Which Linux OS to use
 

Hi.. I am primarily a Windows user, but have been wanting to use Linux for a long time now.

Could you please suggest to me which Linux OS would be best for me keeping in view the Hardware that i have.

I use a LG Xnote with Intel Core 2 Duo (2.0Ghz), 2 GB RAM, ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 Graphics card and Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adaptor.Also will my webcam work with Linux


Thanks & Regards

Hi and welcome to LQ. With those specs (2Gb RAM!) any distro should just fly. I would suggest going with either Kubuntu or Ubuntu or with Linux Mint, they are all aimed at new users and have all the graphical bells and whistles.

Thanks for the advice

Dangerous leading question

We all have our favorites. A method is to download and try several live-cd versions representing both Gnome and KDE, remembering that a live version won't present all of the possibilities of that distro.
Items you might consider: what you will use the linux installation for, how much you will be dependent on working from the graphical interface, how much experience you have with operative systems, how much energy and patience you have for linux with its different structure and terminology. Here is the standard list. http://www.livecdlist.com/

I use openSUSE 11.0 with KDE 3.5, and naturally I know that my choice is best.

fedora or ubuntu both would be ok.

"Which distro should I use" is like asking which cola you should drink. (Coke, by the way.) It's very much a matter of preference, at least until you know what you like and want in a distro. Try a bunch, see what works. If nothing else, you'll get lots of experience configuring your hardware under different distros, since it's been my experience that usually one or two devices don't work in one even if they do in another. But that's how we learn.

That said, I use OpenSUSE 11.0 primarily, and I'm auditioning Ubuntu 8.10 as a secondary install. I almost went with Mint for #2, but I decided to start with the "main event" and then try the variations later. OS11 was almost out-of-the-box for me (upgrading to the Nvidia drivers was an adventure - then I found out I just had to use an analog cable instead of the DVI). We'll see how 8.10 goes tonight.

Then there's the desktop issue. I installed Gnome, KDE 3.5, and KDE 4, all on OS11, and I'm rotating through those to see which environment I work best in.

My advice (FWIW) is to keep some free HDD space to install other distros even after you have one going, so you can try them side-by-side (and get experience tweaking your bootloader). There are numerous kettles of fish and cans of worms in the Linux world. In my experience. And, yes, I still consider myself a newbie.

HAVE FUN!!!

Why it's best

I should have mentioned that I chose openSUSE 11.0 because it has en easy, automated installation program for multimedia.

http://opensuse-community.org/Multimedia and
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

You have all 3 of them installed at once? How did you manage that? I have SuSE 10.0 and I had tried to install Gnome after I had chosen KDE as my default desktop environment but YaST said that installing Gnome too would cause compatibility conflicts so I did not install it.

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=33466

Look at my post, there is a link to compare distos. Find an easy one at first until you are ready for a more mature distro, like Ubuntu or something. There was one that tried to look almost like Windows, (Lindows) but they were sued and I think they are called Linspire or something now.

You can't do that? Wow, I have Xfce, Gnome, Kde, enlightenment, fluxbox. And I can install as many more as I want to. I can also use bits and pieces of each of them in Xfce at the same time.

Nope. :(

You're so lucky!

Well, I have, at least, a son-in-law that likes to dabble with Linux when the mood strikes him. He just has to put his Ubuntu HD back into his lap top and then I can play with his installation. :D

All good points but the question should first be; do you want to play with an OS or use it. All the try different OS's is good but most do not have the time or want to put forth the effort to try a bunch of different OS's.

Now my suggestions for using a particular distro. Ubuntu I think is a very friendly one. Fedora would be my recommendation because Red Hat comes from there and they have the largest server base. If you want to run a server great if not then fedora is a recommended single user platform too.

http://fedoraproject.org

If you want to plays with OS's then load, reload, boot from CD/DVD etc. If not then unfortunately you will most likely get a different answer from each person you ask. Pick the most mainstream one you see and just start using it.

Linux is about options.
 

Have to agree with everyone. Every Distro has its own strengths and weaknesses. I started with Slackware and am now using Gentoo and playing with others and I can say I love Linux.

I would recommend the easier to use distro's to start, the Buntu's (Ubuntu,Kubuntu, Xubuntu and such) Kubuntu seems to be more popular for people coming from windows and would be my recommendation for changeover although they are all pretty popular. All previous other suggestions would be good as well, Mostly GUI integration for all operations and have large support groups.

But for the best experience, just download a few live cd's and try them (ignore small gliches because they are usually easily fixed once installed) but find the user interface you like and get the distro you like the best.

Once you decide on you new favourite Linux flavor, come back and you can bit your tongue with us on which is the best Distro because as previously stated its pretty much user preference.

Good luck and most importantly... Welcome to linux :)

Hi,

If you want an answer to this question then do a search here on LQ forums. This has been ask numerous times. The topic comes up daily.

Hi
I would take a different tack..First time Linux users need to find out if he/she would even like Linux enough to stick with it...I think if one used the Wubi installer to test the waters about Ubuntu or secondly to explore the various live cd's..Wubi has most all features of a linux install but without
any partition to the hard drive..It works like a windows program that can easily be un-installed if desired..
Just my two cents.:twocents:
jolphil