Linux, BeOS, something else?

[1sikbITCH]

I finally filled up my 20 gb harddrive and just ordered an 80 gb.

Now I will leave XP on the 20 and move everything else to the 80.
Therefore, I'm thinking of experimenting with some other OS's so that I can expand my horizons I've never ventured beyond Windows in the past.

What's a good one for beginners?

and

Will they coexist with my XP installation?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Give redhat, mandrake, or suse a try, they will work alongside windows fine.

Or hell, download knoppix, burn it to a cd, and give that a whirl.

 

[calpha]

You don't get much simpler then Beos.

And it exists FINE.

 

[Haden]

Give BeOS a try, unless you got GeForce4 (then better try any Linux distro BBWF suggests)

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Give redhat, mandrake, or suse a try, they will work alongside windows fine.

Or hell, download knoppix, burn it to a cd, and give that a whirl.

I agree with BBWF here, BeOS is all nice and stuff, but last I checked Be was dead. Give one of the user-friendly linux distros a whirl. Or if you reallywant to learn *nix try out debian, netbsd, or openbsd.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Ok I'll start with redhat I guess, and then after that maybe I'll try OpenBSD. I have a GF4 so I won't be trying BeOS.
Thx

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: 1sikbITCH
Ok I'll start with redhat I guess, and then after that maybe I'll try OpenBSD. I have a GF4 so I won't be trying BeOS.
Thx

If you try OpenBSD, it has to be at the beginning of a hard drive (I don't think it has to be the first hard drive, but I don't dual boot). Also, either check out a snapshot or wait until May/June for 3.3.

<<--pre-ordered 3.3 yesterday

 

[Grminalac]

RH 9 is due out in april, maybe give it a try when available. should be pretty cool.

 

[civad]

originally quoted by:wizardLRU
Give one of the user-friendly linux distros a whirl.

Even better, give of of the apparently 'hard-to-install' GNU/Linux distros a whirl. (Note: I didnt say Debian)

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: civad

originally quoted by:wizardLRU
Give one of the user-friendly linux distros a whirl.

Even better, give of of the apparently 'hard-to-install' GNU/Linux distros a whirl. (Note: I didnt say Debian)

Nope, you said slackware

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: civad

originally quoted by:wizardLRU
Give one of the user-friendly linux distros a whirl.

Even better, give of of the apparently 'hard-to-install' GNU/Linux distros a whirl. (Note: I didnt say Debian)

Even more betterest of all besteryness, write a new OS!

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: civad

originally quoted by:wizardLRU
Give one of the user-friendly linux distros a whirl.

Even better, give of of the apparently 'hard-to-install' GNU/Linux distros a whirl. (Note: I didnt say Debian)

Even more betterest of all besteryness, write a new OS!

Yehaaa, yeah thats the stuff. Time to fire up the C compiler and get started. For today's OS I'll be creating Sindows.......

Edit: And tommorow work starts on Pink Hat and Zendows

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: civad

originally quoted by:wizardLRU
Give one of the user-friendly linux distros a whirl.

Even better, give of of the apparently 'hard-to-install' GNU/Linux distros a whirl. (Note: I didnt say Debian)

Even more betterest of all besteryness, write a new OS!

Fvck yea (...well almost)

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: civad

originally quoted by:wizardLRU
Give one of the user-friendly linux distros a whirl.

Even better, give of of the apparently 'hard-to-install' GNU/Linux distros a whirl. (Note: I didnt say Debian)

Even more betterest of all besteryness, write a new OS!

Fvck yea (...well almost)

LOL, nope not even close

 

[drag]

Ah.. linux is crap, and all BSD users have a stick up their butt, try the OS that all the Hardcore Hackers use.

(BTW I am thinking that with all the distros that have a nasty habit of increasing the amount of complexity to the default configuration.. I think Slackware is actually a fairly newb-freindly OS, its kinda like a No Frills sort of OS. (I use it))

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: wizardLRU
Yehaaa, yeah thats the stuff. Time to fire up the C compiler and get started. For today's OS I'll be creating Sindows.......

Edit: And tommorow work starts on Pink Hat and Zendows

Ah, time to make a new operating experience

int
main (){
/*And so it begins */

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: drag
(BTW I am thinking that with all the distros that have a nasty habit of increasing the amount of complexity to the default configuration.. I think Slackware is actually a fairly newb-freindly OS, its kinda like a No Frills sort of OS. (I use it))

I don't quite understand what you mean by this, Slackware as a newbie friendly OS, now that is funny. You mean to tell me that a windows user would find slackware friendlier than Mandrake, Lindows, or Red Hat. Elucidate me please.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: wizardLRU

Originally posted by: drag
(BTW I am thinking that with all the distros that have a nasty habit of increasing the amount of complexity to the default configuration.. I think Slackware is actually a fairly newb-freindly OS, its kinda like a No Frills sort of OS. (I use it))

I don't quite understand what you mean by this, Slackware as a newbie friendly OS, now that is funny. You mean to tell me that a windows user would find slackware friendlier than Mandrake, Lindows, or Red Hat. Elucidate me please.

