Best "Out of the box" distros
 

Right, I've been a teensie bit disillusioned with the whole windows universe since my windows xp spazzed out on me mid dissertation (as if the whole dissertation thing wasn't stressful enough). Anyway I got a new netbook, it came with linux linpus lite, which was...well...lite to say the least. So I installed ubuntu easy peasy, based on ubuntu 8.04 and I really like it thus far.

So background over, my brother in law is building me a lovely gaming based computer and I've decided while it will have Windows 7 on it for gaming purposes I want to dual boot with a linux version. However I'm a complete noob and need one that works out of the box completely and is really easy to use and update. I don't want it to be like linpus lite which didn't let me do anything, but I want to put the cd in, boot up and be able to use things like wireless straight away without spending hours figuring out how to use the command centre. I also don't want to spend my entire life on these forums asking stupid questions.

Thanks.

EDIT: oh and while I use the computer for gaming I also write a lot. And do both scripts and novel based prose so would want something that I could install things like finaldraft on fairly easily.

For a beginner, I would suggest ubuntu

Perhaps you don't need a computer at all.

Hi,
Out-of-the-box config for wireless worked seamlessly for me with Mint.

Cheers

No-one needs a computer.

I think playing games on a netbook would suck though. Right? I think TFC and Neverwinter nights would be lame on a 9 inch screen, let alone the fact that my netbook isn't massively up to spec and so would lag with them. I want linux because it's more reliable (also I've heard using neverwinter nights with WINE is good) and yeah I'm a noob but I'm not an idiot.

Thank you Repo. Does ubuntu work well with PlayonLinux do you know?
Same question on Mint.

Genni:

>>Quote:--"However I'm a complete noob and need one that works out of the box completely and is really easy to use and update. I don't want it to be like linpus lite which didn't let me do anything, but I want to put the cd in, boot up and be able to use things like wireless straight away without spending hours figuring out how to use the command centre."<<

= You can try Linux Mint, it is Ubuntu based and it aims at "visual elegance and ease of use". Package management is as good as Ubuntu of course.

= You should learn using the terminal (command line) it saves much time sometimes.


>>Quote:--"I also don't want to spend my entire life on these forums asking stupid questions."<<

= Somewhere a senior member here says that: "The only stupid question is the question not asked." :)


>>Quote:--"EDIT: oh and while I use the computer for gaming I also write a lot. And do both scripts and novel based prose so would want something that I could install things like finaldraft on fairly easily."<<

= Linux Mint installs auto with Open Office Suite there you can write your novels and prose as you did with MSOffice. One good thing is that Mint runs an online linked dictionary very useful to writers, can be available ON the taskbar each time you boot; this feature is not available in most other distros (so far I've been trying to have it under Slack but no joy yet til now --hope some hackers could help me :) someday)

Hope this helps. Goodluck.

PS --Get the tutorial I linked hereunder, it is a must for every newbie who "doesn't want to spend his life asking questions" to run Linux.

If that was intended to be helpful, it missed by a country mile.......

Just starting out with Linux, just about anything in the top 5 on the "hit list" at distrowatch should be fine. Also consider PCLinuxOS and Mepis.

Don't assume that this cannot happen on Linux also. Any computer--regardless of the OS--has the capacity to make trouble.

I'm hoping linux will at least ask me if I want to install BIOS updates. XP automatically installed a BIOS update, which clashed horribly. I couldn't even start it up in safe mode. I reinstalled xp and carefully selected which drivers to update but I really hate the automatic update system. So far with easy peasy I've found it gives me a list and I choose what to update.

Am I assuming wrong on linux and updates?

And yeah, I am planning on learning the command centre. I just don't want to have to straight away if you know what I mean, I want to gradually ease myself into it for fun rather than because I have to.

What's the difference between Mint and ubuntu in terms of useability? Or is it just a different front end?

Thank you everyone, you're all being helpful.