A simple suggestion for the overwhelmed newbie

[blackbelt_jones]

Recently, once again, some poor unfortunate tried to get advice about what distro he should start with, and once again, the contridictory cacophony of partisan voices that responded couldn't have been very helpful.

So I had a thought. While it's perfectly acceptable to just jump in and install something, and then maybe install something else, those who are what I like to call "li-curious" ;) and wonder if there's a way to make a logical, orderly approach might want to forget about picking a distro for a while and concentrate on picking your favorite desktop environment.

Besides offering a choice of disributions, Linux offers a choice of desktop environments-- graphical user interfaces. Each of them approaches the question of "point and click" in its own way. The most popular and beginner friendly desktop environments are Gnome and KDE. KDE has the reputation for being the desktop most similar to Microsoft WIndows in terms of look and feel, but there's only so many ways that you can point and click, and if you're used to MS windows, you ought to find gnome reasonably intuitive and easy tp pick up.

Gnome (my personal favorite) is fairly simple and intuitive for me, makes for a nice, uncluttered desktop, and has a couple of features I really love. (I can open a console window just by right-clicking on the desktop). KDE is flashy, powerful, and feature-rich.

Get your hands on a couple of live CD's. A live cd is a linux operating system that doesn't need to be installed on your hard drive ; it runs entirely from the CD and from the RAM. This means that a live Linux CD is not only easy to try, you can try it without risking any of your current hard drive data. You can go online , surf, play games, play audio and video files from your hard drive, and a lot more. If you have more than one CD drive, you can burn CDs, using data from your windows hard drive. (a live CD won't write to your hard drive unless you enable it, but most can READ from your hard drive.

Besides being an easy, no risk way to test-drive Linux, live CDs have a lot of great uses, including repair and rescue-- but that's for another post.

You want to get a live CD for each desktop environment. Live CDs that use KDE include Knoppix and Kanotix. Live CDs that use Gnome include Gnoppix, and the live version of Ubuntu. Try them both out thoroughly, and see which you prefer.

Remember that you're testing the desktop environment itself, and not the applications. Certain applications are associated with gnome (they tend to have names that start with "g", like gedit and gthumb, and others are associated with KDE (they tend to have names that start with "k", like kedit and k3b). On live CDs, these associations tend to be rigidly enforced due to space restrictions-- but when you pick a distribution to install to your hard drive, you can almost always mix and match with ease, according to your preferences. If (like me) you prefer gnome but love to use the CD burning utility K3B, you absolutely can have both.

When you've decided which desktop you prefer, you're already starting to get a handle on what sort of distro you want. You can usually pick either desktop to go with most distibutions, but there are definitely distros that don't go so well with gnome (mepis, kanotix, and slackware need to have it installed. In my limited experience, it crashes a lot with SuSE) . Gnome tends to run good on those distros where it is the default: debian, red hat/fedora, and Ubuntu. (If there are distros that don't go well with KDE, I don't know much about them, ' cause I'm not a KDE guy,)

These are only the two most popular options. I should mention that there are other, more specialized desktops that can be installed on your system, but beginners shouldn't worry about them just yet. Some are good for older systems because they don't use as many resources. Others are (to my uninformed eyes) just plain weird. And then, of course, there's the Linux Power User-- who don't need no stinkin' desktop!

Anyway, if you find the choices of distro dizzying, there's a chance that knowing whether you prefer KDE or Gnome will give you enough practical knowledge to make it all seem less intimidating-- and there's also the chance that I have confused you further. :rolleyes: If I have, I'm sorry. Just remember, it's all about the fun!

I'll be back with 24 hours to dress up this post with some nice helpful links and screen shots... oh, and I'll also clean up some of the typos.

HEY! I think that THIS IS MY 1000th post! :cool: Before I was blackbelt_jones, I was posting in here as spiderbaby1958. That was when I was posting in here with a Windows computing. When I got online with my fist superslow Mandrake system, I immediately came here and opened a new account. Therefore, I mark my beginning with Linux from the time I joined this forum as blackbelt_jones, three years ago this month.

