What Linux version to get? Literature?
 

Hi I'm very new to computers, but I really want to learn. I'm so sick on Windows.. I get spammed, booted all the time and then all the errors blue screens that accompany it have turned me sour.

I'd like to get a good Linux OS and some literature to help me learn all the aspects for using it.

Just looking for suggestions, places to purchase the software and any literature I can study to help me figure out the OS.


Thanks very much for any help it's much appreciated~~

Latex

Welcome to LQ! Let me be the first to suggest Slackware. You can download the iso images for free from www.slackware.com/getslack and then burn you a CD and get with it. You can get Slackware 9.1 - the first 2 images - file names are slackware-9.1-install-d1.iso and slackware-9.1-install-d2.iso. Use Nero or similar to burn an image to CD. Before doing anything else, print the file Slackware-HOWTO from the first CD and read it.

You can also choose the reviews button above and read about others. Now, watch the sparks begin! There are many places to read about Linux, and you can search these forums. You'll be given many links by other posters.

Hi, and welcome to LQ.

Well, really, any distro will do, the question
is what your emphasis is on ... personally I
love Slackware, I can live with debian, and
all the others are ....
:}

Just hang out here, read a few posts with
a similar topic, read http://www.distrowatch.org/
and get yourself an opinion that's grounded
on your own ideas .... as for the "similar context",
try the search-button at the top
...



Cheers,
Tink

http://wwwacs.gantep.edu.tr/linux/rute/

The best reading for all newbies. No matter what distro you decide on.

I found a really good book to be Linux for Dummies (Not that you are...).
It comes with a version of RedHat Linux (9 I think), and is really good for beginners.

I hope this helps
From Ian

Sweet! Thanks for the replies.. this is more help than I've had from a Windows forum in the four years I've asked questions.

I'm going the Slackware way first and see if I can find support for all my hardware!

Thanks very much~

Latex

http://www.distrowatch.com/

this has a listing of all the great distros ("packages" of linux) and some info about them

from experience, the first thing to do is to learn about harddrive partitioning, files systems, and what all those mean and do (i learned from the Partition Magic program's tutorial)

another place i learned a lot was from the redhat's website: www.redhat.com; find some of their documentation and read it, all of it; slackware has a good book too at www.slackware.com

finally, you should learn what all the different parts inside your computer are and who manufactured them (specifically find out about your video card, sound card, and monitor horizontal and vertical sync rates; perhaps find out motherboard manufacture too)

as for what distro to recommend for you depends on you yourself; like someone once said, "if you've always depended on the operating system to do your work, try something like mandrake linux; if you discovered regedit in the very early using of linux and perhaps learned to modify it, then go for slackware or debian"

of course you don't have to be that extreme, but from experience again, starting out with something a bit more challenging like slackware will be a lot more rewarding in the end (mainly in the ability to solve problems by yourself)