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Best Linux distro for noob?

mandrake is VERY easy to install, very easy to use, and very easy to configure hardware (should there be something it didnt do quite right in the install) fully graphical installer, sets up LILO boot loader for you, can set up linux partitions in a click if you have an empty space ready for linux. 3isos of packages that are easy to browse and select (and even has good info on most all of them) during install (or afterwards) can easily swtich between KDE, Ghone, Icewm Enlightenment and another WM or two.

i like it anyway. if you just want to try it out for a while try Knoppix (with KDE) or Gnoppix (with Gnome)
they boot and run from a cd, has great hardware detection. no install needed if you just want to mess around before deciding to install a distro.
 
Gentoo or Debian if you don't have a job, don't go to school, smoke a lot of pot, and feel like throwing yourself in, headfirst.
 
Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n
Gentoo or Debian if you don't have a job, don't go to school, smoke a lot of pot, and feel like throwing yourself in, headfirst.
Click to expand...

lol, now that's funny....

I pulled rhl9 and mandrake 8 distro's down this afternoon, now I just have to get some free time. Thanx for the suggestions.

 
Originally posted by: yruffostsif
...mandrake 8...
Click to expand...
8?? 9.1 is the current version - you probably want that.

And FWIW, I'd recommend Red Hat over Mandrake any day. I recently set up nearly identical RH9 and MDK9.1 installations for some development work, and Mandrake consistently strikes me as sloppy compared to Red Hat. The config tools in RH are not significantly harder to use IMO, and the whole system is just much tighter.

 
Originally posted by: Spyro
Eh? What makes you say that?
Click to expand...
Little things - stuff that wouldn't be noticed with the typical newbie GUI install I suppose. A couple examples...

One of the first things I do with a fresh install is configure my shell environment. Mandrake by default includes a long list of aliases, none of which I like. The startup files check for an environment variable to decide whether or not to use the aliases, but the variable won't be read at the proper time for some login types. So you've got more complicated shell config files that still don't really work smoothly.

The Mandrake vim-gtk package doesn't read the guifont properly from .gvimrc. It always uses the system default. Buggy.

The menu system tries to please every conceivable audience and as a result is a nasty mess to understand or tweak. Desktop files end up in /usr/share/applnk, applnk-mdk, applnk-mdk-simplified, applications, and probably other spots. You've got three different menu style choices and the one I'd prefer - "All applications menu without the What to Do?" - doesn't read the configuration properly. So I'm stuck with that stupid "What to Do?" menu.

urpmi is a pain to configure for network auto-downloading, and the Mandrake mirrors seem few, far between, and busy. Arguably, redhat-config-packages can't do network downloads at all, but apt-rpm/synaptic is simple to install and works beautifully.

vim/gvim is configured to save backups by default, which I guess is good for newbies but leaves irritating ~ files all over the place.

Mandrake abandons RH's nice, consistent redhat-config-* naming scheme for cutesy *drake* names. If I don't have a (properly configured) GUI menu handy, it's hard to guess at the right command-line invocation.

And... um... KDE suxors? 😉

All little things, admittedly. But they bug me compared to Red Hat. Red Hat does install a lot of extra drek with the default install, and you may not like their overall style, but at the core it's a very thoughtfully designed distro. Mandrake feels rushed in comparison.
 
Originally posted by: cleverhandle
Originally posted by: Spyro
Eh? What makes you say that?
Click to expand...
Little things - stuff that wouldn't be noticed with the typical newbie GUI install I suppose. A couple examples...

One of the first things I do with a fresh install is configure my shell environment. Mandrake by default includes a long list of aliases, none of which I like. The startup files check for an environment variable to decide whether or not to use the aliases, but the variable won't be read at the proper time for some login types. So you've got more complicated shell config files that still don't really work smoothly.

The Mandrake vim-gtk package doesn't read the guifont properly from .gvimrc. It always uses the system default. Buggy.

