Moon 0 Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 I'm wanting to install a flavor of Linux on my computer. I did own Caldera in 1998 or '9 (could NOT get it to work after the installation stage). What I'm looking for is: Ease of installation (as in a tutorial in layman's terms pretty much. If they show me a way to partition using diskpart [have Windoze Ex Pee SP2] and then a way to install, cool). GUI desktop (Gnome/KDE thingy, whatever it may be called now). I'm not ready to kill off Windaze completely but my main reason for wanting Linux is for learn-as-I-go. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Thomas 25 Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 I know nothing about Linux, but hold on there are plenty that knows Linux from the inside out. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevevan 0 Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 Our resident guru's will chime in shortly, but I would recommend Knoppix. You can run it directly from a CD and don't even have to wipe out your Windoze install. I've also heard that Mandrake and Debian are good choices. A web site I usually go to, you might look at www.linuxiso.org. Hope this helps! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Rick 0 Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 I've been running Suse 9.2 for a couple of months now and it works great. They also have a Live CD/Live DVD version that will run from the CD so you can play with it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Head Guru 19 Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 Knoppix. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
schussat 0 Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 I ran Mandrake for years, but when I put a new hard drive in my laptop, I decided to start over (well, "decided" should really read "was forced by some unknown quirk"). I used Knoppix via live CD to poke around the filesystem and make sure I had everything in the right place, but I decided to go with Ubuntu when I setup the installation to disk. Ubuntu is slick, and is usable much more readily than anything I've used before. Software updates are flawless and fast and everything works great. (Nothing against Knoppix; it has lots of fans, too, and would be a good distro too, I'm sure.) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ayman 0 Posted May 1, 2005 Share Posted May 1, 2005 (edited) I'd like to add Ubuntu to the list, the distro is very easy to install and manage. EDIT: Didn't notice that schussat already mentioned it... Edited May 1, 2005 by Ayman Quote Link to post Share on other sites
borfast 0 Posted May 3, 2005 Share Posted May 3, 2005 I also recommend Ubuntu. They have a LiveCD version, too. You may also want to try Fedora Core or, as others suggested, Mandriva (former Mandrake). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chroniker 0 Posted May 3, 2005 Share Posted May 3, 2005 I too have been looking for a Linux distro and came accross this review of Xandros /Corel LINUX >www.xandros.com >http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1738495,00.asp and knowing how reviews can be, I was wondering if anyone has / had any experience with it? I have installed their open circulation and it seems to be a little quirky and I'm curious if it's just me or not. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chroniker 0 Posted May 3, 2005 Share Posted May 3, 2005 I too have been looking for a Linux distro and came accross this review of Xandros /Corel LINUX >www.xandros.com >http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1738495,00.asp and knowing how reviews can be, I was wondering if anyone has / had any experience with it? I have installed their open circulation and it seems to be a little quirky and I'm curious if it's just me or not. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I did that one wrong, didn't I. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
borfast 0 Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 chroniker, I also tried Xandros but I didn't like it that much. It's too... I don't know... dumb? I mean, it tries to be as easy to use as Windows but it just has this "dumb" feeling about it... it looks as if it was made by a bunch of 10 years old kids, who love lots of colors, nice rounded graphics, lots of pretty stuff... but in the and, it doesn't add up to a nice, smooth experience. :| Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-RobertM 0 Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 On a recommendation I tried Ubuntu... and to be very honest I like it.. I originally had Debian sarge installed , but wanted to try other flavors. so I tried Suse... (just did not like the install nor the problems I had with the Boot secotr) I tried Mandrake 10.1 I liked it for its Ease of Use however I found it was Too Bloated for my personal likings. I was about to go back to Debian, when Raul suggested I try Ubuntu.. have had it on my box since and only have had to bring the box down one time in 3 weeks now not bad ... Clean install, recognized all hardware without any issues.... so I am happy today.... Always willing to try new but so far I am impressed with Ubuntu. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chroniker 0 Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 After all of the recomendations here for Ubuntu I thought I would give it a try. After realizing that Ubuntu is gnome I did some noseing around for a KDE version and found one Kubuntu. They say the only difference is that it is KDE. