Good newbie open source os?

[excalibur3]

I currently run os x, which is great, but I'd really like to try out some open source operating system like linux, haiku, or other kinds. I've played around a little with ubuntu, but I was just curious if you guys had suggestions for the best operating system like this to play around with first. I am a beginning advanced windows and os x user, but I don't really have experience with compiling programs, terminal, changing the registry much, etc. What is the best way to start and what os is best? I plan on running it in vmware at first.

 

[Nothinman]

Ubuntu is probably the best choice, but any distro of Linux is going to be personal preference. You could try one of the BSDs but they have a higher learning curve and will require more manual configuration. Haiku looks interesting but I don't think it's anywhere near a spot where it can be a full-time desktop OS.

 

[Noema]

Ubuntu is great.

 

[bsobel]

3rd vote for Ubuntu

 

[silverpig]

Just go with ubuntu. It's easy to set up and get going, and while you can probably get by without touching the command line, the option is there for everything you do.

After that, if you want to learn the guts of linux a bit better, and want to compile a lot of things, then I'd suggest trying to install/run gentoo in a VMWare session. It'll be handy to do it in vmware because you'll probably want to use the help files on the internet in a second window. The gentoo install is good for making you at least look at the main configuration files in linux such as /etc/fstab, xorg.conf, grub.conf etc...

 

[hasu]

LinuxMint

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: hasu
LinuxMint

Good call, built on Ubuntu and bundles most of the applications that one would need.

 

[BurnItDwn]

How much do you want to learn, and how much do you want to challenge yourself???

Anybody that can operate windows or mac os can just as easily operate ubuntu.
If you have never touched linux before, and you want to experiment first right off the bat, then you might want to grab a "livecd" distro and boot right off of a CD rather than installing .... Something like Knoppix should work VERY well for that purpose, or something like SLAX should provide acceptable usability as well.

If you are determined to install something, and you want something more challenging than ubuntu, look no farther than Slackware. In my opinion, it is the best Linux distro if you want to really learn linux. It doesn't have nearly as many bells or whistles as Debian or Ubuntu, however, with slackware, you'll learn to love your command line. As a bonus, Slackware is the most "bsd-like" of all the major Linux distros. I run slackware 11 on my file/ventrilo/web server.


Personally ... I have the most fun playing with OpenBSD ... I've got it on 3 boxes now .... (nat/pf box that I plan on turning into a WAP and VPN bridge (to secure my wireless)), as well as 2 laptops ... (one of which is an old 450mhz with just 192mb of ram. I was planning on retiring the box and either selling it, or giving it to someone in my family who doesn't have a laptop and could use it for school ..... but It's older than dirt and I kinda like having it around just for an extra websurfing box. It runs a lot faster than many of the MUCH newwer boxes I've seen that run XP ....

also, FYI, the core of OS X, the Kernel, in VERY similar to that of OpenBSD. (In essence, they are both BSDs) ... OpenBSD seems like a bit more of a firewall/server type OS than a desktop OS by default, but it makes a nice desktop, it just takes time and work. I have X running and XFCE4 on both of the laptops. One is OpenBSD 4.0 and the other is running 4.1. I just installed 4.1 so I haven't had much time to play yet. The initial installation of OpenBSD can be a bit tricky as you need to create a slice, then make partitions within the slice, rather than just make partitions on the drive(s.) But if you're a veteran OS X user, and you can handle your own on the command line as well as the GUI, then you might just be ready to play with OpenBSD ...

 

[Nothinman]

Anybody that can operate windows or mac os can just as easily operate ubuntu.
If you have never touched linux before, and you want to experiment first right off the bat, then you might want to grab a "livecd" distro and boot right off of a CD rather than installing .... Something like Knoppix should work VERY well for that purpose, or something like SLAX should provide acceptable usability as well.

The Ubuntu installer is a LiveCD so he only needs to go to Knoppix or Slax if he wants to try a different distribution.

It doesn't have nearly as many bells or whistles as Debian or Ubuntu, however, with slackware, you'll learn to love your command line.

With Debian you will too, in general and with Debian you also get a decent package manager. =)

As a bonus, Slackware is the most "bsd-like" of all the major Linux distros.

I guess that depends on your definition of "bonus"...

also, FYI, the core of OS X, the Kernel, in VERY similar to that of OpenBSD. (In essence, they are both BSDs)

Not really, the kernel is based on Mach but the userland is stolen from FreeBSD.