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Would Debian be a pain in the ass for a noob?

B

BigToque

Lifer
I've messed around with Linux a few times before, but I don't know that much.

I heard the Debian is the "hardcore" distro, but that was not for noobs such as myself. Would I be better starting off with Fedora? (I've used RedHat before which is why I would get that if I don't get Debian)
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Should be fine, depending on how serious you are.
Click to expand...

I'm not that serious... I just want to play around and learn some things. I just want to get a feel at the moment.
 
Yep. Download the english version, unless you can read German.

It's all the linux you can handle, without the commitment and risk. And it's debian based.
 
Hi,

If you just want to play around with Linux, Debian is definitely not the way to go. Debian has a very steep learning curve, it won't hold your hands during the instalation process. You have to do A LOT OF RTFM, and also go to forums, ask questions, go to irc channels, do whatever it takes for you to learn what is going on, and also figure out answers to questions. Debian is popular because its easy to mantain, not because it's easy for newcomers. The big difference between a newcomer and a guru, is years of experience and lots of RTFM.
 
Actually, I find the debian installer to be quite nice. If you have any kind of knowledge about a computer, and even just the slightest bit of knowledged about Linux you should be able to install Debian without a problem.
 
Originally posted by: MCrusty
Actually, I find the debian installer to be quite nice. If you have any kind of knowledge about a computer, and even just the slightest bit of knowledged about Linux you should be able to install Debian without a problem.
Click to expand...

What about having to know the chipset of the different components of your pc? or having to try out different modules during installation to find out which one is the right one for your nic? what about configuring X on debian? USB is such a pain to get working under debian? I took me forever to be able to do a debian install in a pc without help, I redid it so many times, although I still have troubles installing usb because of which combinations of modules to use. Debian is easy to mantain but I wouldn't say it's easy to install 🙁
 
The install should automagically detect your nic and chipset. Configuring X and usb is just like any other distro, it is no differen't on Debian then on Gentoo or any distro for that matter. Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't and you have to tweak it like crazy.

I have never had a USB issue with Debian...always worked for me, and I use both a USB mouse and keyboard.
 
Originally posted by: MCrusty
The install should automagically detect your nic and chipset. Configuring X and usb is just like any other distro, it is no differen't on Debian then on Gentoo or any distro for that matter. Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't and you have to tweak it like crazy.

I have never had a USB issue with Debian...always worked for me, and I use both a USB mouse and keyboard.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about Debian? Did you have any *NIX experience when you first installed debian? There's a reason why Suse, RedHat, and Mandrake because they are filling the gap of user friendly distros that Slac, Debian, and Gentoo created.
 
quiet,

It's more to do with the personality of the person dealing with the OS.

Different people like different OSes. To me Slackware was much easier to deal with then Redhat was when I first started. I wanted to understand how everything works, but Redhat assumes everything and GUI tools are hard for me to work with.

Each project, each distro has a different mentality. A different sort of user and a different sort of developer is attracted to each OS. If you think like the guys who made the Distro then it can be very easy to learn it, because your probably going to make close to the same assumptions as the developers or at least what they decided for you will make sense.

All I can say is try a few out and see which one sets with you the best. Debian is great because of Apt and the dedication of it's package maintainers is high. The overall quality of the OS is very good. Very professional.
 
Originally posted by: pitupepito2000
Originally posted by: MCrusty
The install should automagically detect your nic and chipset. Configuring X and usb is just like any other distro, it is no differen't on Debian then on Gentoo or any distro for that matter. Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't and you have to tweak it like crazy.

I have never had a USB issue with Debian...always worked for me, and I use both a USB mouse and keyboard.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about Debian? Did you have any *NIX experience when you first installed debian? There's a reason why Suse, RedHat, and Mandrake because they are filling the gap of user friendly distros that Slac, Debian, and Gentoo created.
Click to expand...

Yes I am talking about Debian. I went from Mandrake(which I hated) to Gentoo(which I abandoned cause of the compile times) and then to Debian. I had used Mandrake for 2 days had no clue what to do with it...so I tried Gentoo. Did a stage 3 install learned alot about how the Linux in general works, then went back and did a Stage 1 install, learned even more about it. Then dropped it because I didn't wait around for compile times. Installed Debian and haven't touched it since then.

This was all a year ago, now I am quite happy with it.
 
Sarge isn't officially released yet but the installer does autodetect just about everything, Woody is the current 'stable' release but the woody installer doesn't do any autodetection.
 
I was thinking about giving linux a shot. I have absolutely no experience with linux and am thinking about trying Suse 9.1 personal. Is Suse newbie friendlyor am I better off getting a different distro? Thanks..
 
Originally posted by: GR8Madmax
I was thinking about giving linux a shot. I have absolutely no experience with linux and am thinking about trying Suse 9.1 personal. Is Suse newbie friendlyor am I better off getting a different distro? Thanks..
Click to expand...

They're all user friendly. It just depends on the user.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: GR8Madmax
I was thinking about giving linux a shot. I have absolutely no experience with linux and am thinking about trying Suse 9.1 personal. Is Suse newbie friendlyor am I better off getting a different distro? Thanks..
Click to expand...

They're all user friendly. It just depends on the user.
Click to expand...

they're user friendly, it's just that the distros are very picky on its users 🙂 😉
 
Originally posted by: GR8Madmax
I was thinking about giving linux a shot. I have absolutely no experience with linux and am thinking about trying Suse 9.1 personal. Is Suse newbie friendlyor am I better off getting a different distro? Thanks..
Click to expand...
Well, my basic recommendation to everyone is to start with a CD-bootable distribution like Knoppix. Play around with it, get friendly before you commit any drive space to it, and once you feel you can operate on a day to day basis with it, then install it and start looking at different apps and so forth. SuSE is pretty good on the ease of installation and use scale IMO.
 
Originally posted by: chsh1ca
Well, my basic recommendation to everyone is to start with a CD-bootable distribution like Knoppix. Play around with it, get friendly before you commit any drive space to it, and once you feel you can operate on a day to day basis with it, then install it and start looking at different apps and so forth. SuSE is pretty good on the ease of installation and use scale IMO.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chsh1ca. I was initially planning to download Knoppix but for some reason (probably after reading something negative) decided against it. I'll try to get Knoppix also.
 
defintely try knoppix. Knoppix is a must for any computer person. It can become invaluable if your Windows box, ever goes kaboom, and you need to recover data. A good place to download things from is:
www.linuxiso.org
 
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