is very much like windows to install?

People go on about how linux is great because you can configure every aspect of it, which is a fair point, but the normaly user doesnt need to be able to configure every aspect.

I've installed a few distros over the last week;
Fedora
Suse
Gentoo
Mandriva
FreeBSD
Ubuntu
Slackware

All seem to ask how you want to partition your hard drive and a few other questions like a hostname and things like that, things that windows doesnt ask.

Is there a distro that simply installs the way it thinks is best? i.e. automatically partitions your hard drive without asking any questions about it, assigns your machine with a generic hostname (changeable once installed). Basically installs like windows, windows asks hardly any questions, which is great for normal use.

Having said all of this, I found Mandriva very easy to install, but it doesnt seem to come with GIMP installed(unless I'm missing something), and it did ask how I wanted to partition the drive.

So far my favourite distros are fedora and mandriva, mandriva is very desktopy(for home use) and fedora has a business appeal to it.

I found ubuntu easy to install, FreeBSD was a right pain in the but, just seemed difficult.

Don't take this wrong, i'm genuinley asking, why are you bothering with Linux?, the closest thing to a windows installation is....windows, Linux is not windows, nor does it try to be a clone of it.

You dont want to be asked to partition?? Fedora gives you the option to let it handle the details, Mandriva does too i think.

Windows asks me for a machine name when i install, which is essentially a hostname same as in Linux (easily changed once installed).

Pretty much any distro can run Gimp (there are readily available windows binaries for it too...). Mandriva has urpmi - http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/vie...UrpmiResources i believe, Fedora has yum, in Fedora installing GIMP is as simple as

yum install gimp (quicker than searching down the binary in windows).

is this for yourself or someone else who is installing with minimal knowledge? either case IMHO if you're not prepared to get your hands dirty and configure things, or take time and research what something is when confronted by it, it's gonna be a long hard road mate.

if you're brave you could roll your own distro with an installer that handles those bits for you - http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

is very much like windows to install?

Fedora, Mandriva ans Suse are easy to install

People go on about how linux is great because you can configure every aspect of it, which is a fair point, but the normaly user doesnt need to be able to configure every aspect.

You don´t have to configure every aspect

I've installed a few distros over the last week;
Fedora
Suse
Gentoo
Mandriva
FreeBSD
Ubuntu
Slackware

All seem to ask how you want to partition your hard drive and a few other questions like a hostname and things like that, things that windows doesnt ask.

MS thinks that Windows is the only OS on that planet. Windows formats the MBR without question and so on...

Is there a distro that simply installs the way it thinks is best? i.e. automatically partitions your hard drive without asking any questions about it, assigns your machine with a generic hostname (changeable once installed). Basically installs like windows, windows asks hardly any questions, which is great for normal use.

I am using Linux for 10 years now, have installed Unix like Sun Solaris, Freebsd and so on; they are all easy to install. Just read the manual. You will learn much about an operating system.

Having said all of this, I found Mandriva very easy to install, but it doesnt seem to come with GIMP installed(unless I'm missing something), and it did ask how I wanted to partition the drive.

It is an advantage to have the choice to partition the Harddisk you want. I think gimp is included in Mandriva, too.

So far my favourite distros are fedora and mandriva, mandriva is very desktopy(for home use) and fedora has a business appeal to it.



I found ubuntu easy to install, FreeBSD was a right pain in the but, just seemed difficult.

The last time I installed Lindows (Linspire nowadays), it was about 4 different steps for the installation. I think that's less than what Windows has.

I found not wanting to answer the hard disk partitioning mind boggling. I would partition my hard disk so that I could install every one of these

Fedora
Suse
Gentoo
Mandriva
FreeBSD
Ubuntu
Slackware

inside the disk and keep them there. Why bother overwriting one with each other?

The only way to keep them is to tell each distro installer which partition to install itself in!

----------------------------------------------

During an installation the minimum a distro must ask, assuming all hardware are properly detected, are

(1) Which partition to be installed
(2) password for the root user
(3) username and password of one user (if that distro disallows root to log in)
(4) keyboard for the user country
(5) Time zone for the locality of the PC
(6) How is the distro to be booted (MBR, root partition or a floppy)?

I suppose a distro can cut it down further if it always takes over the MBR, uses possibly the wrong keyboard, keeps no correct time zone and permits a single root user.

I've been using linux for well over a year now, so I sort of have some experience with it.

I've been trying to hit my download limit with my ISP (dont ask), and so I decided to download loads of dittros and installed them to give them a try.

I am willing to get my hands dirty, but sometimes there isnt any need to get your hands dirty, say if you have an old laptop that you'd like to use to browse the internet and a little bit of word processing etc, you want something that installs quick and that basically anyone can install without any knowledge of what to do.

Maybe my post was abit pointless.

I'll have another dig around in mandriva to see how I get gimp installed. I've looked through the package management and cant seem to find it in there. Maybe I'll just compile it from source.

woah. Mandriva comes with Gimp installed.

You shouldn't need to compile it from source.

Use urpmi if you need to find it. When dealing with Mandriva, make sure you set up your repositories properly. That means going to easyurpmi.zarb.org and following the steps there.

once you have main, update, contrib set up, you should be able to do this as root:

urpmi gimp

and it will download, install and place a link to it in your K menu.