This thread is to help newbies to decide what they want to try first. As a bit of advice, try more than one.
Please post more information on these distros or any other recommendations. Provide information on installation, package management, and default GUI's (you know they'll need it).
check here for the linux equivalent of windows programs provided by XBoxLPU
(These numbers indicate how many people looked at the information for each of these distros which gives you an idea of the popularity)
Linux ISO's top 8 Page Hit Ranking as of 4/20/2004:
1 Mandrake 1218
2 Fedora 1020
3 Knoppix 779
4 Debian 690
5 Gentoo 580
6 Red Hat 563
7 SUSE 546
8 Slackware 485
Read these brief descriptions taken from distrowatch.com to get a general idea of what the distro is about.
Debian: forum
Debian official releases are geared more toward stability than cutting-edge features. It's not as easy to install as most distros, but the package manager makes it easy to maintain once installed. Packages can also be upgraded to less stable versions.
-GUI:whichever you choose
-PKG: APT w/ .DEB
KNOPPIX forum
Knoppix is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. Knoppix can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.
-GUI: KDE
-PKG:
Gentoo: forum
Gentoo Linux is a versatile and fast, completely free Linux distribution geared towards developers and network professionals. Unlike other distros, Gentoo Linux has an advanced package management system called Portage. Portage is a true ports system in the tradition of BSD ports, but is Python-based and sports a number of advanced features including dependencies, fine-grained package management, "fake" (OpenBSD-style) installs, safe unmerging, system profiles, virtual packages, config file management, and more.
-GUI: whatever you choose
-PKG: portage
Fedora: forum
The Fedora Project is an openly-developed project designed by Red Hat, open for general participation, led by a meritocracy, following a set of project objectives. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora Core about 2-3 times a year, with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in building Fedora Core and will invite and encourage more outside participation than in past releases. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system more in line with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source community.
-GUI:GNOME
-PKG: RPM
SUSE: forum
SUSE LINUX is a popular distribution based out of Germany. The latest version isn't usually available as an ISO download, but they do offer a "live evaluation" version that runs completely off a CD.
Very Similar to Red Hat.
-GUI:KDE
-PKG:RPM
Mandrake: forum
Mandrake Linux was created in 1998 with the goal of making Linux easier to use for everyone. At that time, Linux was already well-known as a powerful and stable operating system that demanded strong technical knowledge and extensive use of the "command line"; MandrakeSoft saw this as an opportunity to integrate the best graphical desktop environments and contribute its own graphical configuration utilities and quickly became famous for setting the standard in ease-of-use and functionality. With this innovative approach, MandrakeSoft offers all the power and stability of Linux to both individuals and professional users in an easy-to-use and pleasant environment. Thousands of new users are discovering Linux each and every day and finding it a complete replacement for their previous operating system. Linux as a server or workstation has no reason to be jealous of any other more established operating systems.
-GUI:KDE
-PKG:RPM
Slackware: forum
Slackware:
Slackware was the first commercial distribution of Linux, and possibly the second distribution over aall. The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system, designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. It is the most Unix-like of the major Linux distributions.
Much like Debian, Slackware often uses older packages. The testing and stability is often a good reason to run the older versions. Security patches are either backported, or prompt the update of a package though, so no need to worry if you pay attention. Slackware-current is often much more up to date, but it is generally for developers and knowledgable people testing the distribution.
Installation is done through a simple menu based installation utility, providing you with the option to install the included packages. Most of the configuration will be done by hand, including setting up modules for hardware. Using the official distribution iso, you can install on most of the major filesystems; ext2fs, ext3fs, xfs, etc.
Packages come in the form of tgz files. These can either be untarred into the proper directories, or installed through the distribution pkgtools. Using the pkgtools is the prefered method.
Two tools that aid in the installation of Slackware packages are swaret and slapt-get. These tools seem to be based on apt-get, atleast in principle and use. There are not as many Slackware packages are there are debian debs, but the selection is very good.
There is no default gui for Slackware, but both KDE and Gnome perform quite well. Both Destop Environment, as well as a nice assortment of Window Managers, are offered during the install. They can also be installed afterwards through the pkgtools interface.
-GUI: KDE
-PKG: TGZ
What flavors of linux will work on Macs?