[psych-major]

You want to get a live CD for each desktop environment. Live CDs that use KDE include Knoppix and Kanotix. Live CDs that use Gnome include Gnoppix, and the live version of Ubuntu. Try them both out thoroughly, and see which you prefer.

For KDE live CD's, don't forget SimplyMepis!

[hlrguy]

This should be a link on the main page.

http://eedok.voidofmind.com/linux/chooser.html

EDIT
or maybe this one. just googled it.

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/
/edit

hlrguy

[HAL_JORDAN]

Nice thread! I really think that if there were more sites that people could go and demystify Linux, many more people would use it.
I am currently (when we have time) teaching my wife (under Mandrake 10.1) and so far she has been able to do everything she was able to do under XP.
I have mailed my first copy of Ubunutu to a friend in Minnesota, and have demonstrated Knoppix and Ubunutu to several people, many have taken the step to do more research on their own.
black)belt, I wish I had read something like this a year ago! I saw a live cd only 5 months ago and was blown away that an entire OS could be run and interacted with from a cd!
Screen shots would be really cool, since most of the people I know are not technical, and they are afraid of leaving the MS Safety Blanket ® and it would be helpful if they knew what to expect the first time.
Dual booting is so easy though, and obviously that's the next step; is there a Linux program that is as easy and friendly to use as Partition Magic? Aside from that, I have suggested that people just install a secondary drive (I have even given away no less than 3 20 gb drives for that purpose).
Cool, thread maybe some screen shots of a standard gnome and kde enviroment. I'd be more than happy to help, let me know.

Tim

[XiaoKJ]

Fairly good discussion point...

but most distros strive to be objective and provide both. It might not help them. but you can say that as of date of posting, most major distros support gnome, and surely its worth a try. Yet some continue to say how gnome devels this and that, and kde is better....

Yeah... the only sure way is to try it and find out. But, kde's reputation is not really fair --- on first start, kde will allow you to choose the settings, which includes how behavior are defined for applications.

Can someone make this a permanent main thread?

[HAL_JORDAN]

A sticky would be a good idea IMO, maybe we could even post results of people that have never tried Linux before and their opinions.

Since I am fairly new (just a few months, as of July 2005), I'll start with me. I prefer gnome of kde, because it just looks cleaner to me. I also like the way that the menus are laid out.
When I first loaded Mandrake 10.0, I didn't know what Gnome or kde even was, so it defaulted into kde and that's what I was used to. After trying various distros (Mandrake, Debian, CentOS, FC4, Ubunutu and Gentoo), I am back to a dual boot Mandrake and Debian, and I am running both with the gnome desktop.
I can accomplish all tasks in kde that I can in gnome, it's just a preference.

After new users discover that they can change the application window, border and, theme and icons anyway they choose, then those that like to tweak rarely if ever go back.

Such an unlimited freedom of choice can me daunting to many new people, but thanks to the Linux community, more and more new people are discovering what Linux has to offer.

Tim

[psych-major]

is there a Linux program that is as easy and friendly to use as Partition Magic? Aside from that, I have suggested that people just install a secondary drive (I have even given away no less than 3 20 gb drives for that purpose).

The SimplyMepis (http://www.mepis.org/) live CD has a graphical partitioning tool called QTParted that IMHO is easier to use than Part Magic.

There is also the terminal based cfdisk that is very intuitive and straightforward.

[loopback48]

Yes, Live CDs is a good intro to the maddingly wonderful world of Linux. It was several years before I came across one. By that time I had installed and played with several distros.

Success is must for a newbie to keep coming back. So I would recommend Ubuntu and Mepis. The first has the Gnome DE and the second comes with KDE. These two will give a newcommer to Linux a taste of what one can do. They just work. Later, when one feels comfortable jump on the Debian proper band wagon.

