new to linux what distro do i want and why

richard_haggath · 03-11-03, 03:53 PM

like the title sez i want to try linux but don't know which distro to try tell me what you think and why thank you.

bwkaz · 03-11-03, 04:29 PM

Mandrake's not too bad, it's what I started on. Make SURE you burn all 3 CDs though; you will need the kernel source, which is on the third CD (which Mandrake happily labeled "internationalization", which proceeded to confuse a bunch of people who didn't think they needed that CD, then selected to install kernel-source, but it never installed because it wasn't there). This is as of version 9.0.

The Mandrake installer is VERY nice other than that, though. They also hide enough stuff from you that it's not extremely daunting to use -- but on the flip side, once you get comfortable with their (nonstandard) GUI tools, you'll have to learn the real way to configure stuff yourself if you ever want to get away from them.

RedHat is also recommended at times for newbies. I don't know; there are enough gotchas (TLS for one -- that's with the new RH 9 beta, named Phoebe) that it may not be a good idea. Whatever.

Best bet -- try a couple of them out for yourself, and decide from there. You don't waste any more than the time it takes to download and burn a few CD images.

richard_haggath · 03-12-03, 01:45 AM

thanks i have acces to several distro's listed below

MANDRAKE 9.0
SUSE 8.1
RED HAT 8.0

at the moment i think these are the most upto dat official releases of the flavours mentioned.
thanks for your advice i will try them out maybe using vmware i know the performance may be lacking slightly but i will give it a try anyway.

bwkaz · 03-12-03, 07:54 AM

With VMware, though, you won't be able to access your video hardware, so don't bother installing the nVidia drivers. VMware provides the client OS a standard set of virtual "devices" -- a VESA-only video card, some sort of network card, etc.

You're going to have to fully dual-boot to get at the real hardware you have. FYI.

digitalwanderer · 03-12-03, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bwkaz
Mandrake's not too bad, it's what I started on. Make SURE you burn all 3 CDs though; you will need the kernel source, which is on the third CD (which Mandrake happily labeled "internationalization", which proceeded to confuse a bunch of people who didn't think they needed that CD, then selected to install kernel-source, but it never installed because it wasn't there). This is as of version 9.0.

The Mandrake installer is VERY nice other than that, though. They also hide enough stuff from you that it's not extremely daunting to use -- but on the flip side, once you get comfortable with their (nonstandard) GUI tools, you'll have to learn the real way to configure stuff yourself if you ever want to get away from them.

RedHat is also recommended at times for newbies. I don't know; there are enough gotchas (TLS for one -- that's with the new RH 9 beta, named Phoebe) that it may not be a good idea. Whatever.

Best bet -- try a couple of them out for yourself, and decide from there. You don't waste any more than the time it takes to download and burn a few CD images.

Thank you, that is exactly what I was looking for! I'm gonna go find me a recent distro of Mandrake this week and get me some linux luvin finally.

03-11-03, 03:53 PM	#1
richard_haggath Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 2	new to linux what distro do i want and why like the title sez i want to try linux but don't know which distro to try tell me what you think and why thank you.

03-11-03, 04:29 PM	#2
bwkaz Registered User Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 2,262	Mandrake's not too bad, it's what I started on. Make SURE you burn all 3 CDs though; you will need the kernel source, which is on the third CD (which Mandrake happily labeled "internationalization", which proceeded to confuse a bunch of people who didn't think they needed that CD, then selected to install kernel-source, but it never installed because it wasn't there). This is as of version 9.0. The Mandrake installer is VERY nice other than that, though. They also hide enough stuff from you that it's not extremely daunting to use -- but on the flip side, once you get comfortable with their (nonstandard) GUI tools, you'll have to learn the real way to configure stuff yourself if you ever want to get away from them. RedHat is also recommended at times for newbies. I don't know; there are enough gotchas (TLS for one -- that's with the new RH 9 beta, named Phoebe) that it may not be a good idea. Whatever. Best bet -- try a couple of them out for yourself, and decide from there. You don't waste any more than the time it takes to download and burn a few CD images. __________________ Registered Linux User #219692

03-12-03, 07:54 AM	#4
bwkaz Registered User Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 2,262	With VMware, though, you won't be able to access your video hardware, so don't bother installing the nVidia drivers. VMware provides the client OS a standard set of virtual "devices" -- a VESA-only video card, some sort of network card, etc. You're going to have to fully dual-boot to get at the real hardware you have. FYI. __________________ Registered Linux User #219692

03-12-03, 01:45 AM	#3
richard_haggath Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 2	thanks i have acces to several distro's listed below MANDRAKE 9.0 SUSE 8.1 RED HAT 8.0 at the moment i think these are the most upto dat official releases of the flavours mentioned. thanks for your advice i will try them out maybe using vmware i know the performance may be lacking slightly but i will give it a try anyway.