I am looking for a recommendation on a distro

MsDoomshroom · 04-05-2008, 04:50 PM

Hello all of you.
I realize there are 6 other threads covering this topic but I am looking for answers to fit my individual needs.
I have been a windows user all my life and my knoledge of computers is probably not all that much but I enjoy learning. I have had Linspire for a year or more now but I think that it limits the users ability to learn from it and is honestly not worth the money when compared to it's free sister OS freespire.
So assuming I am a novice but ready and willing t attempt the advanced things. What is the best distro for me to learn from.
I have been told slackware is nice and I have noticed "linux from scratch" but am afraid that even though this may be the best way to learn.....it may be a bit too much for lil' ole me to try and tackle.
I will appreciate any advice given.
Thank you very much for any recomendations.

pwc101 · 04-05-2008, 05:01 PM

My recommendation? Slackware. Others people's recommendations? Whatever distro they use.

Pick one from the top ten on distrowatch.com and try it for a couple of weeks, if you don't like it, try another until you settle

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsDoomshroom

I realize there are 6 other threads covering this topic but I am looking for answers to fit my individual needs.

6?

MsDoomshroom · 04-05-2008, 05:36 PM

OK, Thank you very much.
I will do that......but one more thing, what about linux from scratch? Is it a "no-no" for newbies?

XavierP · 04-05-2008, 05:42 PM

It's not necesarily a "no-no" for newbies, but it is very involved and involves a lot of learning. You are literally doing everything from scratch and have to compile and pass arguments to all programs. As a learning exercise it's second to none, but may be a bit offputting if it's only your second go.

Slackware has a reputation of being hard, but it isn't that difficult. Read the Slackbook, look at the various resources out there and ask questions here and you should be fine. You could also look at Debian.

Once you have a distro, aside from a few commands and gui tools, they are all pretty similar - they all have config files to amend. I'm biased towards Slackware, I've tried various distros over the years but always come back to it.

AceofSpades19 · 04-05-2008, 05:59 PM

I would advise that you only type in black in your posts because it can be very hard to read when you use different color, especially yellow, not to mention it hurts people's eyes.

MsDoomshroom · 04-05-2008, 06:09 PM

It is black on a white background that hurts my eye LOL
Sorry about that AceofSpades19 I use that color every where(looks good on a dark background) but if it is difficult to read i will not use it here ( the yellow was a mistake) thank you for pointing that out.
I will save Linux from scratch for later and probably try slackware to start or maybe both slackware and debain on two different computers.
Thank you very much for your advice XavierP and thank you again pwc101 and AceofSpades19. Your help is appreciated