Like the previous poster, I too am a Gnome fanboy. I started out the first two years using KDE. Then tried Gnome. Haven't looked back. Before this turns into a flame war, let me state, also like a previous poster, that it's all a matter of taste. I can do the same things using Gnome as with KDE. Some not so easily, still... As this is a thread on advice for newbies, I would suggest starting with Gnome. It's a simpler and cleaner DE if for no other reason that KDE has a menu that tends to over whelm you. Even I get lost in it sometimes.


Dual booting is certainly a viable way to have Win and Linux on one machine. I've tried it but find it a bit messy for my taste. A better way is to purchase a HD caddy. It allow one to easily swap HDs with ease. Only $30 or so.

[bigmac99]

the best part is, you can install as many desktop environments as you want, and use each one, and make up your own mind that way.

I personally choose GNOME, but I haven't tried xfce or e17 yet. I *really* like the looks of e17. =)

-Charles

[blackbelt_jones]

the best part is, you can install as many desktop environments as you want, and use each one, and make up your own mind that way.

I personally choose GNOME, but I haven't tried xfce or e17 yet. I *really* like the looks of e17. =)

-Charles

e17? :confused:

I've started using xfce on my Debian System. (Still using Gnome on my SUSE system, which is what I usually run.) For me, xfce started to look good once I figured out how to set keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts have become as essential to my way of working as using 10 workspaces. I love the simple simple simple look of fluxbox, but if there are no keyboard shortcuts (could find no mention of themin the fluxbox wiki) I'm not interested.

HEY, I JUST NOTICED THAT SOMEONE MADE MY THREAD INTO A STICKY! :D I feel like I just won an Oscar. I'd like to thank the academy, and my good friend Linus...

[lugoteehalt]

A lot of people will be wanting to get as far away from Windows as quickly as they can. So Enlightenment might be good for them, with no Gnome or KDE.

It's also much smaller and faster and as close to tastefull as a computer ever gets.

[mrrangerman43]

blackbelt_jones

I'm at work right now but when I get home I'll post a link I found on how to setup keyboard-shortcuts in fluxbox.

[goingtopot]

I saw a ref to Vector Linux on another forum. This information is great for a newbie like me. I have alot of spare time right now and want to get as knowledgable of Linux as I can.

Of course, the first "challenge" was what to DL from the Vector site. I simply selected the latest date, largest item (SOHO 5.1.2 Live 2). I have no idea if that was the right DL or not. There are some follow-on files that were put on the FTP site after that file and I guess I'll check them out when I get this one up and running.

Naturally, I can change which Linux I install and work with with the wind and it sounded like Vector might be quick and easy. The latest refs here probably would be too and perhaps I'll check them out too.

Anyone wanting to give me initial heads-ups on how to best install this Vector version let me know. I'll look around and try to understand what KDE and other lingo stands for too.

This should be an interesting endeavor.

Gt

[SMF]

I just pulled up. I am green as grass. I did appreciate what black belt jones had to say. I have been using Linux for 2 days. I opted with installing ubuntu only based on screenshots. (ok and reading too but screen shots helped big time )

I was first told to take this on line test.

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php

When I was finished with the test it came back with like 5 or 6 possible suggestions and I chose ubuntu even though they suggested Mandriva twice cus I just took the test again LOL

But I did find a site that had screen shots of all the linux desktops and ubuntu just felt right because it was only 1 cd.
Suse sounded nice but was 5 cd and that was too much for me :)

Anyways getting back to your comments I still know nothing about Linux nor understand the techno lingo yet. Still learning.
I say there is even something better than Partition Magic (IMO) Partion Magic sucks.

Partition Commander (IMO) is so easy to use even a monkey can use it. Believe that. lol. User friendly no need to read nothing. :D

Anyways I dont know why I posted here but I guess I wanted to say thanks and I like your idea about the pictures. I still dont know about gnome or K other than they are on my ubuntu and I have used somethings they have lol but your explination was helpful only because I have already seen them on ubuntu now.

