Phoenix Network Forums

For those who haven't tried linux or haven't seen it in a while, it is not all command line. It comes with several GUI flavors, and the average user could do almost* everything without ever opening a terminal.
I personally use Ubuntu(dapper drake), and Fedora core 5. The only reason i could see for using windows is gaming, and if that's the case dual boot.

Go for it, don't base your opinion on what a friends says! (That's what I do all the time)
Anyway you should try a livecd or dualboot, then you'd be able to see what's really the best OS.

Livecd: Slax, Suse, DSL
Dualboot: Fedora, Debian

Don't forget the ubuntu live cd. I usually recommend ubuntu to people who have never tried linux before. Mainly because of synaptic and automatix. Automatix makes it easy to configure java and flash plugins.

floyd wrote:Don't forget the ubuntu live cd. I usually recommend ubuntu to people who have never tried linux before. Mainly because of synaptic and automatix. Automatix makes it easy to configure java and flash plugins.

Agree on the Automatix that is a great feature, i used to use Gentoo, then switched for SUSE. But after trying Ubuntu I think I have found my distro. At first i was going for trying to use Command Line as much as possible but after you know how to do it and can use it if you have to then a distro that is GUI based is nice because i can still play in the prompt and if i feel like being lazy then i can just use synaptic to download and install whatever i want, and i want to stress WHATEVER here i have yet to want something i cant find.

LokNess

i use gentoo

it has the best documentation and support groups around, plus you learn so much about linux!

for me, its just a step before lfs (linux from scratch)

From personal experience, I would not try Gentoo as a first linux install. Although it does have great support and a great community, it really throws you into linux. I guess my bad experience was about 2-3 years ago when Gentoo first came out and had minimal support...and consequently I fried my computer. Anyways...I would recommend Ubuntu as a beginner's linux distribution and then move on to something that allows for more freedom...maybe ArchLinux (better package managerment!)

jjrohal wrote:I guess my bad experience was about 2-3 years ago when Gentoo first came out and had minimal support...and consequently I fried my computer.

Wow, that's got to be quite a bug!

That's pretty good advice, unless your a sucker for punishment, don't start with gentoo.

I use windows as my main environment, but I have it on a dual-boot with Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is really an awsome distro of linux (based on debian I believe) and it's really helpful to know some linux if you run and/or work with any UNIX based servers. It also has a nice, slick "techy" feel each time I use it. At the moment my Ubuntu is not working (go figure) but I should probably fix it up and start playing around with it some more, I really recommend it for anyone to checkout it. It's a great distro for those just learning how to use linux and ect.

There's a massive userbase of help over at http://ubuntu,org for those interested.

Its really huge discussion about Linux-Windows topic, well for one thing use OS what you need, use OS wich is best for your purpose, if you need free OS for some server or router use Linux(Slackware or Debian), if u want good Desktop OS use Windows, and if u want to see how Linux can fit your needs on Desktop field try Ubuntu, I think Ubuntu is really great distro for Desktop users and ppl who want to try Linux like Desktop OS.

Ubuntu has some really nice help for users who meet linux for first time on:
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Dapper

I'm a Windows user because I am a gamer. My experience of Windows has been quite a funny one. The usual hair tearing was happening on every Windows OS, until I came across Windows XP. Since installing Windows XP, the only problem I have had is on the hardware side of things, and I only ever had trouble with a dodgy D-Link USB modem I was using at the time. Since ditching the modem I have had no problems at all, bar a few games that tend to lock the system up when you close them ( due to poor programming from the development team ) I haven't had much experience with Linux based OS's, and the GUI doesn't much appeal to me, because it looks pretty much the same as the Windows GUI with a few things named different. I'm sure there's a few nice OS's out there that are Linux based, but I have no need to install one because everything I use is available to me on Windows. If I have to restart once or twice in a day, that's no big deal, because my system only take 1 minute at the most to become fully functional when I press the reset switch or hit the restart button