Hey all,

I decided to install Fedora Core 3 and dual boot w/ Windows XP. I was told that the various "user friendly" distros such as mandrake and fedora were easy to learn to use.

i must be braindead because I don't find fedora easy to use. sure, i can edit and save a text file, use firefox, and other basics, but beyond that i don't have a clue. it seems that using "terminal" is mandatory for billions of tasks - can't I use the GUI? fedora seems slow compared to my WinXP install, and doing the simplest things seems to take so much longer with linux.

did you all start off frustrated with linux and stick with it, and things "became clearer" or should I just give up now? WinXP may be bad on the security front (baaaaad), but it's so powerful and easy to use. I must be missing something.

Gareth

A lot of us moved to linux from other unix or *nix OS's.

The easiest way to get comfortable with Linux in my opinion is to get used to using a text editor and editing configuration that way. I've been using linux for about 6 years now, and while I've not used the GUI tools very often, I usually find that they are way more difficult to use then just editing the configuration files by hand. Most of them are so well commented you don't even need to read the documentation.

Remember that a lot of linux programs are intended to be usable without having X running.

Give it a chance! Leave it on your system for thirty days and honestly try to learn it in that time period. Even Windows took some learning, right?

I prefer Linux for the sleepless nights, hypertension and paranoia they bestow upon me.
BTW it's not Windows, it's windooooooooozzzzzze

Linux is for taking controll

Fedora is way slow so in that sense it is just an introduction.
Linux is for tweekers (i don't mean meth heads) so possibly the first task is to
make it so it's not so slow.

It takes a long time to learn to setup and use linux well -- there are alot alot of apps to choose from
and a million different desktop setups and the last thing you need is everything plus the kitchen sink like Fedora but it's the only way to learn what's available.

The day i relized i had learned to setup Linux well was the day i noticed my wife who hates technology
had started to use Linux for everything she wanted to do and the Win box no longer gets turned on.

It took years

please stick on to linux and u will turn around to be an addict to it. always try to stick to the command prompt and u will find its so powerfull compared to winxp. win xp is just for kids , i think. not for learners....

How long have you been using Linux? It's not an OS you're going to learn overnight. I've been using it for 1.5yr now and I learn something new everyday. If you have the desire to learn it then you shouldn't have a problem with it. If you lack that desire then Winsucks is probably for you.

Well, if you are a good Windows XP user, sure you will find that GNU/Linux is difficult. That happened to me even between different versions of Windows, once I was "too" customized to another version. Things are done different, from one OS to the other. That's all. Yet learn GNU/Linux is more difficult in the beggining (compared to MsWindows... which by the way, has to be leanrt too... don't you remember?), but I do not know anybody that after learning it, thought he/she wasted his/her time.

Good luck...

Forget Fedora get Suse, very easy to use

I have been working with Fedora C3 for about a month now and I am inlove with it. SuSe is nice too but I like Fedora's feel more.

I'm also very new to Linux but keep learning it and you won't regret it. Luckily for guys like us there is lots of people on forums like these who helps us when we are in need. Thanks to all of you guys!!!!

I also need to learn the command line since I'm so used to GUI in Windows and Fedora, SUSE. Will make time to learn command line since everyone says it's the best way to do things.

I have Fedora now, i have tryed Mandrake 10.1 but didnt like it.
I also have windows XP and use it more than linux. Some of the reasons that i use winblows more are:
my 80 gigs of music on and NFTS drive i can acces from linux (i have tryed)
All the cool torrent i download in windows
Ipod support in linux SUCKS!
I can't play MPEGs in linux
I HATE the command prompt
tarballs suck balls!
I dont know all the insider tricks and commands to get thing to work....
Trying to install something that requires a package you dont have, only to find out that the more you install, the more you need.

Definately stick with Linux. I found the easiest way is to put down your Windows tasks in a list. Then make your way through the list and try and use each task in Linux. Try and successfully complete each task b4 moving on to the next.
Expect lots of googling and off course frequent visits to this excellent site

For playing any kind of files get mplayer with all the codecs, Installing mplayer is a pain for a newbie but ull get used to it.

Stick with Linux...you won't regret it! I started using mandrake dualbooting with Xp...then i removed Windows from my hd! I learn something new everyday......just try some different distros you'll find one that's perfect for you!

perhaps you should try slackware? It's always considered the king of distros.. some call it 'difficult' I call it incredibly simplistic...

REASONS:
1. It stays out of your way. Slackware doesn't use any GUI configuration tools, it's all done by editing the text file. Of course you can tweak KDE using the KDE Control Center and whatnot, but that's NOT what I'm talking about.
2. It's fast. Because slackware doesn't use all those GUI tools, update manager services, and other stuff a normal desktop user doesn't need, it's fast.
3. It's very stable. Slackware is incredbly stable. Pat Volkerding doesn't include anything until he'smade sure it's solid as a rock.Even the slackware-current distribution which is considered 'beta' or 'testing' is more stable than something like Fedora.

If you DO want the GUI configuration tools.. I'd say go with SuSE... SuSE is one of the oldest commercial distros and is very polished and well backed (owned by Novell) I'm a FreeBSD guy and have recently put SuSE 9.2 Professional on my notebook... I wanted a more media oriented distro because the only things I use my laptop for is doing homework/research in college.. listening to music, watching movies, visiting a lot of flash sites (illwillpress.com, homestarrunner.com, etc.) an that kind of stuff.. FreeBSD is fantastic.. is fast, secure, stable, with great package management..but there are just some issues with flash/java/etc.. that are a pain to get working.. But I still run it on my webservers and one of my desktops...

SuSE 9.2 Professional was the first ditribution EVER to do 2 things on my notebook:
1. Upon first boot, it recognized and configured my internal modem.. software modem!! This is crazy.. and says a LOT for the developers at SuSE!!
2. 3D hardware accelleration on an internal ATI Radeon IGP 340M chipset... This is NOT a radeon chip.. so the ATI Radeon linux drivers DO NOT work for it.. I don't know what they did.. but it works. Of course, I got the warning that these drivers are still considered unstable and blah blah blah.. but ya know what? I can play the basic OpenGL games and screensavers now!! Before, I was getting like 3 fps on the flux/flurry screensavers!!!

In closing, if you're looking for something media oriented, go with suse.. it automatically mounts your windows paritions for read access.. it will automatically install flash player, java, mp3 decoders, real player... all the stuff you want out of a nice workstation...

Good Luck!!