Phoenix Network Forums

I'm thinking about buying a notebook and installing Linux on it.. Which distro would be best for somewhat of a newbie linux user (well..not quite newbie..)..

Also.. Don't just throw in a name.. If I decide what to install, I'll prolly need some pointers after that too..with bugs..install issues and so on..

hmmm...

i would suggest, winlinux, installs on top of windows, you can unisntall it the control panel just liek any other windows application, no partitions

quite usefull if you dont get the hang of using linux, you can easily ininstall it less the hassles.

last time i checked doesnt work with xp.. around 150 MB more or less download (i think)

another distro i would suggest is ubuntu, free shipping, most hardware products are compatible, easy too install, (although i had problem uninstalling it, i forgot why,i thnk it was grub)

another woudl be SUSE.

basically, it depends on your needs/preferences. you can check out http://distrowatch.com/ and also, iv posted somewhere here a guide/test on choosing what distro suits you.

after winlinux
next step i would say a live CD of ubuntu

Energy wrote:I'm thinking about buying a notebook and installing Linux on it.. Which distro would be best for somewhat of a newbie linux user (well..not quite newbie..)..

Also.. Don't just throw in a name.. If I decide what to install, I'll prolly need some pointers after that too..with bugs..install issues and so on..

i think you can start with SuSE Linux or Ubuntu.
Try using the "search" button on the forums here and youll find a lot of info about "which distro would be best..."

yes ubuntu versions are one of the easiest to install and to work with..

Afeter Unbuntu you can go to Slackware :-)

I don't recommend SUSE for a notebook. SUSE lacked support for my graphics card and support for my network card only came through configuration with ndiswrapper, which although it comes as part of the YaST installer, was a bit of a pain to use.

ubuntu is a great new linux installation if you go to their website they wille vens end you out some cd's. And as you get more experience you can slowly work your way up.

thebeast wrote:Afeter Unbuntu you can go to Slackware

yeah

I have used both RedHat and debian for a while. I found RedHat really easy to install . The main problem I found with it was the install was generally bloated. That is why I went to Debian. Debian worked wonderfully until I had a power outage while using it... it basically hosed the system I reinstalled and again it did the same. Not sure why because I never had that problem with redhat. So I am back to using RedHat. It was my first linux install and my favorite.

my first and only suggestion to you is -- Ubuntu

later on, if you want to get more "complicated" - debian

all these people telling you to take it easy. ease yourself in, and all that junk... FORGET IT! you should just dive right in with Gentoo!

with Gentoo, there's plenty of users willing to help you, if you're willing to look around, but at the same time it's not so easy that it hides anything from you. Gentoo has a learning curve. ok, it has a learning CLIFF for you to FREAKING SCALE, but once you have gotten a stable gentoo build you can do anything with linux, and with any distro. it's that awesome.

SlicerSV wrote:all these people telling you to take it easy. ease yourself in, and all that junk... FORGET IT! you should just dive right in with Gentoo!

with Gentoo, there's plenty of users willing to help you, if you're willing to look around, but at the same time it's not so easy that it hides anything from you. Gentoo has a learning curve. ok, it has a learning CLIFF for you to FREAKING SCALE, but once you have gotten a stable gentoo build you can do anything with linux, and with any distro. it's that awesome.

You gotta' be kidding me...

The best way for learning *nix is probably by installing a bitching bad-ass killer dist. - and learning by crying. But there's no chance in hell that the slightest amount of normal people would have any reason to do that. It's a stupid idea to put it simple.

Take an easy, user-friendly dist. to start with, I would recommend Ubuntu/Kubuntu, that too has a large helping community!

Hmm. I have to say that I am quite partial to Ubuntu - it's super easy to use (you can have as much terminal/shell lovin' you want with all that nice GUI) and I would say that it's just as "powerful" as a distro like Slackware. Plus it supports tons of hardware (it doesn't have WPA support yet so for your wifi you'll have to use WEP-only)...

eMKy wrote:

thebeast wrote:Afeter Unbuntu you can go to Slackware

yeah

boooh.. ! Long live homo sapiens