Linux beginner

The summer vacations are coming and I think it will be the appropriate time to learn some new programs and OS that could come handy sometime.

Now the thing is that I once tried installing Gentoo on an old P3 that I have laying about. Took me 2 days to read and understand the installation document of it. Yet I didnt manage to get it to boot. Was mad as hell!

Since I have no experience in Linux or the whole nine yard I was wondering what Linux distro I should begin with to get a hang of the basic console commands of linux. Gentoo didnt seem very basic so I thought I should do some asking .


Thanks in advance.

Well, in my quest for learning Linux I tried:
1) Redhat:
At the time (1998) Redhat was the big buzzword. I got an introduction to Linux administration book with a copy of Redhat 7.3 on it and away I went. Now, Redhat is a really, really shitty distro; reason being that they don't follow conventional standards when configuring or scripting anything. Though I leant that when I moved on to...

2) Mandrake:
After I got fed-up with Redhats lack of standards and crappy package management system I tried Mandrake. It detected hardware nicely, had some nice looking GUI apps and configured everything pretty much on its own. Mandrake is good for the learner but is underpowered or hard to configure manually. I had the last straw with it then I tried to compile my own kernel for new hardware support and the system decided not to boot; that lead me off too...

3) Slackware:
I have to admit, I only tried Slackware for about 1 week. I installed it, got it kinda up and running; didn't have my sound card, video card or scroll mouse configured properly and was going to try to cope and fix it when they released a new version. I got pissed and left it for...

4) Debian:
Debian is, by far, the best distro for anyone wanting a stable system with an amazing package manager. I only have one complaint: it takes them too bloody long to get new package versions out the door. I ran into this problem when trying to get the newest versions of KDE, GNOME and XFCE; took a while to be pushed out the door. Now I run...

5) Gentoo:
Awesome support, almost perfect package management and the packages are as up-to-date as you can get. I just hate the bloody compiling.


Lastly, if you're going to be running a server I would suggest dropping Linux in favour of Free/OpenBSD. You get a faster, more secure server out of your hardware.

If you need any help with your soon-to-be-expected Linux problems feel free to post here and in the Gentoo forums

I had problems getting gentoo to boot. Apart from that I liked the way Gentoo worked and looked like. The thing that pissed me off the most while setting gentoo up was I could not copy paste my error messages to a memory stick or floppy disc so I would show them in the gentoo forums. I might try mandrake now. I have in downloaded, it wouldnt harm trying to get it up and working.

Personally I like slackware a lot, It's the most clean linux distro and the most unix like in structure, tho it's still linux , but it's mean, lean and fast.

Maybe Mandrake is nice to start with as newbie, I started with red hat 6 myself, linux has come a long way since then

You could try one of the free Unixes, like Solaris (get 10) or *BSD, they are a bit more for the advanced, but I feel they are also a bit more robust, Especially FreeBSD can make quite a nice desktop OS (excellent performance, specially when doing several things at once) and has quite good driver support, also installing most drivers and application is a breeze on *BSD with the ports/package collections.

But most Unixes and Unix like OS's are the same, they have their annoying differences, but say you get to know Linux distro 'A' quite a bit, you know 95% of the basics of all the other linuxes and 75% of the basics of the unixes. No matter what you pick it's a good investment in knowledge

I praise Linux users!

the best linux would probably be some "live-cd". its a linux that boots directly from CD and it uses your ram to store data.
this would be the best choice for the first time because:
-you dont have to install it or mess with booting
-you can't ruin anything because it doesn't have direct access to the hdd unless you allow it to
-it has all the normal linux functions, enough basic software and i believe it would be an exelent start

however you should know...live linux is a bit diffrent from other linux distros. i know alot of people that tried it and came back with "linux sucks" posts on some support forums.

Knoppix live linux

Suse 10.0 Is very nice, it is very user friendly with a graphical install, its defualt GUI is KDE, which resembles windows Explorer in a way so its easy for people new to linux, also SUSE detects preaty much everything out there, and is very stable. SUSE also comes with all the software you would ever need on the Install disk, This means you dont have to download things to get what you want.

I have also tryed Fedora core 5 (Red hat linuxes free version). I had some problems with the Media plug-ins for fire fox as they where not compatable with a 64-bit OS, which I was using at the time. Howevery it installed a little easyer then Suse did.

I would Recomend SUSE 10.0, not SUSE 10.1 because its a bit glitchy. Suse is great for new users and Pros alike, and I'm sure you will have a great time learning to use the Linux OS.






I also agree with this, you can learn to use linux with a Live cd just fine, but you will not get linux's Full potential, however you should start with a Live-cd and work your way up to a full install.