Hello, newbie here. What distro is right for me?
 

So, I'm finally tired of Windows ME. I don't want windows XP and I sure don't want Vista. My computer is a few years old but still not too outdated. My wife and I use it mostly for web surfing, yahoo messenger, photo editing, and I rip cd's for my mp3 player. I'm fairly computer literate but thats all coming from working with windows and only windows for about 7 years. I already use OpenOffice on my computer so that will be an easy transition.......I hope. :) I just recently started to look into Linux. I have Knoppix and played with that a bit, it seems pretty decent. My question is this (and I'm sure I'm not the first to ask but I couldn't find a question exactly like this) what distro would be best and still let me get done, what I want to do? (web surfing, IMing, photo editing, and cd ripping) Also, my wife is very computer illiterate so, it will have to be a half way easy transition for her.

Thanks,

clipse

i'd go with mepis( my personal fav. at the moment). you can run it as a live cd to get your feet wet. there is a link right on the desktop to install it on the hard drive if you like what you see.

What was wrong with Knoppix? (K)Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva are also options and there are probably more.

I want a permenant Linux OS on my computer. I was under the impression that Knoppix is only liveCD. Am I wrong?

sudo knoppix-installer

if you want to try some window managers like fluxbox instead of the big desktop environments, try Vector Linux, i started with it, and it gave me some good ideas on how things can work, its also pretty well configured out of the box (mp3 support, video etc)

You can install Knoppix to your hard drive: http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Hard_Drive_Install_FAQ.

I've found most distrobutions come with/as a live cd for people to try out. :)



I wasn't happy with Ubuntu like a lot of newcommers are, because its package manager uses .deb and isn't as popular as I would like (comparied to .rpm).
Currently I'm trying out OpenSUSE...

distro
 

Yeah it is pretty hard to mess up a live cd, so once you figure out how to get everything the way you want it then install. I use ubuntu and it works really well and all my hardware has no issues, but I am sure most are just as good, there is a lighter xubuntu if you want better performance of course you can goto kubuntu which is a little more friendly but at the cost of power.

Mepis and Ubuntu are very good choices.

The link below may be helpful....

As you can see there are a variety of options for distros. I suggest you take the test at http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php and decide for yourself.

In my experience, debian slaughters rpm (and what do you mean isn't as popular?). apt-get/aptitude, is superior to yum in almost every instance, Numerous distros are written in around to use Debian files. Debian, Ubuntu, Mepis, Knoppix, and numerous others. .rpm, you're pretty much with Redhat, Mandriva, and their clones.

Ubuntu if you want to use a .deb distro, if you want to use a .rpm distro, I'd recommend Fedora 7.

IGF

distro
 

Well there both good, you can get what you need through both updates you can even convert an rpm to a deb it really doesnt matter, as long as your stuff is supported when you install it there rest is trivial.

Speaking as a fellow newbie, all I can advise you to do is to try out as many as you can.

Knoppix is great but ubuntu is as user-friendly as they come. I'm from a Windows background too and I want something that doesn't dump me in a CLI-type environment all the time.

ubuntu's great because you're virtually ready to go without any complex setting-up. I was on the net (via dial-up) and printing within minutes. That's what I want.

Another great distro is Puppy Linux. It's really tiny, can run from RAM and boot from USB stick. It's a small OS but feature-packed and user-friendly. The only drawback is that it doesn't like Conexant modems at all.

I wasn't a big Fedora Core fan - but that's probably just because it was the base package - and my computer didn't like Suse or Mandriva. But that's not say you'll have problems.

It's worth adding that Vista is still way too buggy to be a replacement for XP.

Here's the best bit of advice - if you've a spare hard drive, just try distro after distro until you find the one you're looking for.

If you want a definite recommendation, though, go for ubuntu - your wife'll have no problems.

I'm just saying in my experience, the programs I like to use only came in .rpm and not .deb package form. You can use alien from what I hear and convert.... but its a pain.
Everyone is right Ubuntu is extremely friendly...but for me, it was too friendly, and made me sooo angry. Not to mention it drove my touchpad nuts (had some driver conflict that I couldn't resolve).


Anyways. I still think you are asking a good question. Get the 3 most recommended distros from this thread and spend a few days on each. :)
Have fun, just don't use a hammer like I once did.