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cajunman4life 0 Posted May 12, 2005 Share Posted May 12, 2005 A few months down the road, when you are ready to dump Windows "Ex Pee" as you call it (I'm still laughing to myself), I would recommend you give Gentoo a whirl. It's a bit daunting to install at first (took me about a week and 3 seperate attempts on my HP server), but once you get it installed, it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen (and I don't necessarily mean in form, mostly function). Maybe I'm exagerating a bit. Point being, I find Gentoo's package management (called portage) to be extremely easy (easier even than FreeBSD's ports, which is what it was created to resemble). I'm not the average Gentoo zealot, I'm just happy with the results. And there was my $0.02. I would definately recommend knoppix or even the livecd version of ubuntu before you start messing around with your hard drive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dark Angel 0 Posted May 13, 2005 Share Posted May 13, 2005 Here's a great version made in Quebec. It's called EduLinux. A great version for beginners... And a great version at all. Here's a link to their English site: http://edulinux.org/spip_en/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jwbowden 0 Posted May 13, 2005 Share Posted May 13, 2005 A resource site you might check out is http://distrowatch.com/ you'll find just about any and every flavor of Linux on the planet listed there plus links. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Vivek 0 Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 I would suggest Ubuntu for beginners. It's built up on Debian architecture and provides a very good GUI, methods for easy installations/upgrades, good support, a large number of reliable free software and more. They release a new version in every six months. Knoppix is good as well. You can order your free CD of Ubuntuhere. Still, personally I would prefer to stick on to my CentOS-3.5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
borfast 0 Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 Just as a note, Ubuntu 5.10, named Breezy Badger (don't ask, they like to name their releases in a strange way... ) should come out in a few days. It's scheduled to be released in October, so it shouldn't be long, now. I have upgraded to the beta a few weeks ago and, apart from a minor problem I fixed in a minute by visiting ubuntuforums.org, it's been running smoothly. That's one of the things that made me switch from RPM-based Linux (Fedora Core, specifically) to a Debian/APT-based one (Ubuntu) - the package manager is simply fantastic! You can upgrade your whole distribution with a one-line, three argument command - or a few mouse clicks, if you prefer the amazing Synaptic GUI frontend for APT. Actually, not having APT repositories available for Fedora Core 4 was even more significant in my choice of moving away from FC4. Fedora Core 2 and 3 and lots of repositories and there was a version of APT-GET made to work with RPM packages instead of DEBs but Fedora Core 4 had nothing like it. They did have YUM but APT is much better, IMO. Well, enought chit-chat, go download Ubuntu now! PS - No, I'm not affilliated with Ubuntu in any way... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Thomas 25 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 RPM, APT, GET, DEBs, YUM... Does one need to know what all that means to run linux? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevevan 0 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I'm sure our Linux guru's will chime in, but basically all that one would need to know is what type of files to use to upgrade whatever Linux version you decide on. People often experiment with different versions to see what they like...kinda like web browsers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TweezerMan 0 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 Different Linux distributions use different formats and different programs to install applications and libraries. "RPM" refers to what RedHat and RedHat-based distributions use. "RPM" is short for "RedHat Package Manager", which is the application that retrieves and installes applications and libraries that have been packaged in the "RPM" format. Debian uses a different format and program to install applications and libraries. "apt-get" (I believe) is the program Debian uses to retrieve and install its packages, which are in a different format than "RPM" packages. A number of Linux distributions use the Debian "apt" style packages and "apt-get" to install them. I am not familiar with "YUM" - it's been too long since I've messed with Linux. The main thing you'd need to know is that your Linux distribution will most likely use and support one type of package to install applications and libraries. So, for example, if you have a Linux distribution installed that uses RPM-based packages, you would not be able to download and install packages from a server that has Debian "apt" style packages on it (and the reverse is true as well). Hope this helps... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
borfast 0 Posted October 3, 2005 Share Posted October 3, 2005 Debian's files are actually ".deb" files and "dpkg" is the tool that manages them. APT is a tool that sits on top of it and simplifies the work of getting packages, because it uses internet repositories from which you can download mostly anything. As for YUM, I believe it stands for Yellowdog Updater, Modified. Yellow dog is a Linux distribution based on Red Hat but made specifically for PowerPC machines (like the Mac). Yellow dog's package updateing tool was easy to use and had repositories like APT, which was something many people thought to be lacking in RPM based distributions, so someone decided to grab Yellow dog's package updating tool and modify it for other distributions. Fedora Core now uses it as it's main way of updating packages but to be honest, they still have a loooooong way to go before getting as good as APT Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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