I have not used linux or any of the os's before. I am a windows user, but I want to use something more stable and safe. I just want to use the operating system, I am not interested in complex programing and was wondering which would be the best for me to install and get to using. Thanks

Hi, I would recommend you Linux Mint. It is a very nice distro, with all the goodies for a beginner to start loving Linux right away. I personally use Fedora, but Mint is great for you to start.

Have Fun!

every Linux distro is the best distro for someone, so you have to try to find the one which suites best your needs.. I think you could start without problem with Mint, indeed, but I would suggest you Fedora and Mandriva too.. and if you are just a little bit more experienced (just a little bit, don't worry) Debian, of course..

but if you want a complete and unique Linux experience, install Slackware: I start using Linux with Slackware, and I know a lot of people do the same, so it's absolutely not true that Slackware is a distro for an high level user.. you can always learn things with a working in progress (sorry but it's the best expression I find to explain myself)..

Well, it depends on exactly what you're looking for specifically and actually expect from the operating system, of course -- the best thing to do is to try several distros and see which one makes the most sense to you. Personally, I've tried several and find Linux Mint (http://www.linuxmint.com/) installs easily and includes support for things that people generally want right out of the box. Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) is also popular, but doesn't include support for such things as .mp3 files by default, since the software that plays them is copyrighted. (You can enable this support on your own by doing a little extra work, though.) People also say good things about Knoppix and PCLinuxOS, although I haven't tried them, myself.

There's a lot of good information on the web -- Tux Magazine had an article (http://www.tuxmagazine.com/node/1000030) about picking a distro, and there's a quiz that asks basic questions and makes recommendations at http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/.

Dominic Humphries has a good article called "Linux is Not Windows" at http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm. It's a bit dated -- things have gotten easier -- but it will give you a general idea of what's involved in making the switch.

Regardless of which distro you pick, you should be able to try it out first by booting from the install CD (which you'll burn yourself, either to a CD or a USB stick) into a "Live CD" environment. Booting from a CD will make your computer run slower than it would if you actually installed the software -- a CD is a much slower medium than your hard drive -- but should give you a chance to try out the distro your using (and, importantly, make sure that it works with your hardware).

Good luck!

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the info. I haven't used a Linux system since Red hat 2.2 something back in 99-00 for a LAN Counter-Strike server. Re-starting learning curve again as I've been out of work for a year now (IT Management over 50 ), so I'm looking at setting up a server and trying C, PhP, Apache, and MySQL. Play around with developing some software solutions. Loaded UBUNTU 11.10 .. interesting but seems like I don't have as much control. Yes, I know I do, I was just trying to play with the user interface as is... was more used to the old console style

(I also needed to start my first post)

Thanks!

Like all the before suggestions. Try the different distributions and see which one you like. As patrick.mooney said, start out with Linux Mint or Ubuntu and other distributions and see which one you can get accustomed to..

As above, you can do most things with most distros, it's largely subjective.
Having said that, if you want a more server oriented one, try Centos (free version of RHEL).
In any case, try distrowatch.com for along list of distros to try; some have LiveCD versions, so you can run from the CD without installing, just to kick the tyres ...

You say you want something stable and safe, and not complex. That lets out some of the recommendations already made! Another thing that you need to consider is the user interface: unlike Windows you get a choice. It's worth trying a few live CD versions (you can run them, slowly, from the CD without installing) to see which you prefer. The following would seem the best for you, but you might like to read reviews of them first. There's a reviews section here, and you can find links to long reviews at http://distrowatch.org/

Xfce: SalineOS or Salix
KDE: Mepis or Mint
Gnome: Mint or Parsix
Unity: only available on Ubuntu

That might be a correct observation. Ubuntu is a bit different and has its own philosophy. For you it might be worth looking at another, more techie oriented distro if you feel like you miss something. www.distrowatch.com used to be very good in determining which distro is best for you. Altough the home page is an extremely bad user interface, try to find the test where you are recommended a distro based on answers you give on questions.

jlinkels

I have downloaded linux mint 11 iso. It says to burn to dvd, which I did but it will not boot to the disk. I want to get rid of windows completely and try to fimilurise myself with linux. I am well versed on computers but I just cant seem to make it work. I have gotten however a copy of ubuntu running finally on the computer but it is along side of windows and it is slow. Windows has been corrupted.

I totally agree with you here. Beginner is good for Mint but slackware you have to work the command line. That doesn't mean you have to be an expert. But Learning 1 distro and then moving to another distro is kinda regressing learning linux considering you have to learn how one handles packages and so on. Learn slack you learn to handle the command line, dependencies even while using a package manager, and builing lots of software from source. So if you Learn your way around slack you can figure you way around most linux distros maybe even some unix distros. Only real thing that is different in package management, boot scripts, network configs. Most is practically the same.

So figure out what you want to learn and start from there. Mint is a good choice though all though.

Oh and when you burn your file to disk you have to use a iso burner. If your using Windows PowerISO is limited free and burns well.

I'd guess that you didn't "burn as ISO". On most burner software there's a selection you can make for that. Otherwise you end up with a CD with the iso copied to it, which isn't what you want at all.

Basically, and this is not take out of thin air, the best linux is fedora.

Why:
- Cause this is a result of Red hat many years of customer support and behaviors.
- Default installations is more or less, it only works.
- No difficult installation questions, why do i need 2 know how the engine is made when my intention is 2 drive from A 2 B
- Fedora forum is awesome, quick reply and good understanding answer
- Hardware, then again as mention above, years of customer support and up2date regarding firmware( that is, driver names in linux)

Br
Ra

I've used Mandriva, Fedora, SUSE, and RedHat. I prefer RedHat simply because the EDA software industry seems to consider it the default Linux distro to support. If I wasn't worried about EDA support, I'd probably go the Fedora route.

-Keith

Which selection did you choose in Ubuntu's installer, use free space, shrink down windows Partition? I imagine that the bootloader menu did not pick up your M.S install and it just won't boot but you have not posted enough info to discern this. "Ubuntu running slow" makes me think you are using a Live-disk or your hardware is not adequate for Ubuntu which I doubt.

Ubuntu, Mandriva or any other distro with a Pachage-Manager is recommended. My personal fav. is Mandriva for most users but Ubuntu is also a very good choice. Fedora's Package-Manager interface is not intuitive for beginners in my opinion. Fedora is the better intermediate distro once you have a little Linux experience.