What distro is the easiest for a new person to get started? I also need wireless internet access. I've tried to do this once before with linux (mandriva as I recall, I gave up)before and had problems installing the programs that would allow that.

Also are there Linux versions that I could install on my pocket PC? thanks.

Ubuntu is usually considered the easiest distro to get started in, but there are a lot that you might look at, such as Mint or openSUSE.

As for wireless internet access, that will depend on if a Linux driver exists for your card. If one exists, the latest versions of Ubuntu or many other distros will most likely come with them.

Not sure off hand of any distros you could put on a pocketPC though.

If you've got a spare USB thumb drive around, visit unetbootin and use that drive to try out a few different distros. At least that would give you an idea if you liked one distro over others without having to install all of them to your hard drive.

As for wireless, I'd suggest doing a little bit of research on your card. Wireless rigs with Broadcom chipsets are usually the most problematic, but that has gotten a lot easier over the last couple of years.

What they said.

If you have a Broadcom wireless chip, Ubuntu is likely to be easiest to get going. I have two boxes (laptop and netbook) with Broadcom wireless and Ubuntu and they work just fine. If you are installing Ubuntu from the CD, you will need to enable "restricted drivers" in the installation process (I forget the exact wording but it's there somewhere).

If your research indicates that the wireless chip will not be an issue, it doesn't matter all that much, though I would not start with Arch, Gentoo, or Slackware (actually, I started with Slackware and I'm glad I did--it's still my favorite--but wireless wasn't an issue for me back then; Slackware expects you to partition your own HDD and to resolve software dependencies yourself--great if you have a spare computer to practice on and a strong computer background).

Of the ones I've tried, the ones I have liked best are Slackware, Debian, and CentOS (I know CentOS is supposed to be a server distro, but it works just fine for user). Fedora's okay, but I'm not a big fan of yum. That's just me.

I'm afraid I don't know anything about PocketPC. I found this:

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6617_102-366354.html

Hope it helps.

1 members found this post helpful.

I would recommend Mint as it has third party wireless support almost right out of the box. Also alot of nonfree software is installed automatically. great for the newbie coming from the windows realm.

0 members found this post helpful.

Mint has exactly same wireless support as Ubuntu. Mint is just a wrapper to Ubuntu. Nothing else.

http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2010/1...mint-grow.html

Mint or Zorin OS4 would be good for you coming from W7

I'd probably say mint or OpenSuse for the first little while, then once your comfortable, move to Slackware

Personally, I suggest that you consider installing a virtual machine on your computer if it is somewhat new. A free virtual machine would allow you to simply download an ISO image from some site and try it in real time at the same time you are running windows.

See vmplayer or virtualbox or MS's virtualPC. All are very easy to use and almost no risk of borking your system.


See distrowatch.com for maybe the top 30 or so. They may tend to indicate a good starting point. The more you play with them the more you will feel comfortable with a final choice.