I'm a 16 year old guy, fed up with windows, who want's to switch to Linux.

I just got a new PC I made myself, and the performance I should get with it wasn't satifactory with XP. I do 3D, with 3D Studio Max 5.1, and I'm learning Java programming at the moment (it's been 1 month now).

I'm stuck between 2 distros. Slackware and Suse. Whoever I talk to says that Suse is one of the best distros out there, but on the internet, I've read tons of things saying that Slackware is more customizable, more stable, more secure but hard to use??

My PC config is this:

Pentium 4 2.66 ghz
1 Gb DDR 266 [Dual Channel] RAM
Asus p4g8x Mobo
Asus Nvidia GeForce FX 5600 Video Suite 128 Mb
Creative Soundblaster Audigy
80 gb Serial Ata Harddisk (Windows XP)
10 gb IDE harddisk ( just found it and going to install linux on it)
48x24x48 LG CD-Writer
16x Philips DVD-Rom
Onboard Ethernet Adapter --> for cable connection to the net

Please help me! I've talked to people who switched to linux, then back to windows, because they werent able to get their hardware installed...

Thanks!

I'm probably a fairly representative Linux user. I started off with Mandrake, years ago. It is wonderfully simple and fast to install and automatically detects most hardware. SuSE is similar. Since then, I've also used other distributions such as Debian, Red Hat, Vector, etc. (but Mandrake is still the only OS on my main work machine).

Most other distros need more configuration to work perfectly. So, as a first Linux distro, I would strongly advise trying SuSE or Mandrake. Either should give you a good idea of what to expect. As for stability and security, Mandrake has never required a hard-reboot on my machine, ever. Security - that is really a state of mind more than distribution dependent. It is quite possible to have a tightly-nailed down version of Mandrake and a wide-open Slackware install.

Just give one a try and post any problems you may have. We're all here to help.

OK so now I have a few things in my head.

1. SuSe, or any other RPM based distro is good for newbies.
2. Stability and security is not disto-based.
3. SuSe seems to have more of a "auto" installation, which is good for me, I wont be able to mess up the system.
4. Suse seems more hardware compatible than Slackware.

But I don't still get the thing between tarballs and rpms.
Slackware uses tarballs, but everybodys speaking about "dependencies". I have no idea what a "dependancies" is.

I hope I'm on the right path!

tarballs are bundles of files archived and compressed, usually source software contained in such an archive requires decompression and compilation. Binary packages are similar, however the software has been pre-compiled and required configuration scripts are installed on the system during the installation process, this takes allot of headaches out of managing the system, if an extra packages is required it takes seconds to have this package installed by a binary package manager, where as, the source installation method could take up to an hour depending that is on what you are installing. I will agree with carlywarly with regards to mandrake, I recently installed Mandrake 9.1 workstation for a CAD office, after the initial setup the users were able to adapt to it very easily, I have not had any call backs for this machine. Also I have just recently tested SuSE Linux 8.2 for a pre-production server, the in house system administrator at this site has only had previous experience with MS Windows NT 4.0, she adapted to YaST2 very quickly, all areas of administration she could handle without much help from me!
For java on linux I use Sun's JSEE, the installation of this package requires a good knowledge of Linux systems, it is not as straight forward as the installation on MS Windows OS. I would advise you to use IBM's java SDK.

Thanks mrhyde!

Now I somewhat understand the differences of packages.
But why IBM's SDK, and not SUN's. What's the difference?
And also, what do you mean as "a good knowledge of Linux systems"? I'm a newbie so I have no idea of the differences between windows based program installation and linux based program installation.

Thanks a lot!

When I stated earlier that some binary packages use installation scripts, what I mean is that when the package is being installed these scripts ( a group of commands written in an executable file ) configure the system to use the programs associated with the package, eg the IBM SDK binary package configures the system to make your java libraries and your programming tools available to the user eg let us say you are logged into your new Linux installation, you have installed IBM SDK, when you write your first " hello world! " program and compile with " javac helloworld.java " that is it, with the JSEE you need to configure the system manually to make these tools available to user, to do so you need to understand how to configure Linux at administrators level. However, you can install the Sun SDK without any further configuration and use the full path to your tools eg " /usr/java/jdk1.4.1_04/javac helloworld.java " but as you can see it takes a bit more typing!

www.java.sun.com
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutor...java/unix.html
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/

Above are links to the software I have mentioned, I strictly don't think that either product is more superior to the other, It is something you will have to decide yourself, maybe install both at different times, decide then which one suites your needs the best.
I've also put in a link to the " first cup of java for unix " tutorial at Suns web site.
Finally here is a link to a linux " getting started guide "

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/gs/gs.html

You'll find that the best way to improve your linux knowledge is reading lots of documentation!!

I am sorry, I failed to answer one of you questions, there are little differences between how Windows install the software and how Linux does, both use a binary file to install the software ( a group of files and programs ) to the correct location on the system, however, MS Windows uses a " point and click " method eg double clicking an icon to start up an installation wizard, the wizard then guides you through installation and configuration, UNIX and Linux systems use shell command to envoke the executable file.

Thanks a lot mrhyde!

I'm getting a lot of info from you. The only thing that's left for me is getting Suse 8.2 Pro. Then hopefully I'll be writing on this forum from Linux!

The bad thing is that I certainly "HAVE" to keep XP on my main hddisk because of 3D Studio Max. I just cannot do without it, and I don't think I can emulate such a powerfull 3D program in Linux.

Maybe after a while, if I get the hang of Linux quickly, I might switch to Slackware, but... time will show that

Anyways,
mrhyde you've been a great support for me
thank you a lot!

You mentioned the specification of you machine earlier, 80GB has enough disk space to install Linux and have it dual boot-able with XP, I share my machine with my wife, she uses MS Windows 2000 and I use Linux, both are installed on the one machine. Dual booting a machine is tricky though, www.tldp.org has info about configuring a machine for dual boot. You could post a question at this site, there are loads of gurus here that would be happy to provide installation instructions to you, good luck!

SuSE has an excellent setup program called YaST. You can use YaST to configure your Linux system to a very high degree.

If you run SuSE and ignore YaST, as I often do, then you have Slackware. You have to rummage through all the control files and scripts to make whatever changes you want. By hand (the Slackware way) is harder but you can make far more drastic and unusual changes this way than YaST will allow. Also the things that you learn changing things by hand are applicable to any Linux distribution whereas changes made through YaST are applicable only to SuSE.

If you intend to do something useful with your computer run SuSE. If you want to make learning Linux a full time project then run Slackware.

Ok then.

What I'm going to do is get SuSe, and use YaSt to configure my PC so that I can use it properly, then I will start fiddling with all those configuration files so that I can learn "Linux" fully. After learning Linux for good, then I might switch distros... I depends on how good Suse is

Seems like a good plan for me

i,ve got suse 8.2 on my rig, one of em. i really like it, and the online update works good.

i may try madrake again, if i remember right, it,s similiar in functioniing to suse, user friendly.

I'm posting this message from Slackware 9.0

The bad part is that It took me a full 8-10 hours booting in and out of Windows, trying to get help on these forums to get Slackware working.

The good part is that I've learned a hell about linux, boot loader, xfree86, etc...

Now I'm going to try gentoo (which has THE BEST documentation out there [I even used it while installing Slackware ])

If you want to learn --> Slackware then gentoo
If you want a working system right away, and dont care how the system works --> go with SuSE

the panther