Oh what got me to try out Linux was I saw a distro Live CD called Linux Desktop XP 2006. I tried it and it sucked (Dont ask why) lol but it gave me a taste of linux and I wanted more. Truth is Linux xp felt too much and looked like a mix of XP and Win98 yuk and was very sluggish.

I wish I could find that site that had all the screenshots of all the Linux but I did not save it to my bookmarks. The day I was researching about all my options I had about 25 tabs open (you know the drill) and that one page I really thought was not worth saving when in fact it was because it many screen shots of each one so one could get a real good look unlike some sites that only have one screen shot its hard to make up your mind that way (IMO) Ok I am ranting. I love linux and I cant wait to learn more and hopefully soon I can dump my Win XP OS

CIAO.

[WesternMA]

Thank you Blackbelt Jones for a great post! Like SMF I'm "green as grass"...actually greener because I don't even have Linux loaded...didn't know where or how to start. I stumbled in here from a google search and ran across this thread...exactly the information I was looking for...hope you post lots more "how-to's" in the kind of simple straight forward language you used here.

[mrrangerman43]

blackbelt_jones

This may have what you want for Fluxbox.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/fluxbox-config.xml

[TroyR]

Call me shallow but we live in a graphicly oriented world...The prettier the desktop the better I will like the Distro.

[Parcival]

Call me shallow but we live in a graphicly oriented world...The prettier the desktop the better I will like the Distro.

That's why there are so many available for Linux. :)

[lugoteehalt]

Call me shallow .... The prettier the desktop the better I will like the Distro.
So Microsoft is catering for the shallow and yet its desktops are deadly dull on the eye candy front. Something funny going on. You'd think eye candy would be their first design criterion.

Suggest Microsoft is dull on the eye as supermarket bread is dull on the pallet. It's social control.

[DavidMD]

Hello, everyone.

I have been using KDE since I first started using Linux four years ago.

I learned about XFCE (http://www.xfce.org/) shortly after its first stable release. I am getting ready to break free of the messy world of dual-booting Windows and Linux. (I will be upgrading SuSE to Novell 10.1.)

I am definitely going to install XFCE and give it a try. I enjoyed using it on the ZenLive CD. Perhaps I like it because it has a clean look (a comment made by many Gnome users); I also like the fact that it does not use system resources as heavily as KDE, although I have no trouble using KDE.

As several people have pointed out, many distributions come with more than one environment, and you can always install additional ones, experimenting to find the "fit" that suits your aesthetic tastes and computing resources.

I am thankful for the choices that Linux offers. The environments get better with each release, and they are integrated with your distribution. (Just think of the kludges that Windows users pay for to change the look of Windows, usually at the cost of stability and speed!) :)

I make this statement not to "bash" Windows, but to point out that we should be thankful for all of the developers who work to enhance not only the functionality of Linux, regardless of the distribution, but how we interact with it. (I realize, of course, that Linux is solely the kernel.) ;)

I think we should remember that we are a community, too -- a point that I humbly suggest that we sometimes forget. :)

Thanks for your time!

Cordially,

David

[Emiles]

Dual booting is certainly a viable way to have Win and Linux on one machine. I've tried it but find it a bit messy for my taste. A better way is to purchase a HD caddy. It allow one to easily swap HDs with ease. Only $30 or so.

I am in the infancy stage of all this and I was wondering if instead of using a HD caddy how about using a separate HDD and have it boot from one or the other? Or what is the difficulty of using a USB Passport Drive (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7070251&type=product&id=1109233047297) drive like this one.

I apologize if this is covered elsewhere but I am still looking and didn't want to lose this thread.

Thanks!!

[IsaacKuo]

Booting off of USB drives is a bit iffy due to a lack of industry-wide consistency. It might work for you out-of-box...or...

