Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Hi, im new hear on the most obvious reasons... to learn about linux!!!
Anyways im here asking some of the more advanced users as to what distro i should pickup first?
there are so many =/. Also as your advising me on what distro, im really looking for something
i really have to kinda have to dig into understand how it works from the beginning. (I saw my friend setting up gentoo on his computer yet it looked a little complicating at the time.) so maybe somewhere between intermediate setup and good interface.
let me know if anything needs to be clarified and thx for all the help in advance.
hope to meet all of you!
Gentoo would be very complicated to start with...same with Slackware and Debian. The best thing to do is go to www.distrowatch.com and use one of the "most popular" distros. Mandrake, Ubuntu, Freespire, and PCLinuxOS are good starters.
Personally I started with slackware good support and you are the package manager, debian has good support and it has a good package manager, gentoo is definitely a learning experience, wouldn't recommend it without descent base understanding of linux although it has good support as well.
If its learning linux you want and the command line doesn't bother you then I would recommend slackware or debian, they are usually not too bad setting up but you will learn a lot tweaking them.
I started with slackware with little linux experience and it wasn't too bad, just required lots of reading.
Debian is a little easier in that it has a working package manager as stated before and that lightens the load a bit.
Slackware and Debian were also both rock solid on my system. It runs for weeks at a time with absolutely no problems till I start tweaking .
I wouldn't limit myself to trying one or two distro's atm though there are lots of available options and many live cd's so you can try them out without installing them.
Personally I started with slackware good support and you are the package manager, debian has good support and it has a good package manager, gentoo is definitely a learning experience, wouldn't recommend it without descent base understanding of linux although it has good support as well.
If its learning linux you want and the command line doesn't bother you then I would recommend slackware or debian, they are usually not too bad setting up but you will learn a lot tweaking them.
I started with slackware with little linux experience and it wasn't too bad, just required lots of reading.
Debian is a little easier in that it has a working package manager as stated before and that lightens the load a bit.
Slackware and Debian were also both rock solid on my system. It runs for weeks at a time with absolutely no problems till I start tweaking .
I wouldn't limit myself to trying one or two distro's atm though there are lots of available options and many live cd's so you can try them out without installing them.
Thx thats exactly the response i was looking for ill be sure to look into both of them. Im really interested in slackware
My preferemce is Debian, I could never actually get Slack to run on my computer, but some people really like it. If you ever want to get into security, Debian is the thing for you. I recently found out you can also encrypt your hard drive (i don't know if you can in Slack or not). If you install from just CD1 for Debian, you have a minimal system with KDE or Gnome (depending on the iso you choose), and then from there you can add things you want. On a minimal install like this, the only package manager you have is Kpackage (which I find useless), so everything I install is via command line or downloaded debian files. Gentoo runs on source. meaning most of the time that you have to compile and potentially tweak it before you install.
I recently did a walk-through on a debian base-system install (with KDE) that you can look at if you want...
If you are interested, nomb and I are frequently in a chatroom that you can join if you like.
Wonder if this may be the reason people choose slackware over debian and vice versa. Debian chokes on my system during install although now I have learned enough to make it do what i want and install anyway but am already accustomed to slackware. Slackware only required 2 cd's or 1 dvd to install now btw although debian does have that nice lil net-install cd .
EDIT: yep, we can encrypt the individual folders or drives too. With slackware we do compile, but most usually just once, make the compile into a package, burn to cd, and can drop it into the package manager or just do a batch install with a script to immediatly recover the system and reset my complete custom configuration . Can do it with debian too and they are both as secure as you care to make them.
yeah, those 7 cds really turned me off to debian, although it always intrigued me.
I started with Mandrake (back when it was mandrake) which was a good choice because while it was smooth, as I came across various problems it became necessary to use the commandline and the decription of slackware, when it came up, just seemed so appealing to me that I crossed that bridge and began using slackware.
3 versions later, I can't be happier! Slackware provides a very "in-command" feel where distros like ubuntu leave you hanging. One friend I met in school who was a ubuntu fan was puzzled at some of the weird problems I was having and he recommended creating a new user to test things out. As I was stuck at the command line and scrounging for methods of doing that, I just said, what the heck, i'll do it slackware style, edit a config file. So I made the necessary changes to /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group, and it worked like a charm. At that point he had some respect for me as a slackware user.
As they say, If you use Red Hat, you learn Red Hat. But if you use Slackware, you learn Linux.
Since ubuntu has opened your mind a bit, I would personally recommend slackware. I am having a good experience with opensuse, but my impression is that it is a "big" distro.
yeah, those 7 cds really turned me off to debian, although it always intrigued me.
I started with Mandrake (back when it was mandrake) which was a good choice because while it was smooth, as I came across various problems it became necessary to use the commandline and the decription of slackware, when it came up, just seemed so appealing to me that I crossed that bridge and began using slackware.
3 versions later, I can't be happier! Slackware provides a very "in-command" feel where distros like ubuntu leave you hanging. One friend I met in school who was a ubuntu fan was puzzled at some of the weird problems I was having and he recommended creating a new user to test things out. As I was stuck at the command line and scrounging for methods of doing that, I just said, what the heck, i'll do it slackware style, edit a config file. So I made the necessary changes to /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group, and it worked like a charm. At that point he had some respect for me as a slackware user.
As they say, If you use Red Hat, you learn Red Hat. But if you use Slackware, you learn Linux.
Since ubuntu has opened your mind a bit, I would personally recommend slackware. I am having a good experience with opensuse, but my impression is that it is a "big" distro.
Thanks for the insight, yes i would eventually like to try it out but unfortunately it is too big for me right now so im just gunn try debian
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.