I learned more using Slackware than I did Mandrake.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: wizardLRU

Originally posted by: drag
(BTW I am thinking that with all the distros that have a nasty habit of increasing the amount of complexity to the default configuration.. I think Slackware is actually a fairly newb-freindly OS, its kinda like a No Frills sort of OS. (I use it))

I don't quite understand what you mean by this, Slackware as a newbie friendly OS, now that is funny. You mean to tell me that a windows user would find slackware friendlier than Mandrake, Lindows, or Red Hat. Elucidate me please.

I learned more using Slackware than I did Mandrake.

That really doesn't answer my question. I learned more using debian than I did using mandrake before I'd even had it installed, but I'd already had experience with Linux so there was nothing there that I couldn't fix. However, I wasn't a newbie, and somehow I doubt that you were either. IMO, somebody who'd spent their entire time dealing with windows would find it more difficult to work with slackware (thus causing a negative opinion of linux in general) than if they would have started off with a friendlier distro. The exceptions to this are the windows users who are comfortable with the CLI and know how to RTFM.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: wizardLRU

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: wizardLRU

Originally posted by: drag
(BTW I am thinking that with all the distros that have a nasty habit of increasing the amount of complexity to the default configuration.. I think Slackware is actually a fairly newb-freindly OS, its kinda like a No Frills sort of OS. (I use it))

I don't quite understand what you mean by this, Slackware as a newbie friendly OS, now that is funny. You mean to tell me that a windows user would find slackware friendlier than Mandrake, Lindows, or Red Hat. Elucidate me please.

I learned more using Slackware than I did Mandrake.

That really doesn't answer my question. I learned more using debian than I did using mandrake before I'd even had it installed, but I'd already had experience with Linux so there was nothing there that I couldn't fix. However, I wasn't a newbie, and somehow I doubt that you were either. IMO, somebody who'd spent their entire time dealing with windows would find it more difficult to work with slackware (thus causing a negative opinion of linux in general) than if they would have started off with a friendlier distro. The exceptions to this are the windows users who are comfortable with the CLI and know how to RTFM.

As a newbie, I found Slackware to be easier and taught me more than other distros. I had tried RedHat for a short while before trying Slackware, but I was definitely not out of newbieville. But I knew how to RTFM, remembered DOS, and actually wanted to learn (ie, not using Linux because it was the in thing to do). So I had several advantaged over most of the newbies picking up Linux so they can be cool too.

 

[jhu]

try plan 9

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: jhu
try plan 9

What can you run on it? I've seen that OS before, and it looks like an interesting concept, but not very well supported (hardware support is rather dated, or so it seems).

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: jhu
try plan 9

I forgot all about Plan 9! Hmmm... I need to try this...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: jhu
try plan 9

What can you run on it? I've seen that OS before, and it looks like an interesting concept, but not very well supported (hardware support is rather dated, or so it seems).

I think this is an attitude that might have kept Linux small.

EDIT:

Looking for information on what software it can run.

Listed on their page:
# CVS 1.11.1p1
CVS 1.11.1p1, compiled (appropriately) out of CVS repository, ported to Plan 9. (2.1MB)

# Moscow ML 2.0
Moscow ML 2.0, ported to Plan 9. (3.2MB)

# Noweb 2
Norman Ramsey's noweb literate programming system, ported to Plan 9. (0.95MB)

# Perl 5.8.0
Perl 5.004_05, ported to Plan 9. (3.0MB)

# PQ
The PQ database program. (0.04MB)

# Python 2.2+
Python version post-2.2, compiled out of CVS repository, ported to Plan 9. (4.9MB)

# Sun Sources
Second edition Plan 9 sources for Sun workstations. Useful for someone energetic enough to update the Sparc kernels to the fourth edition. (1.0MB)
Charles Forsyth's port of the second edition to the LX/Classic is here. (0.04MB)

# TeX, Web2C v7.2
The TeX and LaTeX document formatting systems, ported to Plan 9. (39MB)

# VGA register dumper
A Unix/DOS port of aux/vga; useful for dumping registers on video cards. (0.20MB)

# VMware virtual disk image
A VMware virtual disk image preinstalled with the current Plan 9 distribution. (82MB)

# Installation CD
Use to install Plan 9, or just boot directly from the CD to explore. (65MB)

# Sources Snapshot
An installation CD, but built from the current snapshot of sources.cs.bell-labs.com last night. The ``bleeding edge'' version. Can also be used to update your Plan 9 installation. Download, mount, and use replica/pull -v /dist/replica/cd.

# Sources Extras
The contents of /contrib and /nemo on sources. (2MB)

# GCC for Plan 9
Precompiled binaries of GCC and related utilities, to be untarred in the root of your Plan 9 system. Sources for APE are also available (ape.tgz), and a separate snapshot of the GNU sources is publically available here.

# aescbc
A critical security patch for /sys/src/cmd/auth/secstore/aescbc.c

# ext2srv.tgz
An ext2 file system server for Plan 9. From Laurent Bodet via Richard Miller.

# X11, ported to Plan 9. You don't really want to use this. It's old and slow and only works well on 8-bit displays.

 

[jhu]

anyone wanna give a short comparison of plan 9 vs. unix (and the like)?