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Every Linux Newbie's First Question

croxiscroxis I am the walrus
What distribution should I get. I am only using linux for personal use.
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Comments

  • Rogue TraderRogue Trader Somebody stop him...
    not red hat.
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    I have Mandrake 6.5, Red Hat 6.1 and 7.2.

    I'm curious as to why you said "not Red Hat" Rogue?

    I haven't installed any as of yet myself...
  • shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
    every Linux newbies first question ?

    more like :

    "When do I become an Uber-geek ? After I install Linux or when I actually get it working and find some apps that actually work with it ? "

    [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]
  • WarbleWarble Ranger
    I used to use linux


    I decided I liked a simple to use pointy-click interface much more [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    You become an uber-geek after you recompile your kernel yourself to get some weird feature and then build a server using that kernel that does all sorts of weird crap. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    If you're going for ease of use, the latest Mandrake is very nice but makes it a little tougher to learn linux properly (too many wizards). Redhat is also good, but less wizards so you'll need to know how to find information on what you want to do (ie know where to find the howto's).
    If you know exactly what you are doing, Debian is good. But you also need high bandwidth since it downloads everything it needs automatically.

    ------------------
    [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
    Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
    "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  • JamboJambo Scriptkiddie
    For your ''first time'' go with Linux Mandrake or SuSE linux
  • Rogue TraderRogue Trader Somebody stop him...
    [quote]Originally posted by JackN:
    [b]I have Mandrake 6.5, Red Hat 6.1 and 7.2.

    I'm curious as to why you said "not Red Hat" Rogue?

    I haven't installed any as of yet myself...[/b][/quote]

    baaaaaaaaad baaaaaaaaaaad problems rogue had with red hat.

    Plus their quickly becomeing the Microsoft of linux. I forsee many problems with them done the road....
  • StrikerStriker Provided with distinction
    [quote]Originally posted by Biggles:
    [b]You become an uber-geek after you recompile your kernel yourself to get some weird feature and then build a server using that kernel that does all sorts of weird crap. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]
    [/b][/quote]

    What making fun of our company now are we?!

    BAH! [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]



    ------------------
    Chase
    Web Hosting Provider for FirstOnes.com
    http://www.radiusco.com/
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    [quote]Originally posted by croxis:
    [b]What distribution should I get. I am only using linux for personal use.[/b][/quote]

    You don't, you get a real OS like BSD, (FreeBSD, NetBSD or OpenBSD)

    [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    [quote]Originally posted by Entil'Zha:
    [b] You don't, you get a real OS like BSD, (FreeBSD, NetBSD or OpenBSD) [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img][/b][/quote]

    [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]

    I used to use NetBSD on my Amiga years ago...

    That 3000 Tower used to run it nicely too...

    [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/wink.gif[/img]
  • JamboJambo Scriptkiddie
    Woot, another Amiga User [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]

    I never had a 3000, 2000 until I upgraded to a 4000, and then got the 4000T 060 from work [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]

    Why take workbench off it anyway [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    [quote]Originally posted by JackN:
    [b] [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]

    I used to use NetBSD on my Amiga years ago...

    That 3000 Tower used to run it nicely too...

    [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/wink.gif[/img][/b][/quote]

    Amiga is one of the few machines i never owned

    I use FreeBSD as my server, it hosts my web pages, mail server, DNS server...
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    [quote]Originally posted by Striker:
    [b] What making fun of our company now are we?!

    BAH! [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img][/b][/quote]

    Actually, making fun of me. I did that just to make a home network server. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    ------------------
    [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
    Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
    "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  • Ditto, Biggles - Linux kernel and the black art of pure luck put my proxy server together [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    [quote]Originally posted by Biggles:
    [b] Actually, making fun of me. I did that just to make a home network server. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    [/b][/quote]

    You think compiling a kernel is bad? try a cvsup then a makeworld.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    I'll pass, thanks. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img] I've only just got it going again after Bastille killed it.

    ------------------
    [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
    Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
    "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    [quote]Originally posted by Biggles:
    [b]I'll pass, thanks. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img] I've only just got it going again after Bastille killed it.

    [/b][/quote]

    well now that FreeBSD 4.6-Release is out, i'll be doing a cvsup and a makeworld, takes like 9 hours on my machine, course the machine's only a 266.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    My server is a 233. The great thing about linux and BSD is that they handle resources so much better than windows, which means they'll run just as well on much slower computers.

