Could anyone recommend a good Distro for someone moving in from a Windows machine and thus has absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of Linux but he is willing to learn and is not afraid of command line, better yet hes willing to start with it.

Mostly going to use it as a programming (mainly) ,graphic & web designing computer (hobbyist), and some mailing, browsing and chat.

Running on a AMD 2.2GHz dualcore, 1 Gig of ram , Nvidia Geforce 7300 video card and 250 Gigs of HDD. This machine is completely dedicated to Linux, no Windows or any other OS on it.

You can read a good comparison of the top 10 distros at this website:

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

My first distro was Ubuntu.

Ive seen that some people like to go with:
Fedora or SuSe (Either free or pay versions) As for workstations
Ubuntu or Mint as for Desktops
(this info i saw it on other threads on the forum)


And later on, they change (when they get skilled in Linux) to either:
Slackware, Arch or Gentoo.

Is that actually is a good idea?
If so can someone tell me the benefits?

I'm not a huge fan of openSUSE for beginners. It certainly isn't "hard," but it's more difficult than Ubuntu or Mint. Besides, openSUSE is currently under control of a Windows-friendly company, so I would encourage all openSUSE users to abandon ship.

Mint is the easiest, with Ubuntu as a close second. Start with either of those.


Or Debian.

Switching to the more "advanced distros" when experienced? Yes. The easy distro's are easy because the OS does a lot of the work for you-- configuring certain things, installing drivers, and so on. Slackware, Debian, etc "lack" these extra services. But as a result, a user has more control over their system, learn more about Linux, and the systems typically run much faster.

Furthermore, Ubuntu and Mint utilize closed-source technology. Not just necessities like wireless drivers, but technologies that Canonical put together. Debian includes no proprietary software by default (but you have the option of installing.)

I migrated from Ubuntu to Debian the other day, and I'm learning a lot, and enjoying the freedom of customizing my own system. With Ubuntu, my machine certainly worked, but it worked the Ubuntu way. Now it works my way.

However, many are content to continue utilizing the easy distro's, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Start with Mint or Ubuntu.

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Given the above . . .

Why not check out absolute?

I think i will hang with ubuntu for the moment (il try to use terminal as often as possible).

afterwards ill check out Slackware or Gentoo (when i actually know what im doing).

Thanks everyone for answering my question!

I have been trying to use Linux for 6 years now but I could never find a version that could handle both my wifi and laser printers. However my son bought me a linux magazine for xmass, it came with a c.d. that had Ubuntu system on it, version 9.10 Karmic Koala. It recognised all my hardware no problem at all and I was up and running in 45 minutes. I have about 50 linux c.d.s that I have downloaded over the past 6 years and have tried them all with varying success including earlier versions of Ubuntu that would recognise wifi,H.P.laserjet but never the Samsung colour laser on any distro. Needless to say I am over the moon and very happy to be a proper linuxer at last. I do like Debian but it has the same wifi/printer problems. Give Ubuntu 9.10 a try its very easy to install and very very fast compared to m.s. X.P. my machine is a 1.6 AMD 1 gig ram 2x 80 gig h.d.s, good luck Bob.

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