What version Linux? [Archive]

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Sickman

10-31-2005, 09:05 AM

People,

Lately I've been interested in Linux. Till now I always used Windows.
But who can tell me what version of Linux I should get to learn working with it.

Thank you very much,

Sickman :)

Icarus

10-31-2005, 09:26 AM

Please check the ".iso Confused - Which Distro?" threads as this is asked almost daily and no one can give you 'the right answer' since everyone is different and like different things.

People will spill out their favorate distro but not tell why and in the end you'll have a list that tells you whats more popular

jailbreaker

10-31-2005, 09:26 AM

Try ubuntu www.ubuntulinux.com also once ubuntu is installed make sure you check out www.ubuntuguide.org :D

acid45

10-31-2005, 09:34 AM

Actualy this is a simple question now that many live cds come with 2.6 kernels. Go to google and search for slax. It will detect almost anything, tahnks to the 2.6.13 kernel it comes with. You download the ISO and put it in your cd rom. It will boot a linux os from there. If you want to save it you have to learn to partition your computer and ue the built in slax installer.

But there are many distros, I suggest getting comfortable with the live cd before you go destroy your working windows box. Check ou tthe above mention links and threads.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=slax&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
It's the first link.
I've tested it on a few systems. A Dell GX60 or soemthing alone those lines(their el cheap-o). It worked on my athlon XP 2600 box. I think it used the NV driver on my GeForce FX 5200, so it's not ready for gaming out of the box but neither is windows. I'm not sure if my LAN would have worked since it uses nForce2, but it does come with madwifi for atheros cards, I had to iwconfig my essid because my router is set not to broadcast.

P.S. of course you gota burn the cd between downloading the ISO and putting it in your cd-rom

P.S.S. It took me three years to be comfortable with having linux only on my pc, and I still have a backup live cd for when things go wrong. You can add packages like cedega to your live cd, it tells you how to in the on-site docs. If you want gaming I suggest paying for cedega, it's the best!!! It's liek 5$ and find that it does a much better job than playing nativly on windows, faster loads mostly.

leonpmu

10-31-2005, 10:58 AM

Sickman, there is no version of Linux, unless you are talkign about the kernel itself (the heart). We have what are called distrobutions, from different places. PLease check the location on the forum that Icarus recommended

blackbelt_jones

10-31-2005, 12:38 PM

That's right, you're not allowed to use the word "versions" which is technically inaccurate. You are,however, allowed to use the word "flavors" :rolleyes:

Ah... the eternal question! You're going to get a lot of different answers, and you may wind up more confused than when you started. Here are a few suggestions.

Debian is what I started out with. It's a powerful distro with a lot of packages and a good package manager. It's got a reputation as a power user distro, and there were things I still haven't learned how to do, but I had a lot of fun with it. If you're into gaming I would reccomend that you avoid it because the video driver is hard to install (that's for nvidia) from what I hear, if you're into gaming and you have an ATI card, you may have a problem.

Fedora is a very popular distribution, and therefore , it's particularly easy to find support and documentation. This is a real consideration if, like me, you're not a person who finds it easy or pleasurable to read a computer manual. You can find nearly everything you need to know about running a Fedora system, beautifully organized on a single page here:

http://www.fedorafaq.org/

If you live in the US, Fedora also has the advantage of being a close relative of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution, which is popular with American business.

Finally, there's SUSE, which I just started running recently. SUSE's strength lies in the way that it is built around YAST (yet another setup tool) it's cental admiistration and package management system. YAST is, among other things, very simple to pick up and operate from its graphic user interface, which is about as simple, straightforward, and intuitive as it gets. SUSE has been around for years, is very popular in Europe, and recently became available in a freely downloadable, ncompletely open-source version (I don't know all the details) , and I get the impression that its popularity is really starting to take off in the US. It uses a lot of resources, however, so it can be really really slow on older or low-end computers.

