what i feel is that red hat 9 is the easiest to install. i hav been using it for about a fortnite now and it is amazing. no headaches.
redhat is for newbies...atleast that is what i feel.

regards
aman

I don't see why people make slackware out to be some kind of newbie eating beast :P

My experience: I was curious about Linux, downloaded Mandrake and RH and never installed. Why? Because I was terrified I couldn't handle them, haha. At the end of December, a friend installed slack on my pc -- I told him that I'd never use it, and it was way beyond my grasp. A week later, I was so in love with it that I installed it on a second box. I hadn't touched a command line since the early 90s when I was rocking DOS, but I survived... and four months later, I'm still way more likely to boot into slack than I am to boot into 2K or XP. There's a lot I need to learn, but that's because I haven't made an effort, not because it's hard. Everything I want/need to do right now, I can.

Seems a lot of people don't have a clue what to do when they first try Linux, and this includes those who go for the "newbie friendly distros". On the bright side, there are mailing lists, forums, chatrooms, websites, man pages, and other resources galore to help newbies find their feet. From my experience, the Slackware community is just as willing to help newbs as the Mandrake and Redhat users are, and the distro itself is fantastic in both ease of use and it's install. If someone's willing to ask questions, read a bit and willing to learn, slackware's not out of their grasp.

Just wondering, randon -- have *you* used slackware?

Just a followup to the above reply. I just bought Slackware and am looking forward to using/learning it. There seem to be a lot of people on this forum who feel pretty strongly about its merits so I want to give it a solid try.

The nice thing about linux is that it gives us the freedom to choose, and the choices we have in utilizing a linux distro far outweigh that other operating system from Redmond.

Mandrak 9.2, for the most part, installed itself on a computer running Win2K Pro. I don't think it gets any easier than that. I did this about a week ago, and it's been my first experience with Linux. I even got it to play mp3's and share files with my trusty XP rig without any diffoculty.

my Favorite got to be Xandros 2.0 Deluxe Edition,

i started with Mandrake 9.0
to Red Hat 9
to Mandrake 9.2
to Suse 9.0 Pro
to Xandros

and i got to say xandros was the easiest for me

it even properly detected my ac97 audio and it works flawlessly
even installed the nvidia drivers for me. xandros is best hands down.

my second favorite is Suse, only bcause of Yast


but Mandrake is just as easy when using urpmi

It appears that the "riotkittie" has missed the point.

There are newbies and newbies here at LQ i.e. just because that word appears by your name, it doesn't automatically mean that you are a newbie, just that you're newbie here at LQ.

And I feel that "randon" was correct. Slackware isn't a "proper" newbie distro. You DO need a fair amount of prior knowledge, but only because stuff need's to be done manually.

If you happen to be in the position that I was in, when I first tried a linux distro (blindly, and rather stupidly), then you're probably get a better "linux experience" from distro's like mandrake, redhat/fedora, SuSE, or even a hard disc install of knoppix, for that matter.

If you don't happen to know your fstab from your modules.conf (arse from elbow ), then you are likely to feel more rewarded because it all "just works".

It's also fair to admit, that you could easily hit problem's with the distro's mentioned above.

Slackware is yet another GOOD distro, but it need's some understanding, otherwise it's easy to be left with zilch.

that's why publications/people who talk of the mandrake, SuSE, etc etc as good newbie distro's are being honest.

If you happen to be the other type of newbie i.e. one who already has a good grasp of "matters IT" (or specifically linux), then by all mean's - you'd probably enjoy the challenges of a slackware install.

kromatic has a good suggestion if all you want is to be able to get rid of M$ product's, Xandros and Lindows also have their own devotee's.

personally, i like both mandrake and gentoo. Mandrake is a "doddle" to install, while gentoo isn't so easy (even when doing a stage 3 +GRP), but once up and running, it's very easy. You only have to look at the gentoo forum's to see that there's almost as much help there for 1 distro as there is here at LQ covering virtually all distro's.

Peace, Love, cigarette's and alcohol

regards

John

p.s. and yes I have tried slack, along with mandrake, redhat, SuSE, gentoo, debian (proper and knoppix hard disc).

What point have I missed, oh Enlightened One? Fill me in, I beg

I don't understand the point of your second paragraph -- nobody said that everyone who's new to these boards is new to Linux. I'm sure we're all well aware that the opposite is true, so I don't know what you're getting at or why you threw it in.