It's relatively easy to set up dual booting with two hard drives. The main advantage with using two hard drives rather than one is that you don't have to resize your Windows partition. Depending on your motherboard, you may even be able to set things up so that the Windows drive isn't touched at all.

For example, if your motherboard has a setting for booting up the secondary master first rather than the primary, then you can do the following:

Primary master - pristine Windows setup
Secondary master - Linux set up for dual-boot

You tell the installer to put the GRUB bootloader on the Secondary Master, and GRUB will then give you the option to either boot up Windows or Linux.

Later on, if you want to simply remove Linux entirely, you remove the drive and reset the BIOS to boot from the Primary Master first.

Alternatively, if you want to remove Windows entirely, you can move the Secondary Master to the Primary, and edit GRUB's menu.lst and the Linux's fstab file system table to point to hda instead of hdc.

[Emiles]

How would I find out about the booting , master?

I think I am going to install it on one of my old computers that just today has had a string of MS errors. But I want to do the dual on my Main PC.

This is my Main PC:
*ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM
*PNY VCG7800GXWB Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
*AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500BPBOX - Retail
*CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model SAMSUNG SpinPoint *P Series SP2004C 200GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
*CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model
*NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Silver IDE Model ND-3540A - OEM

Thanks again for your help.

[IsaacKuo]

The exact steps to take depend on the installer--and to do what I was suggesting depends upon if you motherboard supports changing the priority on the local hard drives.

I know the Debian 3.1/Sarge/Stable and Debian Etch installers pretty well; I'm not familiar with other installers.

[Emiles]

I bought a Seagate 160GB SATA HDD. From what I can gather from the Motherboard docs, SATA don't distinguish between master and slave for SATA drives, they just number them. I chose Mandrake and I was reading the Partition documentation (http://doc.mandrivalinux.com/MandrakeLinux/101/en/Starter.html/drakxid-doPartitionDisks.html) and it talks about DrakX and whether to use existing partition, use custom...... but it doesn't talk about using Two hard Drives. I know you said that you don't have experience with Mandrake but I wasn't sure if you had experience with DrakX.

Thanks again.

[Parcival]

Emiles, please open up a new thread for your question in the appropriate subforum (e.g. Installation).

[ill_bill]

e17? :confused:

I love the simple simple simple look of fluxbox, but if there are no keyboard shortcuts (could find no mention of themin the fluxbox wiki) I'm not interested.



Fluxbox has a hotkey system Blackbelt.


http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docbook/en/html/c290.html

[DavidMD]

Hello, 'blackbelt_jones'....These are only the two most popular options. I should mention that there are other, more specialized desktops that can be installed on your system, but beginners shouldn't worry about them just yet. Some are good for older systems because they don't use as many resources. Others are (to my uninformed eyes) just plain weird.....Thank you for starting a great and trulp helpful thread!

While I do not want to "muddy the waters" by mentioning other desktop environments besides the popular Gnome and KDE environments, I thought it might be helpful to mention the XFCE (http://www.xfce.org/) desktop environment, which is growing in popularity and actually ships as the standard desktop with some live CDs, such as ZenWalk Linux.

People can visit the XFCE project site to read about XFCE, view screen shots, and even watch Flash-based demonstrations of some of the features. XFCE allows you to mix Gnome and KDE applications and has a small memory "footprint."

In addition, there is a graphical installer available for XFCE, making it very easy for Linux neophytes ("newbies") to install.

It is still probably a good idea for people new to Linux to have spent some time experimenting with Gnome and KDE, because they may decide that one of these environments suits them (and their hardware) quite well. Other people may decide to try XFCE.

Also, another way to try XFCE is to try XFLD (http://www.xfld.de/Xfld/en/index.html) , which is available as a live-CD ISO. The main purpose of this distribution is to demonstrate XFCE, not to offer a Linux distribution that one would want to install and use on a regular basis. (There's actually no option to install XFLD on one's hard drive.)

