Noob tying to find the best Linux dist
 

Help Please!

I have a Pentium MMX 200mmx 48m ram, DVD player, CD writer, 5 gig HD and 15g HD. I used to have windows 2000 on it but decided to make it my Linux project. I need to learn Linux and UNIX and I’ve heard that Linux uses allot of the same functionality as Unix (including Bash which I’m learning at work).

I’ve tried to install Linux and have encountered many problems. I started with Knoppix 3.4 and I got it to load from the CD. It seemed to be pretty cool and all but I could never figure out how to get it to install. I proceeded to download and install Damn Small Linux and through much headache, I was able to install it. I got the Internet to work and some other functions. I never could get the system to recognize my 2nd hard drive, my cdrom, or my DVD player. I’ve decided to try to get help in these forums.

1) Should I try to install something that doesn’t assume you know anything about Linux?
2) If I do, which version is best?

I would like to be able to:

Use my DVD player to play movies, access the internet, transfer files from 1 pc to another in my house, possibly add wireless internet and maybe even use this pc as my file server/firewall for my home network.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Hi, and welcome to the community.
The best Linux Dist. is hard to choose. It's a matter of usage, personal likes and dis-likes, etc..
Personally I use Slackware and find that easy, and very efficient. I've heard others complain it's too hard to start using Linux with Slackware, but I never had that issue.
I use Slackware only on my server(s) at the moment, but porting to Slackware on my laptop is just around the corner.

On a workstation I've heard many people suggest Fedora Core 2 or 3, because it's simple to install, and easy to understand.

I wouldn't use the computer as both a workstation (play movies, music, etc..) and a fileserver/firewall. Much better to have a dedicated server.
On a server I would suggest Slackware 10.0 (or 10.1 if you want the latest). Possibly SuSE 9.2 or 9.3 but I have very little experience with that.

These are my personal experiences and shouldn't be taken as a rule.

Another good suggestion is to actually try as many distributions as possible. That way you make up your own mind as to what you find easy, simple and want to use.

-Geir

One reason your having a hard time install knoppix or Damn Small Linux is because they are live distros which means they run off the media they are stored on. It is possible to install them to the harddrive but they are stripped down and specially made to fit on those medias. I learned on Fedora Core 2 and found it easy and enjoyable. I hear mandrake is easy to learn on as well. Some i'd stay away from for now are slackware, gentoo, and debian. Slackware for the reason the previous poster posted, gentoo because the install takes quite awhile (but i hear you learn alot about linux having to go through it and reading the documentation) and debian because they use deb packing for programs while most distros use rpms - so if you skip around with distros and know rpm well that would be helpful before you go to a new system. But there is no "best ever" distro. everyone will say theirs is the best, you just have to play around with several of them till you find one you like.

What about Lindows? is it any good?

i believe they got in trouble for that name so it is called linspire now. I didn't even think of that one. That is supposed to be really geared towards the windows user. It might be a good transitional os but i wouldn't stay with it forever fi you really want to learn linux. I assume being really geared towards the windows user it might not get you in the nitty gritty of linux that forces you to learn.

It depends on what you're planning on using it for / why you want to run Linux.

If you want to learn and dive head first into Linux, use Slackware, Debian, or Gentoo.

If you want a friendlier, easier to use distro, use Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora Core, or Mandriva.

Personally, when I was starting out, I tried to use a friendlier distro -- it was so bloated and customized that it drove me nuts.
I found Slackware and wouldn't change it for the world.

i think it also depends on how comfortable you are with computers. If your not too comfortable with them you might shit your pants with an unfriendlier os. I think what we are all trying to say is pick an os, any os. lol. If you don't like it just switch to something else.

I am a noob also, and I'm trying to track down my favorite distro. My goal is to learn as much as possible about Linux. So what I did was went to one of the on-line distro stores and bought their current package. Came with about 25 disks which came out to about 8 different distros. I'm going thru them and installing each to play around with. I work about a month or so with a distro, then install something else. So far, I've gone thru Madrake 10.1, RedHat 9(not part of that package), and I'm now using Mepis 4.3.

