Having trouble picking a distro
 

Hi all. I've been using Windows since 3.1 but I've been toying with Linux on and off for a year. I basically still feel like a newbie because I can't get Linux to do anything right. I'm pretty determined to one day drop Windows once I feel I really know what I'm doing in Linux.

I started on a preinstalled Gentoo system and LOVED it. But when I decided to install Gentoo myself, and realized just how abysmal the install process is, I began looking for new distros. I tried out Mandrake first. It's install is nice, but I ran into that little problem with there being no method of easy software installation. No portage and no apt-get. Dependency hell defeated my quickly.

I then moved on to Debian. But Debian didn't work for me either because it's install process failed repeatedly due to my bad internet connection. Also apt-get isn't as persistant is portage is. I currently use Knoppix every day at work, but that's no solution for my home computer's hdd. Currently, I'm running on another preinstalled Gentoo system at home. But if my Gentoo hard drive ever died on me, I'd _never_ be able to restore it because I tried three times to setup a Gentoo system and failed.

So I'm at a loss. I'm looking for a distro of Linux is that is easy to install but also has a good packaging system like Gentoo does. I'm also not too big on the bloatware-ish aspects of some of the more user friendly distros.

Considering that I like to do everything from the KDE/Gnome GUI (still can't decide which I like better :)) and despise the console, what distro is right for me? Any advice is appreciated.

hi Kethinov, i'm new as well and am running mandrake 9.1. i have found that urpmi handles dependancies quite well. i cannot speak on any other distros as i have yet to explore them. in my opinion mandrake (9.1 anyway) is well suited as a platform for learning linux.

i think you can install knoppix to your hard drive ... maybe that's something you'd like? since you use it every day, it may be a good idea to put it on your harddrive :)

Nobody can decide for you, it's your own choice. You don't have to be in a rush to pick a favourite distribution either, so continue messing around with them until you one day realize you've gotten pretty sharp at it and can handle most problems. :)

I started out with Slackware (copying floppies...arrrgh!), then I proceeded to Redhat which I was almost happy with for a while. I tried them all at one time or another. Now I run Debian on all my computers, and I don't even know how I started using it. I think I just realized one day that I knew my way around the distro pretty well and could handle most issues without any problems. So I didn't try another distro for a while since everything was working so well.

If you like Gentoo I suggest you continue fiddling with it. If you encounter problems, search these forums, Google (don't forget groups.google.com!) and don't be afraid to ask. I can't help you with anything Gentoo (that's the one distro I have never tried) but I bet others are willing.

Håkan

Redhat???:Pengy:

I like yourself am a linux n00b... I'm probably way n00bier than yourself, I just installed redhat 9 about a month ago and have been slowly fiddling around with it. I've found it *very* easy to install and configure, but as we all know the internet and books are your best friends. I'm just glad I've got a 30-something PPM printer and binding machine at work... I've probably printed about 2 or 3 reams of paper with manuals, etc...

Just keep trying, you'll get it eventually!