    ------------------
    [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
    Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
    "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    [quote]Originally posted by Biggles:
    [b]My server is a 233. The great thing about linux and BSD is that they handle resources so much better than windows, which means they'll run just as well on much slower computers.

    [/b][/quote]


    Except when you have to compile the kernel, or worse, a make world.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Yeah, but only ubergeeks do that. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    ------------------
    [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
    Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
    "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    [quote]Originally posted by Biggles:
    [b]Yeah, but only ubergeeks do that. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    [/b][/quote]

    heh, thats me! [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    And me to, unfortunately. I had to leave the kernel build overnight. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    ------------------
    [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
    Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
    "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    [quote]Originally posted by Biggles:
    [b]And me to, unfortunately. I had to leave the kernel build overnight. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    [/b][/quote]

    Kernel builds usually only take me an hour or 2, but a full make world, takes like 7 or 8 hours.
  • Vertigo1Vertigo1 Official Fuzzy Dice of FirstOnes.com
    [quote]Originally posted by JackN:
    [b]I have Mandrake 6.5, Red Hat 6.1 and 7.2.

    I'm curious as to why you said "not Red Hat" Rogue?

    I haven't installed any as of yet myself...[/b][/quote]

    Mandrake 6.5 is just Redhat 6.1 with some added software. Thats about it. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    *pats copies of Mandrake 6.5 and 8.1*

    ------------------
    "Isn't the universe a wonderful place? I wouldn't want to live anywhere else! Love to stay! Can't! Have to go. Kiss kiss, love love! Bye!" - G'Kar
  • Do we become geeks just for building the kernel? I thought you only became uber when you got one of the t-shirts [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Nah, the tshirts are put out by random people. It's real linux stuff that makes you a geek!

    ------------------
    [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
    Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
    "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  • My $0.02 (US).

    The biggest piece of advice I can give is this: If possible, have another machine there with an internet connection. Using google, if/when you get stuck, within a few minutes you will be able to find a FAQ or walkthrough to help get you unstuck.

    [b][url="http://www.cheapbytes.com/"]Cheap Bytes[/url][/b] is a good place to order CDs so you don't have to wrestle with downloading the images, etc.

    [b][url="http://www.distrowatch.com/summary.php"]Here[/url][/b] is a nice comparison of Linux distros.

    The standard starting point for many is RedHat and Mandrake because of the ease of installation. Debian seems to be prefered among the "expert" Linux community, but I don't believe that the transition to Debian is too difficult once you are comfy with RH or Mandrake. Note that Debian sticks with older versions of packages/utils and expects that the admin will be comfortable building a custom kernel.

    If you want 3D, you will want XFree 4.2.

    If you want a source based 'ports' style of Linux, then [url="http://www.distrowatch.com/gentoo.php"]Gentoo[/url] or one of the [url="http://www.distrowatch.com/sorcerer.php"]Sorcerer[/url] family. (Sorcerer has the hands-down coolest command syntax: cast, invoke, dispell, etc.)

    [b][url="http://www.freebsd.org"]FreeBSD[/url][/b] is another one to consider. Full featured but a lot less bloated (particularly for older systems) than the commercial Linux distros.

    If you want a hard-core serious firewall type of system, [b][url="http://www.openbsd.org"]OpenBSD[/url][/b] is your best bet. There hasn't been a reproducable crack of OpenBSD's default installation setup in over 3 years. (!!!)

    Also, if you want to read up on directory organization, [b][url="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/"]this[/url][/b] is a nice summary and will dispell some of the confusion about what all those files and directories are for.

    I hope that helps. Have fun! [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]

    -- john [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/shad.gif[/img]
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    If you go with Mandrake, don't forget to check [url="http://www.mandrakeuser.org"]Mandrakeuser.org[/url]. They have a large number of very very good tutorials, etc explaining how to do essential things like set up an internet connection, set up X, etc.

    ------------------
    [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
    Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
    "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  • Vertigo1Vertigo1 Official Fuzzy Dice of FirstOnes.com
    Hell, I just might re-install Mandrake 8.1...just for shits 'n giggles.

    ------------------
    "Isn't the universe a wonderful place? I wouldn't want to live anywhere else! Love to stay! Can't! Have to go. Kiss kiss, love love! Bye!" - G'Kar
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    [quote]Originally posted by Vertigo1:
    [b]Hell, I just might re-install Mandrake 8.1...just for shits 'n giggles.
    [/b][/quote]

    Somehow that's just a visual I didn't need...

    [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/eek.gif[/img]
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