suggestions

[chenliway]

ok... very new user to linux here. ive installed mandrake 6.5 and ive used it like twice. but i had to reformat cuz computer crashed while i was partitioning. i kinda wanna start on a newer version so i dont hafto install it and then upgrade a bunch of stuff.

anyways ive heard good things about debian, and how its easy to install and easy to use for beginners. i just want to hear outher suggestions bout linux distro's that are good to begin with.

[X_console]

The best way is to try them all. You can get all the distributions you want off cheapbytes.com for a very small price. Or if you have a CD-RW, then you can downlaod the ISOs from www.linuxiso.org (http://www.linuxiso.org) and burn them into a CD. Try each one for a month or so. You'll eventually find the one that you like. That's how I did it. Started with Slackware, then RedHat, then Suse, then tried Debian, and then went back to Slackware.

It's no good listening to other people's recommendation of which distribution is best because each distribution has it's pros and cons. For me, Slackware is my choice because of it's stability and because I have total control of what I want installed. Others would say it's limited because of the package manager. So they go look for something else.

[Q-Gdoxl]

I agree with x_consol there, but as a newbie extreme I can understand what chenliway
is asking here. I was in the same boat not to long ago. It is nice and easy to say try them all but to someone who has never even seen Linux running nevermind installing it it seems like a HUGE step and can be intemidating. I went out and read all I could about the differnet distros and decided that from what I had read Mandrake7.2 looked to be the easiest. So there I was ready to install linux. I installed Mandrake 7.2 (the installer doesn't make a boot disk), and then Red Hat 7. If a newbie were to ask me which was the easier install I'd say neither was easier but I liked the Red Hat installer better for 2 reasons a)it made a boot disk b) it was nicer looking. As for performance they both detected all my hardware, they both failed to install Lilo correctly (so I never actually ran mandrake with no boot disk and lilo not installed correctly)

In conclusion I would not recomend Mandrake personally because of the boot disk thingy. It is frustrating to spend all that time on the install and then not be able to boot!

I am attempting to install a distro called ASP Linux www.asp-linux.com (http://www.asp-linux.com) which looks to be a very nice easy install. Which boasts the best installer (with gui partition utils including resize!), best boot loader (asp loader), and the installer claims to setup my smp machine on install (which mandrake nor red hat did).

I am burning the installs now I'll let ytou know how it goes!!

[Mithix]

Like X_console said, it is a personal decision that you should make based on personal preference. In the end, there really isn't much difference when you get down to it. Having said that, I would recommend to you Mandrake 7.2. I used it as my first distro, and without it I would never have succeeded with Linux. It is great for auto-detecting and configuring things and giving you graphical editors and config apps for you to use. I happen to think it is a great way to start using Linux. The install, IMHO, was a breeze. :D

[X_console]

Well, to make things easier, try to stick with one of the major and popular distributions. This includes RedHat, Mandrake, Slackware, Debian, Suse, and so on. This way if you have any problems, it's easier to help out.

You can't really get away without having to upgrade stuff though. Chances are, a week or so after the latest release for your distribution hit the shelves, patches and updates started getting issued. It's important to keep up with updates and patches regardless of what distribution you're using.

Good luck!

[scott_R]

Just from what I've read on this message board, two of the favorites seem to be SuSE and Mandrake. My guess is that besides being reasonably (for an OS) easy to install, they have a lot of hardware compatability. Another nice point of these distros is that even the cheaper "basic" versions contain an awful lot of software. Granted, much of this is redundant software (like half a dozen text editors), but this also highlights one of the advantages of linux. If you don't like a certain software package, you can easily find another that pleases you more. At least these two distros give you an option without making you download a lot of programs after you install.

[chenliway]

cool thanks dudes =P

luckily, i do have a cdr so ill be able to try out a couple =]