New to Linux, which version to use
 

Hello, i'm new to Linux,this website and these forums. I have always been a windows user, thinking Apple's OS was the only other option. A friend mentioned Linux, it sounded interesting. Over the next few days I did some soul searching. Could I really betray Windows like that? Absolutely, it was an easy decision. The next time I saw him, i asked a few questions. He had no answers, turns out the only thing he does know is that Linux is like Windows, but its very hard to use and configure. So I decided to take matters into my own hands with a few google searches, which led me here. I suppose what i'm looking for initially, is a version that is good for a noob like me. I have registered to take a CompTIA A+ class during the summer, but I don't want to wait until I start for some answers. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing some input.

In the beginning there was slackware. after using them all I returned to Slackware. Because I want to control every part of my system. I want it to do 20 times more than UBUNTU. I am biased ok. https://linuxcritic.wordpress.com/20...never-go-back/

Goralla,

Welcome to LQ.

It would be a good idea to let us have the make/model, amount of RAM, what CPU, wifi card etc you have before we give definite suggestions.

Despite Drakeo's love of Slackware (nothing wrong with that, or Arch), neither OS is recommended for beginners.

Assuming your hardware is reasonable, the obvious recommendation for a newcomer is Linux Mint 17.3, either MATE or Xfce.

Others include Ubuntu 16.04 MATE, Xubuntu 16.04, ZorinOS.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...xp-4175502495/

The best Linux-version for a beginner is the one that is most used in your area, in your networks, by your friends, colleagues else people that you can contact to chat about their experience and yours. If most of your friends used SuSE, I would not, -here and now-, give you a list of things that I believe done wrong by whoever is behind SuSE these days... but recommend you to install SuSE, too.

If you lived nearby, I would recommend you the same Linux distribution that I use myself, but you do not and so I will not.

So what you are saying is that he knows nothing. There is certainly a learning curve and this may even be more severe if you have become really habituated to the windows way of doing things.

I'd advise that you ought to try a few live CDs and see if anything seems to appeal.

Welcome.
As has been pointed out, Linux Mint is good for beginners, as is Zorin.
If you want to learn Linux and don't mind having to read and get your
hands dirty (work at it) Slackware is a good choice.
:)

Linux Mint is not good for anybody. They've had their forums hacked because they didn't bother to keep Wordpress up to date. Earlier this year their website was hacked and one of their iso downloads replaced with a trojaned version They blacklist upstream updates to prevent breakage. Don't use Mint. It's a derivative or a derivative maintained by people who are apparently barely have the time/resources to hold it all together.

No. Because, WTF is Zorin?


If you're a newbie, start with a distro that a large number of people use. I'd say go with Fedora, openSUSE, Debian or Ubuntu. They are all long established, very well maintained and have a very large user base. Or as someone else very sensibly suggested, whatever people you know use, though if the people you know think "Linux is like Windows, but its very hard to use and configure" then I guess that's not really an option ;)

The best thing to do is your own research as you know what you want and what you will use the computer for. The link below has information on a number of Linux distributions and links to their home pages where you can get more details on each and/or download them. Take a look at the right side of the page under 'Page Hit Rankings' which give you a general idea of what the most popular Linux distributions are.

http://distrowatch.com

Windows and Linux are both operating systems, not much similarity beyond that. Hard to configure? Ten or more years ago that was true. I think it is more difficult for an ex-windows user to use Linux than a complete novice because you have to 'unlearn' most of what you learned to use windows and then learn to use Linux.

These are the specs from the manufactuer.

Performance
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ Quad-Core Haswell
Cache L3: 6 MB
Memory SO-DIMM 204-Pin Type: DDR3 SDRAM
Installed: 8 GB (1x8 GB)
Capacity: 32 GB
Graphics Card Type: Dedicated
Installed: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4 GB
Display
Type Widescreen
Size 17.3"
Backlight LED
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Finish Antiglare
Native Resolution 1920 x 1080
Storage
Hard Drive Installed: 1 TB 5400 rpm
Type: SATA
Optical Drive SuperMulti DVD Burner
Input/Output Connectors
Ports 3x USB 3.0 (A)
2x USB 2.0 (A)
Display 1x HDMI
1x Mini DisplayPort
1x VGA
Audio Integrated Stereo Speakers
Integrated Microphone
1x 1/8" (3.5 mm) Headphone Output
1x 1/8" (3.5 mm) Microphone Input
Flash Media Slot 1x MMC
1x SD
1x Memory Stick
1x xD-Picture Card
Communications
Network 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45)
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0
Webcam Yes
General
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Security Not Specified By Manufacturer
Keyboard Keys: 102
Type: Standard Notebook Keyboard
Features: Backlight, Chiclet Style
Pointing Device TouchPad with Multi-Touch Control
Battery 9-Cell Lithium-Ion
Power Requirements AC: 100-240 VAC
Dimensions (WxHxD) 16.8 x 2.1 x 11.3" / 42.7 x 5.3 x 28.7 cm
Weight 7.9 lb / 3.58 kg

I doubled ram to 16 GB, and added a 750 GB solid state drive

@ arizonagroovejet,
You are entitled to your opinion.


