Is Debian 6.0.1a good for a total newbie ???
 

Hello :)
As the subject reads i'm a newbie... I'm completely Linux illiterate... So i wanna learn about Linux... I've heard everywhere that it's the best OS...
So i'm downloading Debian 6.0.1a... Is this a good beginner's Distro ? So should i go ahead and finish this ? Will i learn as much as possible on this distro ?
Any help is appreciated guys :)
Thanks in advance :)

Linux is all personal preference. Personally, for ease of use, I always go with Ubuntu, Mint, or PCLinuxOS. But there are others that are also very easy to use. Personally, I don't care for debian, even though Ubuntu is based off of it, It's just not for me.

But like I said, it's personal taste. That's why we have so many distros. They all aim to be different to suit the needs of well, whoever :)

Debian is often said to be a difficult distro.
I don't think so.
I used Debian after one year of Ubuntu/Mandriva dual-boot, and had no problems.
I might have got luck with my hardware, but for me it works fine.
(as an example i never had to deal with nvidia-cards).

Let me put it that way: You can do a lot with Debian, make it the way you want it, that is why it is called the "universal OS". That might be a bit difficult. But you also can leave the default settings it comes with, and you are ready to go.

Debian-users will often rather advice you with command-line-commands than with gui-ways to do it.
If you prefer the gui-way, Ubuntu-users and Mint-users often will rather offer that.
That is just what i observe, and it might well be wrong. It does not say that some are more experienced than others.

Edit: to say "it is the best OS" is a bit strange. But if you heard people say so, you know people who use it,
and that is always an advantage. Have a look at the communities and consider which one you like.
Here, at linuxquestions.org, you will find people who use all kind of Gnu/Linux-distros, which is good.

this way, that way: good luck and have fun.

i recommend fedora or ubuntu

Debian might be a bit more tricky that some other distros, depending on what hardware you are running. Geting 'difficult' hardware going with debian will teach you a lot more about linux then some of the other slightly easier distros though.

There is no 'best OS'. Thats like asking 'whats the best fast food, mcdonalds, kentucky fried chicken, subway, or fish an chips?' and giving single answer for all cases. One person might have a preference for one choice, another for a different choice. That doesnt make the person who likes mcdogfood...er...mcdonalds wrong. (BTW, fish and chips for me!)

I agree. I managed to get debian 3.0 installed, with the nvidia drivers, totally offline on my first try with no linux experience. Sure, I borked the system a few times to get that install, but it helped a huge amount with my linux learning curve.

True, debian users will tend to give you command line advice. But so will (at least some) ubuntu users, I've seen people get annoyed with that on the ubuntu forums. In the end, its a lot easier to tell somebody to 'apt-get install blah-blah' than it is to explain how to do the same thing from a GUI.

I'd say it depends on what you want to do with Linux. I'm primarily a database application developer. When I decided I wanted to expand my horizons and learn Linux many years ago, I decided on Debian (Woody at the time, I believe). Getting it installed and running wasn't very difficult, though I was at a loss answering some of the install questions because I just didn't know which ones would make a difference or whether they'd lock me in to something that'd be difficult to change later.
Apart from that it went pretty smoothly. Now I've set up dual-boot with WinXP/Lenny on a couple PCs and it seems the install process is getting easier and better. I haven't upgraded to Debian 6 yet, but I hope to try that out soon.

--Bryan

I guess that is a bit confusing, and i seem to remember that i had sweaty hands for the first few times.
But it is like it is always with Debian: you are fine with the defaults
(there is that joke about an installation, some grains on the enter-button and a chicken).

I am of the ones who don't read very much of docu, and it works.
(i could avoid a lot of work if i would read _before_; sure).

Once you get it installed it is just as easy as any other distro.

I suggest you install either Synaptic or software-center, either one will make it easy to install other packages, also install gdebi.

KDE and Gnome are pretty much the same no matter which distro you choose.

If you need help lots of people run Debian, there are irc channels on freenode and on OFTC. As well as several Debian specific forums, lots of documentation and a decent Wiki.

Nor Debian neither Fedora, Gentoo, Slackware, Linux From Scratch, etc. Firts of all what size of a Linux distro you need? Big, small, medium? Before going into some serious like Ubuntu - better do your homework eg. look at Wiki ( google: linux ).

If you go for Debian, read the installation guide first: the partitioning can be a bit confusing when it is sprung on you all of a sudden during installation. A tip here: make separate partitions called "/" (where the programs go: about 10GB should do) and "/home" (where your files go, so that they are unaffected if you install a new version later on). A third "swap" partition is advisable if you have less than 1GB of memory and necessary if you want to use the hibernate feature: make that rather larger than your memory.

It can be irritating to have to hunt for media codecs (the stuff that deciphers formats like mp4 or mov) and video-card drivers in a distro like Debian that doesn't install them automatically. I also seem to remember that you have to tell Debian to use the on-line repository to add new programs, or it assumes that you will be installing from the DVD set. But, as they say, Google is your friend.

The simplest and most convenient distros are probably Mint and PCLinuxOS.

You can learn from any distro: the differences are really superficial.

Debian is a great choice if you're looking for a super-stable distribution with a huge software library. If you get stuck, there's lots of info at the Debian Wiki: http://wiki.debian.org

Debian is fine and if you are willing to put in some effort and ask for help, and take it, then you'll be ok.

If I may suggest you download the DebianLive cd and use it.

Yeah, but it's a very good question: for what purposes does OP need debian? Does it for home-desktop, workstation, server - educational purposes? This way OP wan't waste time. About Debian: I installed the last stable distribution - even to make my wifi USB adapter I had to upgrade the kernel (out of box it is 2.6.x.x). And it is not a quite trivial task And I must say that the driver works awfully.

Debian expects you to do your homework and configure your system. It isn't difficult to configure per se, but for a new Linux user it can be tricky.

I am also convinced that Debian has one of the worst installers in the Linux world, as much as I love the distro. If you have an ethernet cable you should be fine, as the installer will attempt to connect to the internet, but if you have a laptop with wireless, you're in for a fun time.

My advice? If you're a do-it-yourself kinda guy, go for Debian. If you want to experience how user-friendly Linux can be, go for Ubuntu/Mint.

When I first started using Linux, I couldn't cope with Debian. I chose Mandriva for a couple of weeks.