I am new to Linux, started on Lucid Puppy 0.51, which I like working with. I am interested in learning how to operate the system and have spent a few months so far. My skills and understanding are low but improving. I found a site that had a Linux distro chooser and ran it. I was a 100% match with openSUSE. My question is should I continue my education with Puppy, which I am beginning to know my way around or switch to openSUSE now? My understanding is that Linux is Linux and most of my knowledge gained from Puppy should be compatible with the other distros. There were several other distros that had a 95% match, but most had a 'machine to slow' tag. I have a P4 2.53; intel865glck; 2Gram; 400g/7200hd - the speed with Puppy has been fine for me. Would the biggest draw back of Puppy be the lack of additional programs that run in it? I know from reading most of the post about distros that if you have the knowledge you can make any programs from source work with the version you have, but I am not at that point yet. Any insight would be helpful.

I would go for opensuse with light windowmanager like xfce

Kind regards

Hi,
the choose of distro depends on what you want to learn. At the first you should understand that Linux is fully scalable - it can be ran in a range from netbooks to a system hosts for network servers.

There's nothing wrong with your machine specs, for running pretty much any modern distro, except maybe if you have a single core processor, which will slow things down some, but still, your system should be quite usable indeed regardless of distro. I'm not too familiar with how well your graphics device works, so I can't comment there, but it should just *work* at least.

Try OpenSuSE, and/or try several of the popular selections on http://distrowatch.com. Most of those in the top 10 in their page hit ranking on the right hand side, would be suitable to experiment with and see if you like them. If you have the bandwidth and some CD's, burn some Live CD's and see what you think.

You're right: Linux is Linux. But just like going from Windows to Linux, going from one Linux to another will introduce you to new ways of accomplishing old tasks; each OS tries to work to the same end (be an OS for you to use) but each has its own set of packages, configuration tools, philosophy, etc..

Have fun - good luck!

Thank you for the input and the very fast response to my question. I did not check back until this A.M., but almost like using chat..... I will try the opensuse and see how it goes. Great idea on the Live CD's that is how I started with Puppy before loading to the hd. Thanks again for the great support!

In case you haven't discovered it yet, you may be interested in the LQ Spy:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/lqspy.php

It shows a real-time update of new posts and threads as soon as they are made on LQ. It's pretty handy to have it running in a tab while you are actively participating in a thread and waiting for a reply: you can do other things, but click to your LQSpy tab occasionally and have a quick look to see if any new post has just been made to your thread.

Cheerios!

1 members found this post helpful.

Wow, all the years here I never knew about that. REALLY neat!!

As far an answer, I really do like Kubuntu for learning. It's easy to install and manage for someone who doesn't know anything, but as your knowledge grows, it still has all the underlying architecture of Debian that you can give up the GUI stuff for. I know a lot of older users don't like *buntu because it tries to be too easy, but I think it's fantastic for just that reason. While I don't think I'd ever choose it over Debian proper (except right now while SID is so horribly outdated due to the freeze) or Arch, I always keep it around and suggest it constantly.

As you might guess GrapefruiTgirl I had no idea about that thread and I am glad to see that your advice helped others too. I will try Kubuntu also. Easy is what I need right now.....an instruction and/or readme file are capable of getting me thoroughly confused as to what I need to do and where. I know reading will solve this eventually but it will be great when the light comes on! Thanks for the helpful info.

best not to have your eggs in one basket

Learn with Slackware. It doesn't hold your hand and expects you to RTFM.

If you have more time and don't have to use the computer right away, Arch.

If you have lots and lots of time, Linux from Scratch.

read this one post where a long standing and pricipal mod is being addressed in the puppy support forums and ask yourself if you would like to be part of that kinda distro
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtop...=530480#530480

Oh. Should I avoid puppy and try another linux then? I am new to this. What should I try? What do you recommend? Thanks! LaserShark.

If you really want to learn Linux I would recommend Slackware, Arch or Gentoo. Of course you can learn Linux with any distro, but those distros will force you to learn more about the system. If you "only" want to use Linux, go to Distrowatch and try some from the top ten of the list.

Thank you!

ya sure, clearly inept but tell us some more stories

to the op, do not hesitate to dive into the marvels and wonders that linux and many distros offer

my first priority though would be getting serious about backing up if not up to speed

and spending some time at distrowatch (or here) reading comments from others

funny the puppy forums are removing posts at random for the first time i have ever seen, contrary to stated prior policy

but clearly they have no issue ..yet, with the one post in the link above that even if removed, which should have been done some time ago or at least dealt with to say the least, many are already aware of it, not to mention the forum is riddled with more

..buncha amateurs, or who knows what or cares

i'd like to thank the folks here again for showing some latitude, in the interests of all of linux, in even allowing the above link to stand, for someone elses' mess