Finally, I am not trying to promote XFCE over Gnome or KDE. I agree with you that users should try Gnome and KDE first, but if someone is limited by their hardware (e.g., slow processor or low RAM), XFCE might offer a solution besides the "just plain weird" environments to which you refer. ;)

Thank you!

Cordially,

David

[michux]

This should be a link on the main page.

http://eedok.voidofmind.com/linux/chooser.html

or maybe this one. just googled it.

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/


Here is another distro chooser: http://polishlinux.org/choose/quiz/

And a Linux Distribution Comparison table: http://polishlinux.org/choose/comparison/

Regards,
Borys

[dragon_harrower]

I'm trying to run Knoppix live cd on my Windows XP system, but everytime it boots it stops when looking for a floppy drive. I don't have a floppy drive on my computer. Is there a way around that? Any help from anyone would be appreciated, even if you refer me to another thread, forum, etc.

[michux]

I'm trying to run Knoppix live cd on my Windows XP system, but everytime it boots it stops when looking for a floppy drive. I don't have a floppy drive on my computer. Is there a way around that? Any help from anyone would be appreciated, even if you refer me to another thread, forum, etc.

You may need to add some options before booting Knoppix. Here is a list of Knoppix boot options (so called "cheat codes"): http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes -- perhaps there is some that disables floppy checking.

Perhaps: nohwsetup ?

Borys

[DavidMD]

Hello, dragon_harrower.I'm trying to run Knoppix live cd on my Windows XP system, but everytime it boots it stops when looking for a floppy drive. I don't have a floppy drive on my computer. Is there a way around that? Any help from anyone would be appreciated, even if you refer me to another thread, forum, etc.I am sorry that you are having difficulty, :( and the moderators will probably move this discussion to a new thread.

When you first boot into Knoppix, there are several options from which you can select; have you explored all of them? It has been quite a while since I booted from a Knoppix DVD, so I cannot recall if one of the options offers you something like a "no floppy" boot configuration.

Someone with more experience with Knoppix will, I am sure, have a solution for you!

Good luck, dragon_harrower! :)

Cordially,

David

[devlin-x]

Found a chooser link that is not broken. Some of the ones from earlier posts no longer work. I found this one that I tested an as of 6/2007 it works great!

http://www.tuxs.org/chooser/

Linux because I like to do things with my computer not struggle to maintain it.

[djrsml]

I wish that I had found this thread a year ago, apparently I didn't do too bad on my own though 'cuz I started out with SimplyMepis which uses KDE' it was an easy transition from windows!

I use Debian Etch and Ubuntu now, both with Gnome as the desktop!

[blackbelt_jones]

I'll be back with 24 hours to dress up this post with some nice helpful links and screen shots... oh, and I'll also clean up some of the typos.


:rolleyes: That was two years ago. Never believe me when I promise to come back add screenshots later. Obviously, I didn't fix the typos either.

[djrsml]

:rolleyes: That was two years ago. Never believe me when I promise to come back add screenshots later. Obviously, I didn't fix the typos either.
I'll try too add some screenshots of Gnome and KDE, another area that might be helpful for some is differences in package management between distro's!

[braindamage73]

Recently, once again, some poor unfortunate tried to get advice about what distro he should start with, and once again, the contridictory cacophony of partisan voices that responded couldn't have been very helpful.

So I had a thought. While it's perfectly acceptable to just jump in and install something, and then maybe install something else, those who are what I like to call "li-curious" ;) and wonder if there's a way to make a logical, orderly approach might want to forget about picking a distro for a while and concentrate on picking your favorite desktop environment.

Besides offering a choice of disributions, Linux offers a choice of desktop environments-- graphical user interfaces. Each of them approaches the question of "point and click" in its own way. The most popular and beginner friendly desktop environments are Gnome and KDE. KDE has the reputation for being the desktop most similar to Microsoft WIndows in terms of look and feel, but there's only so many ways that you can point and click, and if you're used to MS windows, you ought to find gnome reasonably intuitive and easy tp pick up.