The menu system tries to please every conceivable audience and as a result is a nasty mess to understand or tweak. Desktop files end up in /usr/share/applnk, applnk-mdk, applnk-mdk-simplified, applications, and probably other spots. You've got three different menu style choices and the one I'd prefer - "All applications menu without the What to Do?" - doesn't read the configuration properly. So I'm stuck with that stupid "What to Do?" menu.

urpmi is a pain to configure for network auto-downloading, and the Mandrake mirrors seem few, far between, and busy. Arguably, redhat-config-packages can't do network downloads at all, but apt-rpm/synaptic is simple to install and works beautifully.

vim/gvim is configured to save backups by default, which I guess is good for newbies but leaves irritating ~ files all over the place.

Mandrake abandons RH's nice, consistent redhat-config-* naming scheme for cutesy *drake* names. If I don't have a (properly configured) GUI menu handy, it's hard to guess at the right command-line invocation.

And... um... KDE suxors? 😉

All little things, admittedly. But they bug me compared to Red Hat. Red Hat does install a lot of extra drek with the default install, and you may not like their overall style, but at the core it's a very thoughtfully designed distro. Mandrake feels rushed in comparison.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, agreed, but don't bring KDE into it 😉
 
Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
Any recent version of Mandrake, Redhat, Suse, and Knoppix are very easy to set up and use.
Click to expand...

Which one of those would run better on a slower system?

Thanks.
 
originally posted by: jimmy1930
Which one of those would run better on a slower system?
Click to expand...
None. Use Slack/ Debian for slower systems.

I am assuming slower system= abt. 3-5 yr. old machine Processor @ 500 MHGZ, RAM @ 64 MB, etc...
 
Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n
Gentoo or Debian if you don't have a job, don't go to school, smoke a lot of pot, and feel like throwing yourself in, headfirst.
Click to expand...


i have a job and forgot the weed

no wonder i didnt like installing either, gentoo is still giving me a fit
grrr
 
Originally posted by: civad
originally posted by: jimmy1930
Which one of those would run better on a slower system?
Click to expand...
None. Use Slack/ Debian for slower systems.

I am assuming slower system= abt. 3-5 yr. old machine Processor @ 500 MHGZ, RAM @ 64 MB, etc...
Click to expand...

Yeah. 500MHz K6-2, 128mb RAM, 15gb HD, 8mb VRAM...
 
Originally posted by: jimmyl930
Yeah. 500MHz K6-2, 128mb RAM, 15gb HD, 8mb VRAM...
Click to expand...
OK, yeah that's kinda slow. Mandrake has a package for blackbox - always a good choice on old machines. And if you use apt-rpm for RH, you can get blackbox, fluxbox, waimea, and other lightweight window managers. For those choices, you'll want to do a manual installation to avoid installing a ton of GNOME/KDE stuff you don't need. Debian, as mentioned, is also a good choice because it won't install the heavy stuff by default. But the install and initial configuration may be a bit more difficult.
 
Blackbox seems to be a good recommendation for WM. I was fgoing to say Icewm/XFCE but then I think they will also install the dependancies and lead to unnecessary bloat.
originally posted by: cleverhandle
Debian, as mentioned, is also a good choice because it won't install the heavy stuff by default. But the install and initial configuration may be a bit more difficult.
Click to expand...
Sigh! Sad but true. That is exactly what I was told when I was a noobie...it took me about 2 yrs before I could 'dare' to use Debian 🙂

As far as Gentoo is concerned, if you have a spare machine, time to kill, and LOADS of patience, I think you should give it a try🙂


 
I'm a n00b, too. I've tried Mandrake, RH, and SuSE. If I were you, I'd go with SuSE, but unfortunately, they only have FTP installs available on the site. Might be able to find some cheap CDs on eBay or what not. On one system, SuSE and RH automatically detected and configured a lot of my devices, included a wireless PCI card. Mandrake barfed when I put it in. I do prefer Mandrake over RH, though, espcially since I like KDE over Gnome.

And hey, wasn't there an article where a guy installed SuSE 8.2 on a 150mhz machine and it took 2-3 minutes just to open OpenOffice (but it still ran!)? Good stuff...
 
redhat.
if you have an ounce of "figure it out" then you'll be glad you did it.

for those of you saying kde is nice - I run kde/gnome/WM on my redhat machine - wm for me, gnome for the girlfriend, and kde for those kids that can't even figure out windows that use it...
 
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