I was given the option a while back to try both redhat and mandrake. I had a friend who was so religious about LINUX that he got me convinced to try it. I put it on my computer but trying to use it I realized unless I was a programmer it was not easy to use. Then I found a lot of programs that were either not complete that were free for Linux. An example a video player that had a pause button but not a stop. Now I am trying to learn Actionscript and it got me thinking about maybe returning to Linux but I need some serious help. I am smart but not so fast at picking up programming. I am more of a visual person. Can anyone recommend a way that I could pick it up books or what not that will really place this all as simple as possible so that I can begin to really get into it.

Second question is it possible to make any program work in Linux and how hard is it to get it to work (installed etc...)
Third of all What is the most user friendly program to get started with. Mandrake seemed close but unpacking was not easy to undersand.

Thank, Hydro X

PS: I think many users want to run linux on there computers instead of Windows but they need some good direction so they feel comfortable in this Unix environment.

For someone who knows very little about Linux and wants an introduction, I typically recommend Test Driving Linux by David Brickner.

Many programs that are not native to Linux but are native to Windows can be run using Wine or Cedega. The jury seems to be out regarding their percentage of effectiveness, although most people seem to agree that Cedega is the better of the two, although it is a subscription-based application.

Regarding the recommended "Newb" distribution, I guess everyone has their favorites. Personally, I have had fewer problems installing SUSE Linux 10.0 and Kubuntu 5.10 on various computers, so those would be my first two choices. (Kubuntu is Ubuntu but with a KDE desktop instead of GNOME.) I should also add that I am using retail SUSE 10.0, which has some small variations with respect to the other versions of SUSE 10.0.

When was the last time you tried Linux?

Things have changed. Mandrake is now called Mandriva and is becoming a commercial OS. Redhat has been discontinued for 2 years. SUSE is an open and free software alternative. It has the RPM package management, but that's my opinion. If you really want to find the distro that fits your needs, try http://distrowatch.comor take a test like this: http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc

About installing software in a Linux environment. There are two types of software. The source packages that need to be compiled and the binaries that are ready to run. Almost all distros today have package managers so installation of software is not much more difficult than typing a command and the software you want will be installed and ready to run in a few minutes.

Thanks I will check them out. Does this book cover installing software? Drivers etc...
I think the bottom line is the general user want to run programs that are out in the market on their pc. Adobe products/ Macromedia,p2ps and itunes... etc.. could a book help me run these and install these programs or is it just so far emulations that can run these programs so it is like using windows in Linux?

The book I mentioned includes a "live" distribution called Move, based on Mandrake. It then guides the person through various applications, opening and saving files, etc. using Move Linux. Move looks and operates a lot like Mandrake (Mandriva). The book style is more like a "how to use Windows" guide rather than a guide to tweak a Linux distribution. That is, it is not a guide for heavier Linux work, such as you would need to know to set up a computer using Slackware.

As dinolinux mentioned, installing software is dependent on the distribution. SUSE uses an application called YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) that updates and installs most of the common packages (programs, helper applications, patches, etc.)

Regarding running Macromedia products and the like, you would need to use emulation programs like Wine or Cedega to run them. They are not native to Linux and there are no command line functions to make them work in Linux. It would be like trying to run a Windows application on a Macintosh. Let me add that there are Linux alternatives to Dreamweaver and PhotoShop (NVu and GIMP), although most people will agree that they are not the same quality. Still, they are not too bad as open source, free alternatives to these very expensive programs. The same is true of many other applications. There are thousands of native Linux programs to choose from and many of them are quite good. It just takes a little time to learn about them.

Just to correct a few errors by dinolinux. Mandrake/Mandriva has always been a commercial distro. It releases both a paid for distro that contains proprietary apps and a free distro that contains opensource only software. They also have a subscription based model called the Mandriva Club which offers certain perks not available to non subscribers.

Redhat Linux was discontinued and two projects arose from this, Fedora Core and Redhat Enterprise Linux. Fedora Core is community based and continously undergoes heavy development whilst RHEL is based on Fedora Core (but may not include everything in Fedora Core), but stabilised for enterprise use. You need to have a subscription if you want to use RHEL and get updates and support. If you don't want to pay for a subscription there are several free RHEL rebuilds e.g. CentOS and Whitebox Linux.

Try and get yourself a copy of The Linux Cookbook, RUTE and your distros online documentation.

There are no books out there that will tell you in detail how to install from binaries or source code. The only distribution and version that I recommend for a novice Linux user is Mandrake 9. It is hard for me to recommend other distributions and latest distribution because of their sloppy setup and there is always things you have to do to fix something after the installation. Really, Gentoo comes close enough to be finish. Unfortunatly, it is not organized or not easy enough for novice Linux users to install. I recommend use Knoppix to learn Linux with out installing it. Below are some links, so you do not have to buy any books.

http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/
http://www.tldp.org/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/
http://www.google.com/linux

I really do not recommend any novice Linux user to use WINE or Cadega because it does take a lot of time configuring them. I suggest spending a few months getting use to Linux and compiling programs.

Yes, Mandrake or Mandriva is a commerical distribution. They also provide the same version as their commerical versions for free downloads, but with less CD disc in the binary format just like the commerical products. If you want to post on their forums, you have to pay.

You've all been very helpfull.