Package management is essential for all but the geekiest of users. Linux software uses shared libraries and that introduces the problem of dependancies. This means that when you install a software package, you're often going to need to install one or more additional packages. And sometimes, those packages require additonal packages. This is what's known as "dependancy hell". A package manager keeps tabs on a large repository of software-- on your harddrive, on CD ROMs, or on the net-- and automates the process of finding and downloading dependancies when you try to install something. A package manager turns the most frustrating and annoying aspect of Linux administration into a real pleasure. Every distro that you should be considering has a good package manager. For SUSE, that's yast. In Debian, it's called apt-get or synaptic, in Fedora it's yum, in Mandriva it's urpmi.

Wikipedia has a chart that objectively compares Linux distros. You should be able to find it pretty easily, but I'll try to get back here soon to post a link. Right now, I must have breakfast. I'm famished, and as usual, I've gone on much longer than I intended. :rolleyes:

P.S. The guy who wants you to download Slax? If you found that half as confusing as I did, you might want to ignore that.

nikodell

10-31-2005, 01:13 PM

Someone needs to make a what linux test.
Pick your needs and system requiremenst and get the best LINFIX.
Any php mysql people boord?
I would but no skills there.

Icarus

10-31-2005, 01:23 PM

I think there was one posted once, check through the forums I can't remember if it was under .iso confused or /dev/random or what it was called...it was a web page...

Sepero

10-31-2005, 01:28 PM

Why are you so interested in Linux?

Icarus

10-31-2005, 01:44 PM

This should help, there are quite a few hits so take your pick or try a few to see what they suggest :D
http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=lang_en&q=which+distro+quiz&btnG=Search

blackbelt_jones

10-31-2005, 02:43 PM

If you have a broadband connection and can afford a few CDRs, I really would reccomend that you try a few live CDs. A live CD is a complete Linux desktop distrobution that doesn't need to be installed to your hard drive. It runs entirely from your CD drive and from your RAM. There are disdvantages to this, especially if you have limited RAM or one CD drive. (It runs slower, and you can't burn CDs) But a live CD lets you try the Linux desktop without risking any of your data, and allows you to put off the overwhelming decision of committing yourself to a distro for a while.

You can also concentrate on which desktop you prefer, before picking a distro. Linux actually offers you a choice of desktop environments. The most popular are gnome and KDE They're both the same old point and click, and fairly easy to work with, but they are organized. differently.

I promise to get back and today this post later this evening with more information, including links. I'm sort of busy right now.

Parcival

10-31-2005, 03:09 PM

The link to the Linux Distribution Check can be found in the sticky thread "a simple suggestion for the overwhelmed newbie" here in iso-confused. The link is one of the reasons why we made the thread sticky. ;) :)

retsaw

10-31-2005, 04:21 PM

mmills

10-31-2005, 05:44 PM

Try ubuntu www.ubuntulinux.com also once ubuntu is installed make sure you check out www.ubuntuguide.org :D

there is alot of good information on ubuntuguide.org but that guide was designed for the previous version,5.04 on the new version you do not change the source.listfor ubuntu, please refer to ubuntuforums.org if you choose to use ubuntu, 1st I would try a live cd, which runs from a cd-rom on your pc not a hard drive disk.

mmills

mmills

10-31-2005, 05:49 PM

Why are you so interested in Linux?

LOL, more than likely he is tierd of paying bill for his blue screen and spyware and trojans have hit his last nerve......lol
:rolleyes:

acid45

10-31-2005, 10:22 PM

Like I said before, the best and easiest way to get used to linux and being able to reboot and use an operating system you're comfortable with, IE Windows, you should get an ISO of a Live cd. I recomend slax, it's based on slackware, a system v unix-like dostro of linux.

How this works is the CD is like your hard drive. You put it in yuor CD-ROM and it boots from there and there is no install required. From there you can do anything you would a normal operating system other than the fact that your OS is read only, like any CD-ROM, and a few other things I'm sure.

