If you want SuSE, you can make a free ftp-install I'm told. Of course, this will only work comfortably if you have a broadband internet connection.

I answered Mandrake on the poll, but I really think Gentoo is worth your time.

Yes the installer is, how shall we say, primative. And no, there is no instant gratification. But after a successful build of Gentoo, you really feel you understand how the whole damn system works.

Hell I've used RedHat for almost 6 years, and it wasn't until I ran through the gentoo install a few times that I finally understood the boot process, and how to install (and repair) wayward boot loaders.

Then again, I also do some pretty hard-core low level stuff. Things like convert old thinkpads to X-terminals, set up webcams using old-hardware and frame-grabber, or lock down machines as kiosks in public places. Though once you start to attempt to do anything of sufficient complexity (say watch a DVD) you have to learn the low-level mechanics anyway.

My two cents.

Well, throwing out the fact that for a n00b the Gentoo installer is hardcore -- to say the least, I think Gentoo would be a great distro for a n00b. Portage is *excellent* package management, and keeping the distro up to date is easy too. But, like the saying goes 'you learn RedHat (or Gentoo0, you learn a distro, you learn Slack, you learn Unix'.

best thing about the *nixes is that they are free... try em all and see what you like best. But i would recommend running mandrake or rh or somthing for a few days at least just to learn the basics such as using the command line a bit, how devices are labled, and how x is configured.

I think cclavey said it best: Once you learn one of them in-depth it is really easy to move to the others.

I moved from Gentoo to RedHat with no problems beyond having to start my processes in /etc/init.d instead of /etc/rc.d/init.d and using nano instead of pico. Okay, and emerge works on an entirely different principle than rpm, but after a while it all just seems logical.

On my machine at work, I actually have both RedHat and Gentoo installed side-by side. I do most of my work in Gentoo, but the RedHat system autodetected all of the proper video settings and driver modules I needed. I also use the RedHat side to test configurations for my data-center servers that are still running 7.3

Don't be afraid to use the GUI tools at first, but be ready to drop them like a stone later. The best strategy is to play with the settings in the GUI, and then watch what they change in the text configuration files under /etc

Sooner or later you find it is easier to edit the files by hand, and that's when you know you are a Linux Hacker.

Thanks man!



This is so true. I got started with RedHat 7.2 (Whichever Valhalla was...), and all I used were the friendly winoze look alike tools, but now, I can't live w/out my commands, even in Mac.

The fact is, everyone will give you a different answer, but what you have to do is find the distro that is right for you, not someone else!

On the contrary to what some people might say, I don't think that Slackware is the wrong choice for the complete Linux newbie. I didn't even know what Linux looked like when I first started, and because I had heard that Slackware was a distro for the more hardcore Linux users I chose Slackware. The first installation wasn't completely without any problems, but still, quite painless. After just a couple of days I was up and running and could at least manage to copy files, compile and configure applications. Now, about half a year after my first encounter with Linux, I know the system very well. Surely I'm not an expert, but starting next week, I'm actually holding a Linux course in school because non of my teachers now Linux a well as I do.

I agree, when you learn Slack, you actually learn the commands that work in all (or almost all distros)...but, I'll quit preaching for a while

Slack is an excellent way to learn. I don't use it anymore because I didn't understand compiling a package from source and doing all that. Now that I have a better handle on it, I may go back to it. Anyways, I felt like I could do more with mandrake than red hat. On my machines, madrake just ran better, and it didnt' do as many crazy things as redhat did. RH had trouble with my sound card, and after the screen saver would come on, I would get a black line across my display that wouldn't go away until i restarted x. So imho, redhat is buggier than mandrake...go ahead and flame me. I agree with trying gentoo. It's true that if you learn gentoo, you learn that distro. But man, is it cool!

Hells ya! But really, *it doesn't matter -- it is all Linux!* can't we all just get along?

But, about the poll: I think that anyone would have better results, right now, trying RH 8, not 9. I hear that is *really* buggy, I don't know if the same is true for Mandy 9.1

Well my first distro as a Newb was Slack 8.0 and I have not looked back. I did try Debian, errr....Debian is CRAPOLA!! the installer hosed my ext3 and reiserFS partitions, rendered my drive un-readable and in-accessible! had to go to hard drives MFG site and d/l a tool kit to fix Debian's screwup. And I don't do RPM garbage either so Red hat and Drake are out of picture also. Peanut Linux was nice but, .....it uses RPM's so no go there too.

IMO I think that newbies should start with something difficult. It forces them to learn, so that in the future they have that knowledge.

320mb, did Debian stuff up your computer? It worked fine with me... Oh well, there are probably people who have had their systems stuffed up in all distros, sadly none can give 110% (nor 100%).

my $.02:

since they are free and easy to obtain, try a bunch o' distros. Start with somthing easy like mandrake and get that succesfully running and learn a few basic console commands and general stuff like learning about what your devices are named, what the xf86config is... then format and go try slackware or somthing like that.

http://www.linuxiso.org/forums/ is a good place to find out user opinions about different distros.

It's a decent site for finding out some information but it seems as though some of the biggest Linux @ssholes frequent there. If you post something even remotely negative about Linux you will have about a dozen people posting insults and telling you to go back to Windows. Those are the people that really make Linux and it's users look bad.