Hi. I just bought old computer, 3.4Ghz Dual Pentium, 160GB, 2GB RAM.
I'm thinking to put LINUX on it to learn. The problem is that there is so many different LINUX versions I simply don't know which one to choose. I would appreciate if someone could help me. I've never used LINUX and don't know how to write commands or anything like that
I like the idea of free open office, gipm etc., so I thought I will give it a go!
Thank you all!

Since you are a newbie to Linux I would recommend to go for one of the distributions aimed at beginners, like Mint, PCLinuxOS, Mepis or SalineOS. You can also try Ubuntu, but keep in mind that its default user interface is even amongst Linux users controversial.

Keep it simple to start with. My choice for a new user these days is Linux Mint, Ubuntu or one of its derivatives such and Xubuntu or Lubuntu.

I'd recommend Mint because I think it is so simple and user friendly, and if along the way you find some problem, issue or even a doubt about something, you will find the solution easily (believe me if you have a problem someone else has had it before and luckly there is/are a solution to it). Lear how to use the shell, basic commands, programming, tweak default settings, search for materials to study online. When you have aquired some experience and knowledge try out other "GNU/Linux flavours" a little bit harder.

Welcome to the GNU/Linux world.

Thank you all for answers! I decided to go for Mint! I'm a bit scared with all those commands, shell etc... wish me luck!
Thanks again!

Linux really isn't that hard. It's just different. You will find that with Mint you will have GUI tools for all the common home user tasks.

It's when you want to find out what's under the hood that you'll learn how the command line is your friend.

In this situation, plugging in a Live CD (...or two...or three...) is the easiest way to just get a flavour of how things are, and has the advantage that you don't do anything irreparable to the hard disk. Most distros have a Live CD available.

There are some things that are just easier to do with the command line, but you won't necessarily need to do any of them as a new user, unless you struggle with problematic hardware. That would be unlucky, but is another reason for trying a live CD - if everything works with the live CD, chances are very strong that it will work when installed.

In any case, have a look here.

1 members found this post helpful.

Ok. Im having problems with instalation. Im getting message like: couldnt find ISO install/instalation/iso or something like that. It also says to run windows and run chkdsk /r then reboot and it should be fine, but still the same. Can someone help me please?
thank you

Hi
How are you doing the installation? Did you burn the downloaded file on a cd or did you do a USB? did you already created a partition for Mint to be installed?

Please tell us how are you doing it.

Are you booting with the CD/DVD drive set to first boot priority? Sounds like you might be trying to start the install from within windows. Did you burn the iso file you downloaded as an image? Did you do an md5 checksum?

Yeah, my fault. Tried to do it without usb/dvd. My BIOS is messed up so I can't change anything there cos I can see only half of the screen.
I download ubuntu 12 and works fine, thanks to Windows installation. Ubuntu - love it! Very, very nice looking, newbie friendly, cos I can use terminal and troubleshooting at the same time, didn't think I could do that. All in all very happy with ubuntu! Only thing I've problems now is my usb wireless belkin, can't connect, but I will try after I get some sleep!
Thank you all for answers! Take care!
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Ok. Looks like my USB Wireless Adapter Belkin F7D4101 v1 is not working on Ubuntu. I've cd with drivers inside but I think those drivers are only for Windows. When I'm trying to click setup.exe from cd thats the message I'm getting:

"Archive: /media/F7D4101v1/setup.exe
Zip file size: 4911104 bytes, number of entries: 29824

[/media/F7D4101v1/setup.exe]:
Zipfile is disk 34294 of a multi-disk archive, and this is not the disk on
which the central zipfile directory begins (disk 3569)."

I would choose one of the more popular distros that have lots of different Desktop environments available (KDE/GNOME/XFE, etc), so that you can try them out and find which one suits you best.

It would be good to find a distro with multiple window managers (my favorite is FLUXBOX, but there are others), in case the DE's are too bloated for your taste. Be warned if you go down the window manager route, you will need to edit text files, and you will probably need to go a little deeper into your system, which while not difficult, will consume considerably more of your time than if you go for a KDE or GNOME DE.

So, post a new thread in the wireless section? Title "How to make working USB.. on Ubuntu xyz".
I think you can forget your exe etc. from windows.
Except you want to extract files for ndiswrapper (programm for using driver files under linux).
An "exe" can run under Linux with the programm "WINE" (not direct like run abcd.exe), which is "WINdows Emulation" You can find it under Ubuntu.
Take time. Read a lot. Ask. Take a cup of coffee in between. You will get it.

There is no reason to worry about a command line in Linux any more than you would in Windows. How many Windows users use a command line for anything? Almost none. You don't need a command line in Linux, either, if you're running a user-friendly distribution like Ubuntu or Mint, everything you could possible need will be in their respective software repositories. You should rarely have to drop back to the terminal for anything. I'd recommend Mint or Ubuntu simply because they are so easy to use out-of-the-box, so to speak, although you might need to do a little more tweaking in Ubuntu to get multimedia working seamlessly, since things like mp3 or dvd encryption are not enabled by default for legal reasons. There are a lot of solid distributions around that are well-documented and supported, (Ubuntu being one of the best), and a lot of marginal distributions that are intended for "enthusiasts" and experts, that I recommend you avoid, unless you want to spend a lot of time figuring out how to make things work.

I started using Linux with Peppermint and never regretted it. SalineOS is another good choice. These are smaller operations, very stable and fast, with quiet but helpful forums. By the time you're comfortable using either one of them, you will have learned enough about Linux to be adventurous.

I use Linux Mint distros, so I'm not putting the bigger guys down. Reading their forums is certainly very useful. Don't worry about commands and that until you have to. If you want to jump straight into the big ones, like Ubuntu or Mint, that's good, too.

I also think Zorin or Netrunner or Wattos offer reasonable places for someone starting out.

Think about what's manageable for you. I had at the time I started learning a similar computer to yours, if that helps. Go slowly, go carefully, and you will be fine. The worst that might happen is you have to reinstall, but your roof won't fly off. Good luck.