Which distro

[Majglow]

Hello,

I'm trying to pick a distro to install and learn on.

I was going to put on Redhat 7.2, but a friend that is really good with Linux told me that it's easier to learn on Debian, and that Debian is more secure and stuff because they don't add a whole bunch of useless services, etc...

What should I pick? And what are the differences? And how hard is it to switch after?

Thanks,
Carl

[scanez]

It depends on what you mean by learn on. Do you mean you want everything to work right off the bat and then learn how stuff is done? If so I would suggest RedHat or Mandrake. Do you mean you want to start learning right from the beginnning even if that means configuring stuff yourself right from the begining (which I found to be very useful) then I'd suggest Slackware or Debian. Oh wait, time for a plug :) Actually if you are interesting Debian but don't want to dive head first into it at first, try Libranet. It is Debian based but does have some nice configuration tools I hear...

It all depends on exactly what you want to do. My default advice is always to just try out a few for yourself and see which one you like best.

Cheers
SC

[sarah31]

I would agree with scanez on this one. I would also like to add that once you have a Linux Distro installed there are only slight variations, such as different upgrading tools loaded software, etc. Installing is a big deal though. Mandrake is probably the easiest to install and will pretty well auto find and configure your hardware. If you know about the guts of your computer and do some reading about the install procedure for Debian, LibraNet, or Slackware they may not present a huge problem for you. I found that the Debian and LibraNet installs to be quite easy compared to their reputation. Regardless, of which distro you choose installing is not always simple, even Mandrake, problems may occur but that is why these boards are here, to aid you.

Take your time research the various distros and make your decision based on which appeals most to your needs. I you get stuck be patient and post here.

[Majglow]

I put on Debian, but it didn't find my Network card...

or something like that, I tryed to have it work, but it just didn't have an eth0.

But, redhat, on the same computer, got everything to work...

I don't know what it means.. but yeah.

Carl

[StarMoose]

If you know someone who has CDs for any distros, try them. I did not intend to use Red Hat, but it was the only one I could borrow CD's for. Its not really hard to use once you get everything installed right, but you will find yourself learning a lot of cool stuff about the system anyway.

It does have a lot of crap I find that I do not need, but in some ways it is good to have a bunch of stuff so you can sort through what you want yourself.

[scanez]

Originally posted by Majglow:
<STRONG>I put on Debian, but it didn't find my Network card...

or something like that, I tryed to have it work, but it just didn't have an eth0.

But, redhat, on the same computer, got everything to work...

I don't know what it means.. but yeah.

Carl</STRONG>
Do you mean it didn't find the card during installtion or afterwards. Either way, did you load the correct module for the card?