@ yancek,
:thumbsup:
Good advice.
If I might add: At the top of the page at distrowatch.com is a link to the "Major Distributions." It gives you a little history about the 9 most popular and/or oldest
active Linux distributions and included in the list is FreeBSD.

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

There are many threads here at LQ asking, "What's a good distro for someone new to Linux?" Use the LQ Search up on the menu to find some and read them. (You will likely find as many opinions as posters.)

I started with Slackware, quite by accident, but am glad I did, because Slackware teaches you to understand Linux. Once you learn how to Slack, no other distro will intimidate you.

Others I would recommend would be Mageia and Mint. OpenSUSE might also be worth a look.

(I don't think one should conflate the security of a website with that of a operating system, and Mint responded to the breach quickly and openly. Now, if the Mint website gets breached again, I may revise my opinion. Just my two cents.)

Ok so humans do err and having their forms hacked has nothing to do with the stability of the Linux Mint distribution it's self. The fact that they didn't keep Wordpress up to date was irresponsible and could of been avoided. Prior preparation prevents poor performance.

I've been running Mint for 2 years and have never had a problem.

Zorin is a distribution based on Ubuntu and a lot of folks that came from Windows like it.
-::-Profanity is frowned upon here-::-

http://zorinos.com/

Xubuntu and Mageia are neat distro's. I ran both of them and liked them.

https://www.mageia.org/en/
http://xubuntu.org/

Voyager is another neat distro that's build on Xubuntu and it was very stable and ran well for me a few years ago. It comes with some really amazing wallpapers and screensavers. The wifi worked right out of the box.:)

http://voyagerlive.org/
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=voyager

Most of the distros that I use regularly are not derivative, with the exception of Mint, which, AFAIC, is Ubuntu done right.

There must be some reason that I gravitate to Debian, Mageia, and Slackware, which are all originals in their way.

[RANT MODE ON]

Most of the *buntus are Ubuntu with different desktop environments. They are still Ubuntu underneath. Mint, I think, is an exception as it provides more functionality in some areas, particularly codecs, than Ubuntu, but, yes, it's still a *buntu. It just happens to be a *buntu that I like, and it's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

To be blunt, having a different DE is no big deal; it's like taking the chassis of a Chevy and dropping a Ford body on it--it's still a Chevy underneath. The fins and grill may be different, but the drive-train is the same. A new DE does not innovation make

I recognize that it's convenient for fans of various DEs, but, at the risk of offending fans of some distros, it's not at all ground-breaking; indeed, it's almost superficial. You could install your DE of choice to Ubuntu very nicely and make it work just fine.

Also, get off my lawn. Grump, grump, grump.

[RANT MODE OFF]

New to Linux, which version to use
 

I think everybody is providing great feedback. There is only one problem... the most important question has yet to be asked:

What tasks do you intend to accomplish with Linux?

If all you plan to do is check email, browse the web, graphic design, gaming, etc... mostly any distribution of Linux should suffice. If this is the case, hardware discovery should be your only concern.

I presently run Slackware. I started on Debian, then Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu (back around 2005), then back to Debian, and finally found a home with Slackware. The Slackware community here on LQ is very helpful if you run into trouble.

Agreed.


Article on Linux Mint security:

http://www.ocsmag.com/2016/04/09/lin...28-days-later/

99% OF LINUX distros are debian forks; ubuntu, kubuntu, mint, and many others. Exceptions are usually worthy of note. Slackware does a good job. OpenSuSE is probably the easiest. But it is unlike any other distro, except that it uses rpm packages like Red Hat and Fedora do also. Debian itself is pretty good, but its cryptic. Newbs probably can't do much with it. But the installer is pretty foolproof, so you get a working GUI pretty much no matter what.

If you try debian, use the testing flavor. Stable is stale. I use unstable, or sid, which is pretty usable. But I wouldn't start with sid. Ubuntu is popular. I've used it. It's a debian fork.

