Phoenix Network Forums

Right now i'm using Windows XP Pro edition and occasionally Knopixx Live-CD when im in the mood to learn more things. I am liking Linux more and more, and now that i mention it, i had Mandrake 7 installed on the system a few years ago. (other computer) . Now that I actually know what Linux and Unix are, what would be the best one to start learning again on, and which has the easiest install (not a live-cd please). Also, this would be for dual-booting them.

Also -- What would be your arguments on why Linux > Windows besides the stability issue. Why is Linux > Windows for programming? I just want to hear your side of it to help me out with learning. Thanks a lot

Feren6.

Mandriva (previously known as Mandrake), get the latest ISOs Limited Edition 2006. Others are good too but if you want to learn more things about Linux then I'd recommend Mandriva, Mandrake control centre gives u full control over the GUI (more like windows control panel) and u will feel comfortable if u are used to windows.

Good luck with Linux.

Mandriva's nice to learn, and Debian's good for when you've learned a bit and want to increase your Linux knowledge further in terms of package management.

I would definitely recommend a Mandriva distrobution to start off with. You can learn a lot about how the system works from an end-user perspective, and it is really easy to get started and working on pretty much anything that you can do on a windows computer.

Afterwards, I would personally recommend Gentoo, but this is only if you are into compiled software. compiled programs are optimized for your computer, but you do have to wait through all of the compilation for your machine to be up and running. Also, gentoo will teach you alot about how the system functions from an administrative endpoint, and about which files affect what portions of the system. Also, gentoo's dependency management is one of the best that I have found in the Linux distrobutions.

I am in the same boat as Feren6, i have Windows XP Home Edition, and i have Ubuntu, but i will get Mandriva.

I partitioned my drive and installed boot magic and everything, it was working fine, but then when installing Ubuntu, i installed GRUB instead of LILO, and Windows wouldn't boot up again, it got halfway there, then it was just a blue screen that said the computer had been shut down.

I will get Mandriva and try that.

Linux > windows from the programming view, you have access to the source code, so you have a chance to analyze it, modify it to fit your needs, and share it to the community, or you may find the bug, fix it, and tell the community "Hey I found a nasty bug here, and have it fixed, here's the code", then you gain more programming knowledge with linux.
But with window$, you can't play this game, because EULA doesn't give you those right, you can't dissassembly it, modify it, share it with your fellas.

Programming:

-entire system devoted to compiling projects (Make)
-gcc is easily obtainable and _usable_ because Linux makes the command line interface so much easier to use than Windows does
-gcc is also obviously easily masked from the programmer with a good IDE
-several free IDEs to choose from
-open source examples always available, although I suppose you can get the source for Linux stuff whether or not you are actually using Linux


User:

-Some FOSS alternatives are just better than their proprietary alternatives: case in point, gaim vs. AIM. And although gaim is available on win32 and *nix, gaim simply runs better on Linux b/c gtk is better supported on Linux (where gaim is built on top of the Gimp Toolkit (GTK)).
-themeability - if themes float your boat, *Nix is the most customizable environment imaginable. Not only are several applications themeable in their own right, but the window manager, desktop environment, widget toolkit, and login manager are also all themeable.
-security: properly configured (generally meaning running as few open services as possible), *Nix is extremely secure and robust. Permissions mean that if something that a user is doing is compromised, it can be extremely hard to do all that much damage, so that if you don't run as root, nothing can happen to your entire system
-as a note, this means _keep root secure_, which also goes back to running as few services as possible, unless you need them
-for IRC, I am going to have to insert my own bias here: I don't really like mIRC, and for some strange reason love IRSSI. this goes back to choice, the freedom to choose from several alternatives and select the one that really fits your needs or your mindset
-Cron - scheduled tasks are much, much easier on linux
-System Logging - security again

Many programmers use the Cygwin enviroment (which is basicly the same than *nix) and the msvc++ command line compiler for windows programming. While there is no advantage to program under Windows, there is no real disadvantage, either (besides some security and stability ones), if your goal is simple Unix applications or even Windows ones .

I'd reccommend SuSE if you haven't tried it, it's part of the friendliest 5 (Mandriva/Mandrake, FC, RH, Ubuntu, SuSE). I've had some trouble with finding packages/support for my 64bit system but this is expected. As far as i586 is concerned though, I haven't run into a problem yet.

You should check out http://distrowatch.com/ as well. There is a healthy chunk of info there about every distro under the sun. Lots of reviews and breakdowns by version too.

I would recomend ubuntu if you haven't experienced linux before. It's vear easy to learn and understand how the linux works.

dont start with debian unless u like self-torture

As stated earlier, Ubuntu is a very nice introduction to the *nix world. Most, if not all of your hardware will be detected and installed properly from the very beginning. You will also boot to a graphical user interphace immediately so that you don't have to fret over learning all of the commands immediately!

im am kind of in the same position, i tried knoppix a few times now im starting to get attached to linux, but its still a bit to complicated for me, just the other day i downloaded ubuntu, havent yet installed it because im not at home til the weekend, but i might go and download a few of the other linux versions a few of you recommend and give them all a whirl and find the one im most comfortable with. thanks all

I while ago I was really accustomed to Redhat, but then my computer broke down (totally unrelated), and I don't want to risk the other computer, since it has actual value. Anyway I now got a new computer, and I was wondering if you'd still recommend using Redhat (if that even exists now)

I would suggest using Damn Small Linux (damnsmalllinux.org) it's, at first, a live CD but there is an easy installation script that will put it on your hard drive. It's based on Debian and quite easy to use. Also, Red Hat is a good choice.