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Old 07-11-2007, 12:23 PM   #1
Overmind
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Linux Distro's selection


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!
 
Old 07-11-2007, 12:25 PM   #2
Hern_28
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Lots of resources.

Might look at distro watch or check out the distro reviews link here. Good luck with your choice and welcome to LQ.
 
Old 07-11-2007, 12:27 PM   #3
phantom_cyph
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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.
 
Old 07-11-2007, 12:30 PM   #4
Overmind
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i tried, ubuntu earlier i felt that it was Too simple for me and i felt i really didnt learnt oo much on linux itself. How is fedora?
 
Old 07-11-2007, 12:46 PM   #5
Overmind
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Also, on install should i partition the drives, run on a seperate desktop, or a virtual machine?
 
Old 07-11-2007, 12:47 PM   #6
Hern_28
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Lol.

Was thinking you wanted something easy.

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.

Last edited by Hern_28; 07-11-2007 at 12:49 PM.
 
Old 07-11-2007, 12:52 PM   #7
Overmind
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hern_28
Was thinking you wanted something easy.

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
 
Old 07-11-2007, 01:08 PM   #8
phantom_cyph
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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.
 
Old 07-11-2007, 01:24 PM   #9
Hern_28
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Hmm.

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.

Last edited by Hern_28; 07-11-2007 at 06:56 PM.
 
Old 07-11-2007, 02:38 PM   #10
AceofSpades19
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another vote for debian
 
Old 07-11-2007, 03:03 PM   #11
geek745
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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.
 
Old 07-11-2007, 03:33 PM   #12
Overmind
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geek745
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
 
Old 07-11-2007, 04:01 PM   #13
farslayer
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7 CD's for Debian ? You are doing it all wrong my friend

For Debian you download the 159 MB netinstall.iso
The netinstall.iso and a broadband connection are all you need to install Debian.
 
Old 07-11-2007, 05:21 PM   #14
AceofSpades19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by farslayer
7 CD's for Debian ? You are doing it all wrong my friend

For Debian you download the 159 MB netinstall.iso
The netinstall.iso and a broadband connection are all you need to install Debian.
there is also the debian cd for xfce which is all you need or you can get the multi-arch cd
 
Old 07-11-2007, 09:20 PM   #15
Overmind
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Quote:
Originally Posted by farslayer
7 CD's for Debian ? You are doing it all wrong my friend

For Debian you download the 159 MB netinstall.iso
The netinstall.iso and a broadband connection are all you need to install Debian.

no no no, lol i was speaking of slackware. I meant im gunna download debian first because of its size
 
  


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