I _hate_ the term "proper newbie distro"; IMO, it only serves to scare people away from what may very well be good alternatives for them, and it perpetuates the myth that Linux is some kind of OS Hell only a supergeek can use. I had zilch in the way of prior knowledge when I started using slack, but it worked well for me. I disagree about needing prior knowledge because if you have questions or need help, there are a number of places one can get assistance, as long as you're _willing_ to learn. And it's not like those who use $propernewbiedistro w/o prior knowledge are gaurenteed smooth sailing -- if they were, you wouldn't see Mandrake and RH forums overflowing with people needing help :P

I'm not knocking any of the "newbie" distros, because I believe they're good for some, and I'm not suggesting that the original poster install slack. The purpose of my first post in this thread was to relate my experience with slack -having come to it as a total linux newb, with little in the way of IT skills- after someone had shot it down as if it were IMPOSSIBLE to use. kthx and bye.

I wouldn't neccessarily characterize certain distros as newbie-only distros (not that anyone is doing that). They may be easy for new users to get accustomed to, but you'll see some long-time Linux users still using them. If you look at some of the profiles for the moderators here, you'll see them using Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, etc. along with the more hands on distros like Slackware. I'll always have a spot in my heart for RH/Fedora and I keep it on at least one of my computers at all times.

Well, I'm sorry if anyone got the wrong impression of what I posted previously.

The point I was trying to raise, is that some distro's, in certain "circles" are considered as "newbie" distro's.

Personally, I'd refute that. I feel that it's more of a case that some distro's are targeted at a different group of users/potential users.

As I understand it, mandrakes approach is "for the desktop", whilst redhat (as I understand it) has always been aimed more at the commerce sector, though that's not to say that it's offerings haven't been very successful/well received amongst home users/enthusiast's/newbies

While it's often considered that gentoo and debian are more for the power/very experienced user. Though again, lot's of people have a go at installing/config/management of them.

I understand that slackware fall's into this category.

Hence if a "newbie" ask's a question like the one in this thread, I will always suggest that if it's their first "go" at linux, then to try mandrake, fedora/redhat, Suse, etc etc. I am a great believer in the "first impressions count", and that it's important for any newcomer's to the linux world to have a straight forward and "easy ride" to start with.

If they enjoy, excellent. By trying a distro, that has good hardware detection, graphical install, etc etc they are still getting a distro that can "probably" do everything that a power distro can do, but made/produced in a way that pretty much anyone can use.

I believe someone has posted a link to linuxiso or distrowatch, so you can make your choice there.

regards

John

I'd like to stop the discussion 'which distro is for a newbie', because there are different newbies and all opinions above are true at some point. There are newbies who want things running and those who like digging and learning to make things working.

The author of the orginal question asked which distro is easiest to install so he/she is probably more in the first group. Please keep that in mind when answering.

We don't want another flamewar, so please answer the orginal question.

This thread will be monitored and may be closed/moved if needed.

well...for ease of install and the greatest variety of procompiled packages....SuSE is hard to beat
they leave very very little to want for a first timer......after you earn your geek wings...make a pot of coffee, unplug the phone, hide all the sharp objects in the house, and spend the weekend installing and configuring Gentoo.

I don't beleive there is such a thing as a "newbie" freindly distro. However, I myself have tried Mandrake (9.1/9.2/10), Redhat (8.0/9.0) and Fedora Core 1. None of them worked for me. They where more of a headache (to me) than they where worth. I also tried libranet and was disappointed. The only distro I fell in love with was SuSE. It works like a charm (for me) and has really good hardware detection/support. I recommend you look into it.

My days of fighting battles over which distro is better are long gone. All I will say is that for ME (yes ME, not necessarily for everyone else), SuSE is my choice of a distro. I highy recommend it

My vote goes to Libranet 2.7 Classic Free Edition. Read that review, you won't regret. Easy to install, very fast with low end machines (I've it running in a Compaq 166MHZ with 32 of RAM), great hardware detection, amazing package manager, nice and active forum, friendly IRC channel(say hi to me if you ever see me there as either Megaman X or spike )...

The great thing is, at the end, you've a 100% Debian Linux running at your machine. I won't lie to you, 2.7 is a bit dated, but still kicks butts. You may even consider buying 2.8.1 because it really is good . The official site for Libranet is here!

Regards!

Libranet 2.71 = (n) for only one reason. All the packages are outdated! I mean its Mozilla 1.0 and Netscape 4.7 for example! That is ancient! And yes I DID try apt-get and it re downloaded old packages such as Mozilla 1.0 !!!!

In all fairness, Libranet's current version is 2.8.1 and their site has this feature summary:


* Advanced installer
* Libranet Adminmenu
* Libranet update-safe archive
* Security updates
* 100% Debian compatible
* Kernel 2.4.21
* XFree86 4.3.0
* KDE 3.1.3, GNOME 2.2.2, XFce
* IceWM, Fluxbox, Enlightenment
* Automatic hardware setup
* Support Solutions database
* email 'up and running' support
* Friendly community


Their website lists these webbrowsers: "Mozilla 1.4, Opera 7.0, Galeon, and more", and an extended list of their features is located at:

http://www.libranet.com/features.html