuntu, it focuses largely on "just work"ing and has a six month release cycle. It's Debian-based so includes apt-get and Synaptic (apt-get package manager for Gnome), as well as the simplified Ubuntu Update Manager in their upcoming release. Also it has sponorship from Canonical so should stay free. I tried Mandrake 10 and didn't like it either, but I like Ubuntu a lot.

http://www.ubuntu.com

kona0197

on Mar 20, 2005

I would like a distro that has a GUI interface in KDE. Maybe Gentoo is worth looking into again.

I'm also looking for a distro that has drivers for my Nvidia card and a CD Writer program and a MP3/MPEG/CD Audio player like WMP 9.

jamoman

on Mar 21, 2005

pc linux

Sventekoz

on Mar 21, 2005

I second endtime with Ubuntu. It's a great distro - and the only one I found that automatically picked up all of my hardware. It also has a great 'safe' way of handling root privileges.

Zoomba

on Mar 21, 2005

Stay away from Gentoo if you're just learning the OS... It's meant for people who really want to get every ounce of power out of their systems and know how to go about doing it. It's a good distro to move to later once you are comfortable with Linux.

Now, are you looking to Linux just to replace Windows and want one that's easy and ready to go out-of-the-box? Or are you looking to learn the OS and want to become comfortable enough with it to be able to go in and tweak the hell out of it?

If you're looking for out-of-the-box ease, check out one of the Debian spin-offs listed above. (Though I'd normally recommend Fedora, doesn't get much more simple than that)

If you're looking to invest some time and learn Linux, I highly recommend Slackware. It's the distro a lot of people cut their teeth on when entering the Linux world. I found it was the perfect mix of user-friendlyness and hard-core techno geek. It will force you to read a lot of how-tos, you'll spend your first few days at the command prompt with no GUI most likely as you just get your bearings straight. This is the best way to learn Linux as once you get a GUI, you're less likely to go in with a terminal window and do things manually. GUIs are great, but they hurt learning.

My $0.02

FrosT78

on Mar 21, 2005

Both Mepis and Mandrake are great for newbs;I use both with very few problems

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

fishdonuts

on May 04, 2005

Ubuntu is great, with the added bonus that they send you CDs for free with free shipping to anywhere in the world

check out http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org/.

Personally I use a combination of Ubuntu and Topologi (www.topologilinux.com).

MasonM

on May 04, 2005

While I'm a Slack user, I have tested and used a great many distros over the years. I would have to say that of the ones mentioned above, SimplyMepis or Ubuntu would likely be what you are looking for. Of the two, I would say from personal experience that SimplyMepis is the better of the two based upon the fact that it is uses Debian packages where Ubuntu relies heavily on many Ubuntu-centric packages.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!