The best Linux for a newbie

[Dr. Shim]

I want to get into Linux really badly.I really don't know much about it. I play lots of games, use Macromedia products regularily. What linux OS would be the best? I'm considering Mandrake... :confused:

[JALU]

Mandrake is good, and so is Suse, for newbies. I would recomend either one, although I have more experience with Mandrake.

[bdg1983]

Here we go again...

Mandrake's the best for a newbie. Just read any of the hundreds of posts on the same question. ;)

Mandrake is recommended for newbies though.

Everyone will tell you theirs is the best, so it makes it kinda hard to decide.

[mychl]

:cool: SuSE :cool:

[Dru Lee Parsec]

If Internet.com didn't buy LNO, Fire Sensei, and then leave LNO for dead we would have a Newbie Help File to describe this issue.

[hux]

Never messed with Mandrake, they say it's the easiest, dunno...I'm on redhat 7.1, it shouldn't be too bad for what you're describing..dunno if macromedia's stuff is supported or not, if not, you might want to try wine(not the drink, the thing that lets you run some windows programs on linux)...make sure you do a couple of things:

if you download the ISO and burn yer own cd's, make sure get a good burn on the CD image. I've seen more than a few people in my short time here hit big problems only to find out their CD was corrupt. Mighta been my problem.. If it's your very first time it might do you good to go ahead and buy a box set with manuals, etc..

I had much better luck with text install mode than graphical...dunno if it was just my machine or what, but the graphical bombed out on me consistently...text mode aint hard at all, just use your arrow keys and tab key to move around and select stuff..ain't like you gotta type commands out or nothin.

then come on back here, let us help ya.. :)

[melloman]

:rolleyes: I have to say Mandrake is the easiest, and probably the best for doing anything useful, especially for a newbie. I was amazed at how easy getting my modem set up and connected to my ISP was in Mandrake 8. I'd have to say it's as easy to install as many windows products, and takes less time. It's also the only linux i've been able to get my modem to directly work. and it's an EXTERNAL HARDWARE type.

[Dr. Shim]

Wow! You people replied fast! :)

Hmmmm. Ok. Then it'll be Mandrake then. It does look newbie friendly. I have a really good CD burner and brand new discs. All ready to go. Should I download the ISO images?

[Choozo]

Hop over to amazon.com and get a good book on the subject too ...... Running Linux (3rd ed. by O'Reilly) is really recommendable!

Cheers :)

[Dr. Shim]

good idea

[bdg1983]

Any best distro question brings out the sharks circling for the kill. :D

[Dr. Shim]

lol

[mychl]

goto linuxiso.org, I'm sure you will find something there.

Good luck
:cool:

[Gnu/Vince]

Debian.

You want CD's? www.chez.com/wmhardrock (http://www.chez.com/wmhardrock)

[evulish]

Well first off, there arent many big games for linux (theres the quake series, doom, and some other games like that) and loads of 3rd party games of which some are good. (Linux wasn't really made for gaming)

For Macromedia products, there are no developing tools by Macromedia for linux. All that I can think of is the flash plugin and thats it. I think theres a 3rd party app like Director but I don't know.

[Dr. Shim]

Thanks ya'll for the help. :D

[Linuxneophyte]

I liked Corel myself, I think it includes Wordperfect which is a definite plus. But Redhat and Mandrake are good too, but they seemed too bloated and unorganized for my tastes. If you have just common hardware anything is fine. If you have more unusual rare hardware it really just depends. I downloaded like five Linux distros and tried a bunch out. Then I went to FreeBSD. Most of what you learn in one *nix is applicable in all of them anyways. I'm a true neophyte in *nix.

[Dr. Shim]

I have a hewlett packard PC...athlone chippy...Here is the specs....do they fit linux? (http://www.hp.com/cposupport/personal_computing/support_doc/bph05406.html)

[bdg1983]

Every distro but Mandrake. Mandrake never has worked on HP's. Kidding....

Lots of builtin stuff. May cause problems and most likely a winmodem which will not work unless there have been drivers written for it.

Are you paying extra for 98 and all the software?

[j.harrison]

I've got my Drake 8 dual booted with WinME on an HP6745C, and it was great. Auto detected everything, good to go in a half hour.

Mandrake is a great newbie distro. Have fun!

[Linuxneophyte]

I'm sure they'll match a distro. Though, yeah, not sure about that modem. If it's an internal (I think all external modems are not winmodems) modem it could be a winmodem and if it is you might be able to get Linux driver support for it. Though you said you were going to download Mandrake, so I assume you've got highspeed internet access so it doesn't really matter.

In my experience Mandrake wouldn't recognize my USB mouse (Redhat and FreeBSD did), but I suppose that could be because it's a Logitech cordless optical one. I kind of doubt you'll have any problems with any distro. But who knows, just try it. What's the worst that can happen anyway. It's fun to try different distrobutions anyways.

[Dr. Shim]

Great. Then I'm gettin' mandrake.

and yes I do own win98...2000 doesn't pickup my soundcard/modem card too well... :mad:

[Dr. Shim]

Yeah I have earthlink aDSL. Still this file might take like 3 days to download! :o

My HP did came with a Logitech compatible mouse, but I doubt any problems will occure.

