Dear Sir

I'm 21 yrs and a bit new to the Linux-world.
Can you please suggest/recommend a Linux distro which is:

1. FREE
2. Can be installed quite easily
4. Ideal for desktop use as well as programmers/developers
6. Can Read NTFS or Read-Write NTFS
8. Easily add/remove/update packages/software
3. Automounts Windows partition or where I can EASILY mount it manually
5. Comes with Wine alreeady installed
7. If its a bit fast too, that would be nice but not necessarily

Your response will be HIGHLY APPRECIATED

Thanks in advance.

Take care
Cool Blue

Suse, Fedora, Mandrake and others can do what you mentioned but don't necessarily come with wine preinstalled. You can always compile it yourself or get a pckage for your distro.

I'd agree and also recommend you do some reading on each distro.

I am pretty sure that SuSE has Wine "preinstalled"...it all depends on which selections one makes during the installation...but i believe a standard install will have Wine included.

You have to select it yourself, during installation coz Wine is not part of the default packae selection. The only problem is that the versions tend to be out dated anyway and you could be better off getting a newer build from the wine website.

It's always a trade off between speed, flexibilty and ease of use.


I would say

slackware - gentoo -debian - ubuntu - mandrake

in that order for ease for a newbie.

But slack will laugh in mandrake's face for speed and for example, at being a server.
Start with something you can handle.

Forget Gentoo compile land install horror. Slackware is a good choice if u have some experience. Debian install is crappy. SuSE is okay, but a bit slow and I think YaST is a bit rubbish.....

I hear good things about ubuntu. For the record my first distro was Mandrake 9.0 then 9.2 after a sabatical. Since then i've been slackware all the way - having tried a lot of the others. I find SuSE rather frustrating when used to slackware.... but sometimes slackare can be a paint - edit a file to get your scroll wheel working. Yawn!

It's all about trade offs like i said. If you are a wizard then go for Slack or Gentoo. If not then something more graphical....

NB download knoppix 1st to have a play with linux. it really is surprisingly good. it's a great tool for repairing other distros and knackered windozes boxes as well (aka changing the passwords lol). Useful to have around if you are new to it as you are likely to break stuff.

not that i still do............

I use gentoo and recommend it. No other distro I've tried provides so much power.

Hey hey wait I'm not a guru! I'm a pure newbie. Please read my criteria carefully:
I said a distro which is FREE (which SuSE, Mandrake ain't). And i said ease of package installation - I've heard Mandrake has serious problems when upgrading/updating??!!
In SUSE u allegedly cant play DVD movies!

I've heard a lot abt Mepis. What do u all think?? I've done a lot of reading on distros...
Does Mepis come with Wine installed?? Does it AUTOMOUNT Windows partition?
Or read NTFS?? Please go through my post a bit more carefully
And slackware..boy I've heard its only 4 techies.. And I said ease of installation to HDD..Knoppix is a live CD and installing to HDD is nerdy stuff.....

Reply soon

And one more thing.. I've tried Fedora 3 and its terrible No NTFS access and no automounting of Windows partitions and nor any Wine How could u recommend THAT?

But I forgot something.....A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF U for ur replies...but I still haven't got what i wanted A few more questions...

Which would be better RPM-based or Debian based & WHY??
Which is the best filesystem & WHY??

Thanks in advance.

Take care
Cool Blue

Gentoo isn't exactly for beginers is it?

Try Ubuntu then....

I think reiserfs is bestest....

RPM isn't too hot IMHO

If you try it the Ubuntu way, the Ubuntu Guide can lead you along the way with most issues. Ubuntu is Debian-based and is very much free... they will even send you a CD in the mail, if you ask for it here.
Debian is good Linux spirit, not far from the basics. It also has the great package administration program apt, which is great from the command line as well as with an interface, Synaptic. It is the most solid package administration I have tried so far.
As for the others being free (as in no money paid), both SuSE and Mandrake have a download version, and program packages can be found and installed.

i would not recommend Gentoo, Debian nor Slack for a newbiwe...unless you just wanna scare him away. They are powerful distros, but not suited for newbies.

Mandrake are both free distros...you can of course choose to buy them if you want...but there is no need to.
You can download iso's from the ftp servers, or do a FTP install...or borrow/get a copy from a friend. All free.

Careful, there might be ladies out here

I doubt that very much. You probably did not set it up.


May I ask where the need for wine comes from?


I'm using RH, Slackware and Ubuntu. With your requirements and (assumed) experience, I would choose RH (or Fedora) from these 3. Reason is that it comes with nearly everything that you want (office, compilers, databases, servers etc). In my opinion, Ubuntu is more tailored towards desktop use and Slackware more towards development/server use.

For NTFS in FC3, look here.

Well I could have gone on Ubuntu but i read bad reviews on OSnews abt it....

Ok it comes down to this:

I'll go for 1) Debian-based (largest repository right plus I've read many praises on it)

Now tell me which Debian-based distro AUTOMOUNTS Windows?? Coz I've XP on another HDD.
And is best for newbies....Mandrake I've heard gives dependency problems and its hard to upgrade componenets...

Can anyone PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ give me a FULL list of ALL FREE DISTROS???
PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ!

What is Debian Sarge?? Please explain. What is Sid & Sarge?? One mag carries Debian sarge. Should i go for it????????? Or Mandrake community edition?? Will Mandrake AUTOMOUNT Windows? Is upgrading easy?

Is compiling fron source trouble-free in ALL free distros?

Thanks for all the help so far. And sorry for being so irritating