Hello,

After long time Windows user i decided to try linux. Actually i used red hat before, and i saw that my friend is using mandriva.

So i was wondering which one should i choose for beginning.

I have opensuse cd which a magazine gave and i am downloading mandriva and kubuntu iso files.

I would like to ask which one would be a good starting point.

Welcome to LQ!!

Those are all good choices--Pick one and dive in.

Hello,

I downloaded Mandriva from

http://www.mandriva.com/en/download/free

Mandriva Linux One 2008 Spring - Free Download

But i guess One is live cd version. Am i correct?

I burned the iso to cd and it started to boot up from cd than gave some error and returned to console

So should i choose

Mandriva Linux Free 2008 Spring

for installable linux edition?

Mandriva 2008 Spring is a stable version
A Live version is mostly also a install version
Benefit of a live version above a install version is that you can try it first before installing
If the Live version is working there is a option on the desktop called INstall and if you like it go ahead


all the best

Ok,

Here are the errors i get, when cd is trying to boot

mount : error mounting /dev/loop0 on /live/distrib as squashfs : Invalid argument

pivot_root: No such file or directory
rmdir : /initrd/live/union : No such file or directory

/bin/sh cd : line 1 : can't cd to /initrd/live

mount : mounting bin on /live/bin faild

rmdir : bin : Directory not empty

and rest is same for

dev etc lib linuxrc live tmp and usr

than it says press enter to activate this console

So where is the problem about Mandriva?

I hate to say it, but if you are having problems on the live cd I would just download like the top 6 live cd's off distrowatch or something and try them all. Start with the one that works. If you have never used linux before you are just going to get frustrated troubleshooting at this point. I would try regular ubuntu(not kubuntu) then red hat fedora live cd as my first two. Best odds of beating hardware issues IMHO. Then once you get everything up and running and start feeling warm and fuzzy move onto other ones.

Hi Bonjurkes,
For a total beginner who is looking for ease of use like the windows or mac, I would suggest Ubuntu(Kubuntu), Mandriva, openSuSE, PCLinuxOS. For me Ubuntu always worked fine. The only reason some people don't seem to like Ubuntu is because of its Brown theme. While I personally liked Fedora, it always (I mean all the released versions starting from Fedora Core 6) had problems with my on-board VIA graphics card. Once I tweaked it, Fedora was as good as any other distro. Mandriva always failed to recognize my monitor's actual resolution of 1024x768. If you are looking for eye-candy distros then openSuSE, PCLinuxOS and Mandriva will beat Windows (even the Vista with 'Aero' thing) any time.

The reason I said this is that, not all distros may suite everyone. But some of them have earned good reputation of being beginner-friendly, except for minor issues mostly wrt hardware support. The once I mentioned above are good (in any order you take them).

Probably your spoken language also matters. Mandriva being of French origin may have very good native support for French, openSuSE may have a better support for German. I'm not saying others don't offer good native language support though.

So, either download those isos or ask your friends, some of them may have these cds. Try them and see for yourself which suites you better.

Good luck to you.

How nice

http://www.nabble.com/-Bug-39209--NE...d16214775.html

there is a bug about it and solution is using different cd-r device.

I am not sure if it worths to download 6 cd version incase it will give same error

There are differences in livecd's. If it really is just a bug like that, a knoppix/debian based(Ubuntu) could be worth a shot.

i also downloaded kubuntu, i guess i can give it a try also

if you are from "win" background,you'll really feel home with ubuntu(i think in some more releases ubuntu will actually give competition to vista).The only problem is its not meant for developers.You'll have to depend a lot on online services of ubuntu.I use fedora which i find very good.But you can start with any-thing and after a while you'll start seeing all of them as LINUX.

hi bonjurkes

i tried Puppy Linux ,just 80 mb to download ,and as a windoze refuge i tried puppy linux NOP4,very very happy to use which is almost like windows environment
Download from http://puppylinux.ca/NOP/