Getting started with Linux, what should my first Distro be?
 

Hey everyone i am a long time windows user using every version of windows since windows 95. (im only 16 so 3.1 is a way back for me) anyway i have boughten a old P3 500 Mhz with a 12 Gb hard drive, USR hardware modem, 128Mb of ram 4Mb video card (Getting TNT2/Geforce 2 for that). I have installed windows 2000 on it so far and wish to try a version of linux in a dual boot. I also have a p4 2.0 Ghz with xp on it but i dont wanna risk it with linux till i am somewhat fluent with the OS. My question for you guys is what should be very first distro be? I want something that is going to be easy to use and get going, i want to be able to access the internet ect. I had a copy of Mandrake 9.1 on it and that was a diaster, it found everything but my Sound card and Modem, my modem was placed in other devices catagory. KDE refused to work at all and cause the system to freeze and packages off the cd would not install correctly (asking me to insert cd1 then 2 then 1 then 2 over and over getting no where) I worked on making my modem work for one whole week using the built in Mandrake control center and linuxconf and tried kppp, and other methods of getting online with no such luck. I know this modem will work with linux because the manual refers to Redhat and other form's members have suggested it. The modem works fine in windows 2k with the proper Int string so the modem isnt broken either.

Anyway what distro do you think i should start with? I have heard that Suse and Redhat are good to start with. I have also heard good things about Lindows 4.0. What do you guys think of this

Note on Lindows: on their website Lindows recmends a 800 Mhz cpu, i dont think that much power is required because in a recent issue of maximum Pc magizene they reviewed the walmart pc as a reference of low costing pc's. The pc has a VIA 800 Mhz cpu and when they installed windows xp and used bencmark tools the program rated the cpu equal to a PII 300 Mhz (HA). So i am wondering if Lindows is still a option or not. I figure KDE did not work on my pc due to my video card which will be upgraded. But i want some opinions from the real linux users out there. What versiosn of linux should i get? Also what is Pink Tie Linux 9? Thanks everyone for your opinions.

please try searching this site, especially reading some of the reviews here, this is asked an awful lot, as i'm sure you can appreciate.

sorry i wasnt aware there was a review section of the site.
Thanks

If you want linux that looks like windoze, get RedHat or Mandrake or SuSE. If you acually want to learn about Linux, try Slackware. It's very standards-compliant, stable, and the name makes it sound like you spend all of your time growing facial hair and debugging drivers for your coffee machine.

B.

but will slackware be alot of fustration for a linux n00b such as myself? Mandrake hates my hardware lol

*lol* Seconded.

-- Seconding german's post, that is.

Computers are frustrating; period. The question is what you get in return for your frustrations. ;)

good point windows is fustrating when dll's go wary and the registy kills its self. Or NTFS dies due to a power outage and you need to run chkdsk /p and fix the boot sector *Grumbles*

my point being when i get windows problems i have a general idea of how to fix it being around windows and knowing what is going on. In linux i have no idea, you must remember what that was like. You seriously think slackware is the way to go?

Yes. Bottom line is that though a lot of hardware is supported in Slackware, things like XF86 can be hell to figure out on a Slack box, because the installer doesn't do a whole lot in that sense for you. Generally ATI and NVidia cards cause people trouble. I didn't have any trouble but I have pretty generic hardware cuz I build all my boxen from distributors.

Seconded:
and an addendum:

Microsoft must be destroyed (just to ride a dead horse around for a while).

B.

Oh, I don't "remember" what it "was" like, I still "know" what it "is" like, unfortunately. As far as whether I really think you should use Slackware, I can't say absolutely. You may have everything work or nothing work - installs can be kind of random. And I don't know how you'd respond to difficulties. If you really don't want any troubles and would use Windows before fighting with Linux, maybe it'd be better to get an "easy" distro but there's no guarantees even with them. If you want to get some challenges and overcome them and aren't ready to jump back to Windows at a moment's notice, then definitely try Slack.





Yep - that's one horse that can't be ridden too much:)

it seems to be kind of a weird myth that "you can only learn linux with slackware," but i don't agree. actually you can install slackware default, have it automatically configure X for you, have it boot into KDE or Gnome, and basically never have to touch a terminal or learn much the whole time.

but as a beginner you can learn a lot with Red Hat or Mandrake. just don't use KDE/gnome, but use a window manager instead, and do as much as you can through consoles. that might in fact be the easiest way to learn, because the frustration factor in the beginning can be kept to a minimum, and then you can migrate to slack or gentoo when you're ready. there's also a lot of doc specific for Red Hat. and as someone else said, each distro can be hit or miss depending on your skillz going in, your hardware, what you install, etc. so the best way is really to try out a few distros until you find what works best for you, and then take it from there.

I am recommending RedHat 7.3 (not the latest releases) for your machine and your experience.

Of course you will want to try other distros as well to see what you like.

Slack is my second choice.

I think slackware is the best. I started with mandrake and it was headaches, redhat was no better. Both give alot of missing packages and compile errors. I tried slackware and have never had a problem since. I have never once had a problem compiling since I switched

With a separate partition for linux you can try different distro's installing with all basic packages real quick and see what you like most. After each install just reformat the partition and install the next. When you got a distro you really like you can reinstall that one and fine tune your installed package preferences.

That's kind of how I did it - tho I didn't really try MANY distro's, just two ;)

Hmm, funny nobody mentiond SuSE. It's a great newbie friendly disto. I recomend SuSE.