I also have a book called "A Practical Guide to Linux." I read thru that, and work thru the exercises. I also dig around the different reviews or the distros, and these forums are a wealth of information.

This works pretty well for me.

F_M

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux-Distributions and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

With the low resources you have "a Pentium MMX 200mmx 48m ram" you are not going to have much luck with running a LIVECD. You could give Puppy Linux or SLAX a try neither require a great deal of ram or processor speed.

The first thing you should do is add some RAM.

I usually recommend Mepis for someone just starting with Linux as it has very good hardware detection, easy install, and uses KDE as default so is more familiar for someone coming windoze.

ick! no! it's not what it was even supposed to be, and it's one os trying to be another one with IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES. wouldn't have such a problem with it if they didn't want money for such crap.

with such a... ....aging computer, I can't really think of a distro which will let you live in ignorance (I am referring to redhat, mandrake and the like) if you want to do any real graphical work with a heavy desktop like kde or gnome, you'll need more ram.
slackware is good if you're brave, as is debian.

A P 200MMX was what I used to run at home, except I had 64MB ram. I used only textmode. No X, windowing GUI at all.
You can get away with using X, by using a lightweight WindowManager. I one set up an old P166MMX, 32MB ram, and 2.1GB HDD. Used Slackware 8.1 and fluxbox as WM. Actually got "satisfying" results. I wouldn't dream of running any newer windows-version on it, but Linux did OK.
CD burning (xcdroast) didn't succeed though. Don't really know why. :)

-Geir

I'd recommend downloading 3 or 4 different Linux distros then spending some time with each of them. It won't be long before you've decided for yourself which one is the best.

Good luck! :)

you're already one step ahead of most people asking this question,you know what you want linux to do for you.
the biggest thing for now is to ignore how a distro looks.you can always change that by adding a different gui.
#1 priority for a beginner has to be hardware detection.if the install can find and configure all or most of your hardware it's easier to start using linux without headaches from the first boot.that narrows it down to two of the best: knoppix/debian and red hats anaconda.
#2 is package management.at some time you will use the cli,it's unavoidable if you want a fully customized installation.rpm based distros have the least cli demand usually with debian packages coming in next.source based distros with your system specs would probably be too much unless you have a lot of free time to compile everything.
based on that:
SuSE-no dvd support out of the box and a heavy gui.i run a p3/350 as a SuSE test bed and it's more than a little sluggish; on my 2600+ main,it works well.
Red Hat/Fedora Core-sluggish gui on a 2500 sempron.excellent hardware detection though.
Slackware-once past the initial user add and int 4 to run the gui,it's not as bad as it's made to sound.it has it's quirks,but most of them are well documented.hardware detection is very good,configuring the hardware is often left to the user though.fast and light,it runs well on older hardware with the right gui.
Mandrake/Mandriva-not bad really,the biggest issues stem from slow/down servers when you want to add or upgrade packages.also has good hardware detection.
Yoper-unless it's changed i wouldn't install it without an nvidia video card.hardware detection is excellent,but it uses SuSEs SAX2 for video configuration and flips out if it isn't an nvidia.
Gentoo-source based.on the positive side though,once installed and configured,installing or updating anything (or everything at once if you want) is the easiest of any distro.
Debian-fast even on slower processors.less work to install than gentoo,but mostly a matter package selection........and there are a lot to choose from.
Knoppix,Ubuntu,Mepis (and probably 50 more) -Debian based,excellent hardware detection,and fairly light.Ubuntu has one of the fastest install times i've seen since Mandrake 9.0
Vector-Slackware under the hood with the anaconda installer if i remember correctly.gui installation and configuration with excellent hardware detection.
DSL-excellent hardware detection and great on older hardware.i run this on an IBM 365x thinkpad,100mhz and 16mb of ram.and can still use XFCE for a gui.

dosen't really narrow the field much,but does give you an idea of what to look for.