What version of *nix should I start with?

[Braves]

I have several friends that are diehard *nix people, but they are all mixed up as to which I should start with. I have a lot of time on my hands and I want to get into the linux/unix field. What do u guys think is the easiest to start with?

 

[Ulfwald]

Mandrake is the one I am using, it appears to be the easiest of the distros to get up and running.

 

[MrBond]

<< Mandrake is the one I am using, it appears to be the easiest of the distros to get up and running. >>

I use mandrake too, I like it a lot.

Redhat is good as well from what I hear. Sometimes buying a retail copy is worth it just for the manuals. Mandrake can be expensive, so I downloaded the images and burnt 3 CDs.

 

[Elledan]

SuSe is a good distro to start with.

 

[wyvrn]

I am currently using Mandrake 8.1, and I recommend it. Easy setup out of the box like Windows 2000. However if you want to force yourself to use the command line and not get spoiled by Xwindows, I have heard Debian and Slackware are two of the more hard core distributions.

 

[notfred]

*nix version 7.0

or, how about HPUX?

or maybe Irix.

Serioulsy, any of the linux distributions with a nice graphical installer will be easy to set up.

 

[Braves]

Yay. now to ask my cable friends to download it for me
Anyone heard of Walnut Creek cdrom? The people that distribute freebsd. I live in walnut creek too, but for some reason "Walnut Creek" cdrom is actually in Concord, about 20 minutes away

 

[MrBond]

I tried SuSe (came with q3a, I was bored), it didn't detect my promise controller or any of the drives attached to it. I don't think I missed a place to feed it a driver either, so if you have one of those, you may want to avoid it.

For mandrake, only the first two CDs are nessecary, the 3rd cd is all documentation. Actually, only the first CD is required, the second one is just more apps, so I reccomend it.

 

[yakko]

Mandrake is pretty easy to set up but it ran too slow for me so I am staying away from Linux until I build a faster machine for it.

 

[Elledan]

<< Mandrake is pretty easy to set up but it ran too slow for me so I am staying away from Linux until I build a faster machine for it. >>


Mandrake is the most bloated Linux distro I've ever used.

 

[Pepsi90919]

1.0

 

The whole idea of *nix is to NOT pay for it.

 

[ndee]

<< Mandrake is pretty easy to set up but it ran too slow for me so I am staying away from Linux until I build a faster machine for it. >>


Install debian, and it'll be faster. Mandrake is kinda bloated.

 

[ndee]

<< The whole idea of *nix is to NOT pay for it. >>


Not really.

 

[worth]

Slackware. I wouldn't go for Mandrake--maybe Redhat if you don't like Slackware. Mandrake contains too much auto-configuration and graphical stuff, you won't end up learning as much.

I really like Slackware, you get to learn a lot of stuff about Linux while using it.

 

[yakko]

<< The whole idea of *nix is to NOT pay for it. >>

Wrong but thaks for playing anyway.

 

[Heisenberg]

RedHat - Is easy enough to get up and running you won't toss your computer out the nearest window but not bloated and fluffy.