I gave my friend who was interested in linux, but like yourself, he didn't know how to use it. After only one day he had called me and told me his experience with linux was great, and hes tried installing linux and using it a few times. he now has a dual boot setup and whenever he has a question or problem he calls me up and I get a link that he can follow instructions to fix his problem. there have been times when I had to go to his place to fix his system without re-installing. Sometimes we had to re-install because I don't know much of anything either.

Another guy who had tried linux and siad he would never try it again took a CD and when he came back in he said he was "bloddy amazed" at how well it detected his system...yes he's european.

Another guy I know that wasn't very interested in linux said that he used it one time when his system was infected and was rebooting so he needed to send some e-mails and then go to work, fixed him right up.

I like having it so that when I have to go to my grandparents and use their windows 95 netscape 4.79 system with passwords up the ying-yang...written down and taped to the side of the monitor. I toss in the CD and away I go.

I can't see any other way of learning linux being easier. No, ease of use isn't linux' forte but it doesn't hurt to give newbies a helping hand, like automated systems. Of course if I stopped going around saying how awesome linux was, every windows user wouldn't be here asking what distro they should try :P

P.S. Not that I don't liek visiting my grandparents, but sometimes I dislike their P2 Dell...

blackbelt_jones

11-01-2005, 06:05 AM

LOL, more than likely he is tierd of paying bill for his blue screen and spyware and trojans have hit his last nerve......lol
:rolleyes:

He just wants to be cool like us. :cool:

je_fro

11-01-2005, 01:14 PM

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?lang=en

Syngin

11-07-2005, 10:33 PM

I think there was one posted once, check through the forums I can't remember if it was under .iso confused or /dev/random or what it was called...it was a web page...

Yes I remember that. Actually, I mentioned at the time that it'd make a nice sticky in iso-confused but was vetoed. ;)

panther3e

11-08-2005, 05:20 PM

Before you choose a linux distro, research several different ones. Also do alot of reading about linux and figure what you want to do and need out of linux. There has been a lot of good info so far in this thread.

I have been using linux for a couple of years and I found out after going through the linux chooser the je-fro posted. I found out im not experienced enough for debian and my P-III 667 MHZ with 256 megs of ram is to old and slow to run Ubuntu. Huh, imaging that I have installed debian several times and ubuntu runs very well on my old slow computer. Its nice to find this out after all this time LOL :p

Sepero

11-08-2005, 05:52 PM

I have been using linux for a couple of years and I found out after going through the linux chooser the je-fro posted. I found out im not experienced enough for debian and my P-III 667 MHZ with 256 megs of ram is to old and slow to run Ubuntu. Huh, imaging that I have installed debian several times and ubuntu runs very well on my old slow computer. Its nice to find this out after all this time LOL :pIs that you laughing at yourself, or sarcasm about the "linux chooser"? I read it twice, and I still can't tell which.

panther3e

11-08-2005, 10:49 PM

Well it was mostly laughing at my self with a little sarcasm poked at the linux chooser. I did the chooser and changed a couple of answers. The question about the age of my computer I changed from the worst to the medium answer and it said the perfect linux distro was Ubuntu. WooHooo!!!

eskaypey

11-09-2005, 07:17 AM

is it only me or that chooser spits out debian/debian based distros everytime you do it?

of course if you dont select rpm based distro.

GmarAppledude

11-09-2005, 12:31 PM

I just tried the distro chooser posted by jefro. Bearing in mind I love Mepis and think Kubuntu is great also; is it a coincedence that the chooser chose these two or did I subconciously choose these myself through my answers? Hmmm probably. (sorry if this is getting off topic)

crow2icedearth

11-12-2005, 01:24 PM

well as everyone else has said what version ? there is only one version LINUX = KERNEL
if u mean distros (flavors) u have redhat , suse , debian, gentoo,slackware,SUse ,

then if u want other UNIX like os u have openbsd, solairis , freeBSD.

i would give slackware a try its simple to install and a nice distro. or if u want to use a more trational linux try redhat RPM base distro ( i tend not to like RPM base distros myself )