Linux advice

[TheRic]

Been thinking about playing around with Linux. What would be a good, and free, one to use / get started on? Don't want to start any Linux wars, just looking for some advice.

[radhak]

Ubuntu.

I would have stopped at that word, but needed this to make the minimum words...

[smc331]

+ 1 for Ubuntu.

Also, check out PCLinuxOS - you can run it from CD to try it out, then install if you like it. There are others with a live CD option, but this one works very nicely.

[atgcpaul]

SuSe

I used Mandrake and Redhat at work and the last work system I setup was OpenSuSe.
For home use I like OpenSuSe.

http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org

Easier install than Mandrake and Redhat to install and a lot more stable, IMO.
It also has a lot of tools that make updating the distribution at a later date
pretty easy to do--like Windows Update. It also has a very polished look.

Paul

[crokett]

Ric, Look at both Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Kubuntu is Ubuntu with a slightly different look and feel. I've used both and prefer Ubuntu. You can download the image for bootable CD for both that lets you boot your PC and test drive before you decide to install.

[Alex Franke]

Either Ubuntu or the KDE version Kubuntu. I prefer Kubuntu.

Both are excellent, excellent, excellent. Predictable, solid releases. Lots of great support info online. And a much lower risk of getting whacked over the head by some Linux know-it-all with a chip on his shoulder when you ask a newbie question.

[TheRic]

Thanks so far for the various suggestions!!

In a nut shell what is different between the various Linux's? The way I understood it, back when they first came around, it is mostly just a different "brand". Something like Ford verses Chevy, or are they more like HF verse (Place quality name brand here)? Or is there no comparison like comparing a saw verses drill?

[crokett]

The Linux distributions all use the same kernel and same stuff under the covers. The difference is where a lot of the files are located on disk and what the default Window Manager/Desktop is that ships with that distribution (although you can use just about any desktop on any distribution).

Red Hat is now no longer free. Red Hat has a distribution called Fedora that is. SuSE is still free AFIK. We support Red Hat and SuSE on the machines my company sells. For commercial use, Red Hat and SuSE are the two biggest players. Some others are Debian, Mandrake and of course Ubuntu/Kubuntu. The last two are the easiest I've seen to use and are the most windows-like in terms of autodetecting HW and having a fairly flat learning curve. They are also offshoots of Debian (I think). If you REALLY want to learn Linux, look into Linux from Scratch. You can build your own distro from the ground up.

The beauty (or curse depending on POV ) of Linux is you can find a version (or roll your own) to run on just about anything. Until the PC went belly-up my first firewall/router was a linux box running on a piddly 486. Try THAT with Windows.

[bmyers]

Basically between distro's there are:

1) The way they install programs. .rpm's or .deb packages (which is basically redhat based or debian based)

2) The desktop manager: KDE or Gnome with lots of flavors there

3) The distro's intended use: Desktop surfer vs. Desktop server

The kernel (brains) are all the same. No big differences there.

(K)Ubuntu should have everything you want and is right in the middle of your price range I think.

Bill

[LinuxRandal]

There used to be, and still are, in some cases, so many different versions/brands/homebrews of the same type of packages. One example to explain what I mean.
Listed under Word Processors, in my current pc (older one, that I installed a lot extra to play with)
Open Office Writer
Kword
Kile
Textmaker
Scribus
GNU TeXmacs

Different distro's originally shipped with different download methods (RPM, Debs, Tar (self compile), Emerge, ....) They are slowly merging those in some ways (you can have one, and still use another). But they still tend to center on one Window manager (others can be downloaded, installed, used by others via login elsewhere, or used if you switch to them (via logout/login, or another terminal).
Eample, Ubuntu, is Gnome centric and Kbuntu is KDE centric.
There are LOT'S of other window managers, those are just the two most common.
Some distro's specifically target older pc's (low memory, older hardware, etc).

Lot's can be had for free, if you have high speed. (www.distrowatch.com) If not, see if you have a local users group. Because I would start with what they use (gonna have the most distro centric help), and they are liable to be able to download anything you need.

Otherwise, you can sign up for a free Ubuntu to be mailed to you. And you have several inexpensive places online to obtain them (like www.cheapbytes.com).

[Alex Franke]

You'll definately learn Linux if you roll your own, but if you're not a techie at heart, you could go absolutely looney doing it. I'd suggest starting with one of the majors like (K)Ubuntu until you learn your way around and then start experimenting when you "catch the bug".

Several flavors of Linux now can be downloaded as Live CD's -- meaning you put the CD into your computer (Windows box for example), restart it, and you're booting Linux. The whole operating system boots from the CD into memory and runs from memory. It does not touch your hard drive, so when you take the CD out and reboot, then Windows will never know that you cheated on it. So try before you buy all you want. Download a bunch of Live CD iso images from Windows, burn them all to CD's, and just start playing around without fear of hurting your current system.

If you decide you like the distro, there's usually an "Install me" link which will walk you through installing it on your hard drive (most likely overwriting what's on there, or suggesting a dual-boot configuration -- Windows XP, BTW doesn't play well with dual boot scenarios.)

Other distros are meant to be installed on to USB memory sticks and other portable media (D*mn Small Linux, for example, or Puppy -- one of my favorites). They run the same way -- from memory -- until you install them.

edit: What, I can't say the word "d*mn" (rhymes with dam) without getting bleeped?

[crokett]

(most likely overwriting what's on there, or suggesting a dual-boot configuration -- Windows XP, BTW doesn't play well with dual boot scenarios.)

Actually if you install Linux after Windows is already there, it will add Windows to the Linux boot loader menu. I am dual booting Windows XP and Ubuntu at home and it works just fine. The only time you have problems is if you try to install the Windows OS after Linux. But that goes all the way back to Windows 3.1

[Alex Franke]

One more thought: Don't wait -- just jump in and try it. There're a *lot* of options and just about everyone has an opinion on which is better and why. "Lots of options" tends to come across as "very complicated" -- but really it's not.

Just pick any one, try the Live CD, and if you don't have the basics figured out in 30 minutes of playing around, then move on the the next one.

I have several friends who have been "wanting to get into Linux" for years and years but have been too intimidated to take the plunge. Today's distros are *much* friendlier to newbies, and so are the online communities. There's never been a better time to just jump in and try it out.

[Alex Franke]

Actually if you install Linux after Windows is already there, it will add Windows to the Linux boot loader menu.

This worked for me, too, until I had to "repair" my XP installation (not realizing that "repair" essentially means "reinstall" until it was too late). Ugh... what a disaster... Now I just have them on different boxes and I use a KVM switch to go between the two.

So I totally agree -- Linux plays very well with dual boot, but Windows installer/repairer does not. I never tried it until XP, though -- so it's interesting to know that the problem goes all the way back to 3.1...

[25]

I've primarily used Redhat (Enterprise/CentOS and Fedora) I like them both. However, I've heard lots of good things about Ubuntu.

I would get a second hard drive and use that for my Linux install. Personally though I like seperate boxes and do most of my work on Linux by the shell, mainly due to speed than anything else. I love my cmd line interfaces .