[Dr. Shim]

Ok one last queastion. If I order the Mandrake 2 CD set does that include the extra's? Or just the OS? :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Dr. Shim]

Ok one last queastion. If I order the Mandrake 2 CD set does that include the extra's? Or just the OS? :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Silverbullet]

That's two last questions, the same one asked twice... ;)

[Dr. Shim]

Ok ok ok ok does anybody know the answer for these TWO questions. :D

[lm72]

CD 1 is the system and defualt apps etc..
CD 2 is extra application.

With Mandrake do full install or tend act up at least i did when try it for hell of it.

Alex :)

[irlandes]

Originally posted by Dr. Shim:
<STRONG>Ok ok ok ok does anybody know the answer for these TWO questions. :D</STRONG>

If you order the 2 CD set, you do not get Star Office and Opera and stuff like that. For $24.96 at Wal-mart, you do get the extra CD with the commerical stuff, which is mostly SO and Opera and stuff like that. Also, a beginners book, not very advanced, but tips on installing the first time.

The 2 CD set does include LyX, LaTeX, and Koffice, though you will need to download the latest and greatest version of koffice to get the best available.

[Dr. Shim]

I'm DOWNLOADING the install and extra's ISO's...

[lilrabbit129]

Cool...one word of warning though. When I first tried installing Mandrake 8, everything seemed to workj fine but when i rebooted all i got were 101010100101's. That means your bios doesn't like a bootloader, so either make a Mandrake bootdisk(couldn't figure that out) or try Red Hat 7.1.

[MandK_10]

:cool: RedHat 7.1 :cool:

[johnmann]

:D SuSE7.2 :D

[bdg1983]

:D Caldera's Workstation 3.1 :D

[kapwfm]

I downloaded Mandrake 8.0 off the Internet as well. You get quite a few extras. Some games (kind of cheesy but fun and better than any Windows game that you'll get with just the operating system), a few applications like gnucash (a Quicken clone, so to speak), and koffice (somewhat similar to Microsoft Office). I like StarOffice a lot better. Takes a little longer to load, and yes, it does have some drawbacks, but for the most part, it's stable and easy to use. You can download the latest version of StarOffice from www.sun.com (http://www.sun.com) You'll have to register as a user, but it's free. The StarOffice download is around 100 mb, so if you have a high speed connection, you won't chew up a lot of download time.

As far as a beginner book for Linux...I just purchased "Teach Yourself Linux" by Steve Oualline and Eric Foster-Johnson. The book covers everything from the Linux install to configuring your Linux distrobution for the Internet to linux commands in text mode and a whole bunch more. The only downside to this book that I've seen...it refers to Red Hat Linux 6.1. However, I've heard that Mandrake is quite similar to Red Hat, that you shouldn't have any problems in following along with the book. :)

As far as Macromedia/Flash software, you might want to go to www.macromedia.com (http://www.macromedia.com) They may have some software you could use in Linux.

Hope this helps!

[Dr. Shim]

:D Dr. Shim 8.0 :D

[Dr. Shim]

Thanks kapwfm for the advice. :)

I have "email notification on"...you wouldn't believe how cluttered up my inbox is because of this post! ;)

[bdg1983]

What did I say about the sharks???

You asked for it... ;)

[Dr. Shim]

The two peices of information I got from this discussion are:

1. People who like their linux version LIKE it.

2. All versions of Linux are n00bie friendly.

[Dr. Shim]

Alright. I'm burning the Mandrake Linux 8.0 on CD's right now. Ooh I'm so happy. :cool:

[Crewchief]

My two cents worth... Drake 8.0 will suite you well! Debian is by far more secure but like my ex wife the ***** from hell to setup! Not all nux distro's are user friendly!

[Dr. Shim]

Yeah I saw that while browsing thru different version of Linux. But I believe I have found the right one. :cool:

[mychl]

http://forums.tinyminds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/flip.gif SuSE http://forums.tinyminds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/flip.gif

[WJWheels]

Oh My!! I hope that wasn't the last of Dr. Shim.... ;)

[TeRG]

Originally posted by hux:
<STRONG>Never messed with Mandrake, they say it's the easiest, dunno...I'm on redhat 7.1, it shouldn't be too bad for what you're describing..dunno if macromedia's stuff is supported or not, if not, you might want to try wine(not the drink, the thing that lets you run some windows programs on linux)...make sure you do a couple of things:

if you download the ISO and burn yer own cd's, make sure get a good burn on the CD image. I've seen more than a few people in my short time here hit big problems only to find out their CD was corrupt. Mighta been my problem.. If it's your very first time it might do you good to go ahead and buy a box set with manuals, etc..

I had much better luck with text install mode than graphical...dunno if it was just my machine or what, but the graphical bombed out on me consistently...text mode aint hard at all, just use your arrow keys and tab key to move around and select stuff..ain't like you gotta type commands out or nothin.

then come on back here, let us help ya.. :)</STRONG>

Yah, my graphical install for RH7.1 bombed out on me too but text worked fine. Isn't Mandrake just RH on with better stuff? I havn't tried Mandrake much though.

[TeRG]

Originally posted by Dru Lee Parsec:
<STRONG>If Internet.com didn't buy LNO, Fire Sensei, and then leave LNO for dead we would have a Newbie Help File to describe this issue.</STRONG>

Yah, their just internet.com is just another group of peaple that cares more about then money then respecting their users/customers do you see the similarity between them and M$?
I say get Sensei back and resurect this website!