Right I am fed up with red hat 8, its impossible to install anything (well it is if you are a newbie )

I am thinking of changing to mandrake 8.2 is it much diffrent? and can you get msn to work on it (easily)

are there any other distros that are good for a complete beginner, who has used windows for the past 10 years, and cant understand even the most basic tasks in linux

"are there any other distros that are good for a complete beginner,"

I had the same problem when I first installed Linux. I kept making newbie mistakes, deciding that the distribution was no good, and switching distributions. I went through Debian, Turbolinux, Red Hat, Caldera (or whatever SCO was then called), and SuSE. I finally got SuSE to work because I was steadily learning from all my failed installs and because, at that time, SuSE documentation was a notch above the others.

At the present time there is neglible difference between installing Mandrake, Red Hat, or SuSE as your first Linux system, although Red Hat 8 is not the best release that Red Hat ever put out. I suggest that you go to the library and check out either "The Red Hat Bible" or "Red Hat for Dummies". Both are good books in spite of the unfortunate dummies name. Read the book and try again, or more reasonably, read the book in sections as you go through the corresponding install phase.

And of course dual boot. It will be a while before you get all of your applications running well on Linux so you will need to dual boot until everything works OK. It took me about a month from my first successful SuSE install until I could wipe out Windows.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

I am quite happy with read hat, my only problem is no matter how much i read and get advice from others, it still is a near impossiblity to get a program installed (such as msn) It just feels like i am going round in circles, and I thought mandrake might be a bit more user friendly. (this thread here shows my troubles http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=107732)

PS i already dual boot, from 2 HDDs

" I thought mandrake might be a bit more user friendly. (this thread here shows my troubles"

I read the thread and I would say that you are past the raw newbie stage and would benefit from reading "Running Linux" published by O'Reilly. Then Linux would not appear to you as a bundle of disjoint commands.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Thanks for the advice, I shall look into getting that book - I doubt my local libary have it though, last time I asked about linux, they said "which version of windows is that" LOL

I have got mandrake 9.1 now, so I may still have a looksie at it, only cost me £2 from ebay!

installed mandake now

MUCH better than redhat IMO, and I got gaim to install on the first go

whatever floats your boat.
some for Red Hat, others for Mandy.... etc etc etc.

titanium_geek

I started my Linux experience with Mandrake (8.2 way back then) and thought it was a good way to start. I now use ALT Linux Junior 2.2 and, if it was around when I started as a newbie, I would have recommended it to myself.

I find it's use of Synaptic to install software is much easier than the Mandrake RPM package handler. ALT Linux configured to all of my PC's hardware without a hitch. Mandrake had problems with my Nvidia card, although I did get it to work after a few hours of reading and tinkering. And, as I just recently posted, the ALT Linux support community is a very helpful resource when problems arise.

Two and a half years ago I was in the same situation that you seem to be in now.... a MS-Windows user just entering the world of Linux. I've learned allot since then and I see myself sticking with ALT Linux for a long time to come.

I hope your future journeys with Linux are prosperous!