Sabayon is a gentoo fork. It's easy and it works. It's also attractive. Thanks for reminding me. I'm going to grab the latest version and stick it in a virtual machine to try it out.

I hope this helps.

I am surrounded by awesome ingenuous Noobs. Only sign of bottomless dumbness is, they don't see the difference.

Run the GNU version. :D

With 8G RAM I only run VMs, unless battery life is in mind.

E.g:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/22064...ts_You_Do.html
https://www.linux.com/learn/why-when...irtual-machine

Try them all, have fun! :)

However, their website was hacked and ISO images were compromised. They do cross roads...eventually. I'm sure the Mint devs have lived and learnt, but since that happened to begin with I'd be hesitant to recommend it.

I've stuck to Ubuntu since 14.04 and haven't had any major problems. As for security, Ubuntu hasn't had anything on that scale, and the last major security issue was a year ago. I use it because it's really the only distro going somewhere and innovating. (You know what I mean...)

Another thing to keep in mind is popularity often affects support. If a distro is popular, especially with :newbie:s, then that's the support you'll get. So distros like Gentoo, Linux From Scratch, and Slackware likely will not have the same newbie support as Mint, Ubuntu, or a half dozen others.

Mint and Ubuntu are spin offs of Debian. They do not offer any more or less regarding usability. Each distribution of Linux has it's positives and negatives. Strictly recommending one distribution over another because of your own opinion, shouldn't be enough. You really should provide facts about design and usability. That is what I think the OP is looking for in the replies.

As someone who has ran Linux for 15 years, I disagree. Popularity is for fan boys who run Mint, Ubuntu, or OS X. Furthermore, if you base your opinions on popularity contests, go install Windows.

I cannot speak for Gentoo or Linux From Scratch. My personal experience with the two is very limited.

Slackware has a very active and helpful community on LQ. Found here. The Slackware forum has a very broad range of people helping each and every person, of all skill ranges. There is also very good documentation for Slackware on the Slackware wiki. Found here. Slackware does not change like other distributions do so quickly either. If you learn to do something with Slackware, it will likely remain useful for years to come. Another thing that may be helpful not just for the OP, but for most other people, is the Slackbook.

My experience with Linux has lead me to believe that all distributions have people willing to help you learn Linux. The decision about which distribution to use is more about deciding which philosophy, design and usability you prefer.

Sure they do they have Unity..

Ubuntu is about convergence because they know the desktop and laptop are being replaced and are reacting.

Popularity means a lot because questions will have been asked and answered and are googleable. There's also the small fact that Linux SW development is started and released first on Ubuntu because it's popular. These are reasons to run whats popular. I have better things to do than tar -xvf ./configure (check for depends) make make install then do it all again when the SW is updated.

What is the Brand/Model of your laptop? There are some Intel wireless cards that only work with newer kernels.

For example, a lenovo thinkpad laptop I just set up for work has a "Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265" that only works with kernel version 4.1 and newer. See below link.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...000005511.html

I used Debian Jessie Linux for the laptop, but it comes with an older 3.xx Linux Kernel. So I had to install a newer kernel and add .ucode files to /lib/firmware folder for it to recognize the wireless card.

So depending on the hardware you have, and what distribution of Linux you use, some stuff will just work, others you will have to make work.

So please let us know the make/model of the laptop.

Thanks.

http://linuxnewbieguide.org/?page_id=15

Quick newbie guide to "what is linux" I found using google search, decent for getting some basics and introduction.

The good thing with Linux is your not stuck with just one Distro. There are many out there, and no one but you will know whats best for you. Sure you can try a Live distro, but not all Distro's offer live versions. Better yet you can try them virtually, ex. using Virtualbox.

Before I came back to slackware, I used THIS LINK, answered the questions then researched the distros to see which one fit what I wanted.

Goralla:

As beachboy2 mentioned in post #2; it would be helpful if you could post your pc's specifications.

Once we know that we could make a recommendation on which distribution would be more fitting for your computer.

I am a new comer too. :hattip:

I think, the different distros of Linux is more or less the same to the newbies. It is new and you don't know much about it.

First I was stunned by the SlackEx USB Live. Its look and speed makes me decide to go for it. Of course, being tired of Windows is another reason I wanted to make a change.

I (as a newbie too) would suggest you to run a USB live version first. Just try and feel it first. Browse some of your flavorite websites. Do something you would do with Windows... etc.

I am now running Slackware. It does take a little bit time to learn how to install it. Its installation is not very user-friendly, but fun though.