Hi there!

Like most of you at this forum I'm new to Linux. I've been playing around with different distro's for a few weeks now.
What i like most of Linux so far is that it's FREE. Litterally, in the sense that it doesn't have to cost you any money, or very little if you have access to the web. But more FREE in the sense that there is a worldwide community of people, sharing all the information they have for free, trying to help eachother finding their way. That'a great thing!
Some 15 years ago i was working and playing with an (now obsolete) Apple IIe (based on a 6502 processor). What i liked most about that, was the really very good documentation Apple made for their machines. I had a total of about 1000+ pages of handbooks etc, where really everything was documented.
In the years that followed, I had only MS-Windows machines, and lost my interest in how they worked. As long as it worked, it was o.k.; if it didn't: re-install windows and start all over!
But now i'm getting more into Linux, that old feeling i had about the Apple seems to come back. I really want to know how it works, or why it doesn't. The only problem seems to be that there's too much information on the internet, and how to find that piece that i need now.
That's why i subscribed to this forum...
Then some thoughts about distributions. To me as a newbie it seems almost like there's not one O.S. called Linux, but about 20 different ones, by the names of Fedora, Slackware, Suse etc.
In other words, i would like to pick the best from all distro's i've seen so far, and compose my own Linux. I got the impression that it has to be possible to do that, but also that i've quite a lot to learn before i really can. Is there anyone out there who can tell me more about that?

Hi & Welcome to LQ!

You are correct there are literally hundreds of distributions. Unfortunately (or luckily - depends on your point of view), there is no such thing as a "best distro". They're all made to suit different tastes/needs.

It is possible to build your own system, if you want to, have a look at Linux From Scratch. But I don't recommend this because it requires some skills you will probably have to learn first (and a lot of time). What exactly didn't you like about the distros you tried so far? Perhaps we can find a distro that suits your taste?

Thanks for your reply!

So far I tried Suse 9.2, Slackware, Fedora C4, and Ubuntu.
One problem was my internet-connection: I have a USB-ISDN modem, bought from KPN (Dutch telephone). The only distro that recognised it was Suse. That way I found out it was manufactured by AVM in Germany. At their website I found something about intallation in Linux, I tried that but it only seems to work in Suse.
Next problem was finding my windows partitions. But I've solved that now by changing the /etc/fstab file.
I'm also interested in harddisk-recording; I've seen nice things about 'audacity' and would like to try it, but in what distribution?

Ko

Suse is on the top of my list of newbie friendly distros. I was really impressed with it when I set it up on my brother's laptop a few weeks ago, especially with Yast. That was version 10 though, don't know about 9.2. the most important difference (IMO) between distros (and also between GNU/Linux and Windows) is the way they want you to install applications. Suse uses Yast with RPM (Redhat Package Manager) packages. If you haven't done so already, you should read [Wikipedia] up on this (at least read the articles about RPM and APT).

Which distro you install Audacity on doesn't matter. The program is always the same. On some older distros you might get a slightly outdated version of it though. If you want to install audacity on Suse, the easiest way would be to open Yast and search for 'audacity' in 'Software'.

Hardware support... On the one hand, Linux is really good at automatically installing/configuring hardware. On the other hand, some manufacturers don't care much about linux compatibility and refuse to provide linux drivers. This is not much of a problem as long as it is standard hardware, i.e. there are no proprietary (secret) protocols used. From now on, before you buy a new piece of hardware, check with one of the hardware compatibility lists. LQ has one here. You'll find many more on the net. If you want to get your modem working on another distro than Suse I'm sure it can be done. Just ask as specifically as possible (preferrably incl. error messages) in a subforum here on LQ.

Congratulations on your fstab success. Keep it up!