Debian, LinuxPPC, yellow dog, gentoo, mandrake
Please post more information on these distros or any other recommendations. Provide information on installation, package management, and default GUI's (you know they'll need it).
check here for the linux equivalent of windows programs provided by XBoxLPU
(These numbers indicate how many people looked at the information for each of these distros which gives you an idea of the popularity)
Linux ISO's top 8 Page Hit Ranking as of 4/20/2004:
1 Mandrake 1218
2 Fedora 1020
3 Knoppix 779
4 Debian 690
5 Gentoo 580
6 Red Hat 563
7 SUSE 546
8 Slackware 485
Read these brief descriptions taken from distrowatch.com to get a general idea of what the distro is about.
Debian: forum
Debian official releases are geared more toward stability than cutting-edge features. It's not as easy to install as most distros, but the package manager makes it easy to maintain once installed. Packages can also be upgraded to less stable versions.
-GUI:whichever you choose
-PKG: APT w/ .DEB
KNOPPIX forum
Knoppix is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. Knoppix can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.
-GUI: KDE
-PKG:
Gentoo: forum
Gentoo Linux is a versatile and fast, completely free Linux distribution geared towards developers and network professionals. Unlike other distros, Gentoo Linux has an advanced package management system called Portage. Portage is a true ports system in the tradition of BSD ports, but is Python-based and sports a number of advanced features including dependencies, fine-grained package management, "fake" (OpenBSD-style) installs, safe unmerging, system profiles, virtual packages, config file management, and more.
-GUI: whatever you choose
-PKG: portage
Fedora: forum
The Fedora Project is an openly-developed project designed by Red Hat, open for general participation, led by a meritocracy, following a set of project objectives. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora Core about 2-3 times a year, with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in building Fedora Core and will invite and encourage more outside participation than in past releases. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system more in line with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source community.
-GUI:GNOME
-PKG: RPM
SUSE: forum
SUSE LINUX is a popular distribution based out of Germany. The latest version isn't usually available as an ISO download, but they do offer a "live evaluation" version that runs completely off a CD.
Very Similar to Red Hat.
-GUI:KDE
-PKG:RPM
Mandrake: forum
Mandrake Linux was created in 1998 with the goal of making Linux easier to use for everyone. At that time, Linux was already well-known as a powerful and stable operating system that demanded strong technical knowledge and extensive use of the "command line"; MandrakeSoft saw this as an opportunity to integrate the best graphical desktop environments and contribute its own graphical configuration utilities and quickly became famous for setting the standard in ease-of-use and functionality. With this innovative approach, MandrakeSoft offers all the power and stability of Linux to both individuals and professional users in an easy-to-use and pleasant environment. Thousands of new users are discovering Linux each and every day and finding it a complete replacement for their previous operating system. Linux as a server or workstation has no reason to be jealous of any other more established operating systems.
-GUI:KDE
-PKG:RPM
Slackware: forum
Slackware:
Slackware was the first commercial distribution of Linux, and possibly the second distribution over aall. The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system, designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. It is the most Unix-like of the major Linux distributions.
Much like Debian, Slackware often uses older packages. The testing and stability is often a good reason to run the older versions. Security patches are either backported, or prompt the update of a package though, so no need to worry if you pay attention. Slackware-current is often much more up to date, but it is generally for developers and knowledgable people testing the distribution.
Installation is done through a simple menu based installation utility, providing you with the option to install the included packages. Most of the configuration will be done by hand, including setting up modules for hardware. Using the official distribution iso, you can install on most of the major filesystems; ext2fs, ext3fs, xfs, etc.
Packages come in the form of tgz files. These can either be untarred into the proper directories, or installed through the distribution pkgtools. Using the pkgtools is the prefered method.
Two tools that aid in the installation of Slackware packages are swaret and slapt-get. These tools seem to be based on apt-get, atleast in principle and use. There are not as many Slackware packages are there are debian debs, but the selection is very good.
There is no default gui for Slackware, but both KDE and Gnome perform quite well. Both Destop Environment, as well as a nice assortment of Window Managers, are offered during the install. They can also be installed afterwards through the pkgtools interface.
-GUI: KDE
-PKG: TGZ
What flavors of linux will work on Macs?
Debian, LinuxPPC, yellow dog, gentoo, mandrake
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