Gnome (my personal favorite) is fairly simple and intuitive for me, makes for a nice, uncluttered desktop, and has a couple of features I really love. (I can open a console window just by right-clicking on the desktop). KDE is flashy, powerful, and feature-rich.

Get your hands on a couple of live CD's. A live cd is a linux operating system that doesn't need to be installed on your hard drive ; it runs entirely from the CD and from the RAM. This means that a live Linux CD is not only easy to try, you can try it without risking any of your current hard drive data. You can go online , surf, play games, play audio and video files from your hard drive, and a lot more. If you have more than one CD drive, you can burn CDs, using data from your windows hard drive. (a live CD won't write to your hard drive unless you enable it, but most can READ from your hard drive.

Besides being an easy, no risk way to test-drive Linux, live CDs have a lot of great uses, including repair and rescue-- but that's for another post.

You want to get a live CD for each desktop environment. Live CDs that use KDE include Knoppix and Kanotix. Live CDs that use Gnome include Gnoppix, and the live version of Ubuntu. Try them both out thoroughly, and see which you prefer.

Remember that you're testing the desktop environment itself, and not the applications. Certain applications are associated with gnome (they tend to have names that start with "g", like gedit and gthumb, and others are associated with KDE (they tend to have names that start with "k", like kedit and k3b). On live CDs, these associations tend to be rigidly enforced due to space restrictions-- but when you pick a distribution to install to your hard drive, you can almost always mix and match with ease, according to your preferences. If (like me) you prefer gnome but love to use the CD burning utility K3B, you absolutely can have both.

When you've decided which desktop you prefer, you're already starting to get a handle on what sort of distro you want. You can usually pick either desktop to go with most distibutions, but there are definitely distros that don't go so well with gnome (mepis, kanotix, and slackware need to have it installed. In my limited experience, it crashes a lot with SuSE) . Gnome tends to run good on those distros where it is the default: debian, red hat/fedora, and Ubuntu. (If there are distros that don't go well with KDE, I don't know much about them, ' cause I'm not a KDE guy,)

These are only the two most popular options. I should mention that there are other, more specialized desktops that can be installed on your system, but beginners shouldn't worry about them just yet. Some are good for older systems because they don't use as many resources. Others are (to my uninformed eyes) just plain weird. And then, of course, there's the Linux Power User-- who don't need no stinkin' desktop!

Anyway, if you find the choices of distro dizzying, there's a chance that knowing whether you prefer KDE or Gnome will give you enough practical knowledge to make it all seem less intimidating-- and there's also the chance that I have confused you further. :rolleyes: If I have, I'm sorry. Just remember, it's all about the fun!

I'll be back with 24 hours to dress up this post with some nice helpful links and screen shots... oh, and I'll also clean up some of the typos.

HEY! I think that THIS IS MY 1000th post! :cool: Before I was blackbelt_jones, I was posting in here as spiderbaby1958. That was when I was posting in here with a Windows computing. When I got online with my fist superslow Mandrake system, I immediately came here and opened a new account. Therefore, I mark my beginning with Linux from the time I joined this forum as blackbelt_jones, three years ago this month.

Hi,
I'm old, too. First time with new style Linux OSs. Chose Ubuntu for its recent popularity and its "easier than Mandrake" download. Still learning about the distro; What a steep learning curve this is! (but I've had a little help from my Mensa pals who always seem to want to have fun, especially the gal from NSA). Right now I'm looking for a great cheap color inkjet printer that likes Linux- Ubuntu- Debian (what works). My Canon i900D does do Linux [sniff] and my wife will beat me about the head if I don't get printing up. I did keep the XP on my other HD. Call me Braindamage.

[tomcoll.toc]

I think that you will find that the HP Series of printers will work well for you.

Ubuntu will see it and and let you use it without any painful brain injurys involved..:)

[psych-major]

I use a Canon MX700 with my linux computer. It work via USB or with the built-in ethernet port, with some tweaking.