For a long time I have heard everyone talking about Linux and have finally decided to jump in and try my hand at it a little bit. I have no idea how to install Linux, how to configure Linux, what limitations there are, etc. I have an extensive knowledge of Windows, but I'm assuming that won't help me much here.

Could someone suggest a distribution for a new guy like me to use along with a tutorial or article detailing how to install Linux and get started using it?

Right now, I'm just looking to get started, but would like to learn the complete ins and outs of Linux before I'm done.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give me.

welcome to LQ!!! and to Linux in general!!!

=)

there's distros designed specially for newcomers... for example Ark Linux:

http://www.arklinux.org/

of course here you will get several other distro suggestions also (Mandriva, Suse, Knoppix, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.)...

BTW, yeah, Knoppix (or any other decent Live Linux CD) is a good idea as a "Phase 1" for newcomers, as it let's you start getting a feel of things without having to install anything on your hard disk yet...

http://www.knoppix.org


check-out distrowtch.com for other distros:

http://distrowatch.com/


as for documentation and tutorials, there's PLENTY of that all over the place...

this is your best friend when you wanna search linux stuff:

http://www.google.com/linux

A couple of good books free for download:
Rute Users Tutorial and LAME (Linux Administration Made Easy).
A tutorial which I used when I first tried Linux is Newbies Linux Manual. It covers a broad range of the common tasks and commands. It got me started, and whetted my apetite to learn more.
Haven't gone back to windows since then. Having too much fun with an OS that I can leave running for days at a time without hangups, freezeups, or crashes.
Some Linux distros are entirely free, some are commercial (but you get the installation cds plus documentation if book form, and the price is still less that what microsoft charges. You get tons of software, which in the windows world are third party, and expensive). Probably every distro has online documentation (what's in the books you also have on disk), so you have the information somewhere on your system.
The two greatest things I like about Linux: a) I type / instead of \ in paths (much easier), and b) I have the choice of point-and-click or command-line. I can open a term window and enter a command, and watch the result in GUI. windows moved away from that way back when (I learned command-line operations in the days when win 3.1 for workgroups was all the rage, and DOS was still a viable way of doing things).
Welcome to Linux. Once you get used to a new (but also old) way of doing things, you'll wonder why you didn't try it sooner.

Is Slackware a good version?

yes, slackware is a very good distro, but it might not be the best choice for a total linux newbie to get started with... the main reasons for this are that it doesn't have a GUI installer and/or GUI system configuration tools - you basically configure the system using a text editor, usually elvis (a vi clone)...

having said that, slackware is one of the best distros to learn linux system administration on, for the very same reasons...

So is there no GUI interface at all or just no GUI installation?

just no GUI installer and/or admin tools...

it does come with the usual X.org GUI interface - and plenty of window managers and desktop environments such as XFCE, Fluxbox, Blackbox, KDE, Window Maker, etc, etc, etc...

in other words, the users definitely get all the usual linux/unix GUI stuff...

only the system administrator (root) needs to worry about knowing how to use a text editor for system configuration, etc...

http://www.x.org

http://www.xfce.org

http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net

http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net

http://www.kde.org

http://www.windowmaker.org

I just don't want one that is so "dummied down" that I don't learn anything with it. I actually want it to be somewhat difficult. I learn better that way. What do you recommend along those lines?

SLACKWARE.

I agree with win32sux regarding Slackware. I tried Linux for the first time about 6 months ago and went with Slackware for the exact reasons you're talking about: to learn Linux.

Slackware is just a solid distro and I've learned tons about Linux just getting things up and running. It took longer than others I've tried since, Knoppix was a breeze, but I'm really getting to know the guts of the OS and I love it.

Anyway, that's my vote. Go with Slack.

BTW, the official slackware documentation is:

http://www.slackware.com/book

it's commonly refered to simply as "the book"... but the book is kinda old and unmaintained, so some folks created a (unofficial) revised edition:

http://slackbook.lizella.net/

it's recommended that you read through it before taking the plunge into slackware...

the first thing you wanna learn (in case you haven't already) is how to use vi, as it's the tool of choice for linux/unix system configuration...

http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&q=vi&btnG=Search


it's also worth mentioning that LQ has an awesome slackware forum for all your slackware questions:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...php?forumid=14

I'm having trouble creating the boot disk for the installation. It comes up and acts as if it's writing, but when I look at the disk through Windows, it doesn't show any files on there. Is this normal?

just curious: is there some reason why you don't just boot the install CD (1)??

The only reason was because I was looking through "The Book" and it said that it would best to just create boot disks. Not so?

i think that's for "back in the day" or if for some reason you can't boot from CDs...

if you can boot from CDs, then just boot the install CD...

=)


http://slackbook.lizella.net/chapter3-requirements.html