Hi guys, after following the guides on creating unattended and Multi-boot DVD's (which are very excellent) I would like to try out linux. see, I'm a newbie when it comes to linux. so where could I start? I had this ebook (Linux in 24hrs) but it was based on a distribution which was supposed to be included with the book.

I would like to know which linux distribution is the best (or good) to start with and if possible, some reference.

Thanks alot!

4 nooobs get SuSE (prefer OpenSuSE, coz its free 2 dwnld)
its the best user friendly Disto,which is up2date and has almost all latest h/w support

Or u could try ubuntu ,coz they will ship the cd 2 ur home :-D

I wouldn't call the user a "noob"...

The best userfriendly would be Ubuntu or Mandriva

Thanks a lot!

Honestly i don't know much about Linux but I always hear that Kubuntu has a better graphical user interface that Ubuntu. Oh and it's free too, so fell free to check both sites and choose your destiny

http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://www.kubuntu.org/

Try all the major distos till you find one you are happy using. I am currently using Fedora as a primary OS. I also have copies of Solaris, Debian, Gentoo, Suse, Slackware.

The flavor you use depends on what you feel happy using. You will find that after you have installed a few different distros and installed packages you will find your own niche where you are happy it sit.

Note: Enlightenment Desktop manager is a must! Eye candy to the max

fermly disagree on all posts -
even though its true that many big distro's are realy well equiped with features and stuf, - they're also verry bloated...

just because of that id recoment a small linux distrib instead, preferably something that is minimalistc and has a good and helpfull comunity...
it may be that youl have less choices or less avail packages - but you get more help for it in return...

Kubuntu for starters
If you want small go for The Puppy!

If you want small, Which for a laptop or older computer? get Mepis lite,,,,, it's da bomb. Ubuntu is crap and everyone thinks it's the best. Dream linux is new and it is already better than Ubuntu right out the box!
try for yourself.
Trailboss

Hello all
I think hbinded is very confused now

he might not be. He can get all the Ubuntu cd's he wants for free and delivered to his door. I tried all Ubuntu updates and the 6.10 version and Kubuntu and Xubuntu and it's same-o same-o,,, junk! Everyone is on the Ubuntu bandwagon and so was I, until I figured this could no way be the best linux at the time, so I tested 40 other linux versions. Mepis lite was my first linux OS that I can say was great and worked in everyway, It is a older release and it still kicks butt!!! They are about to update it., as I suggested it, in their forum. If it's a OS you need for a laptop or a older computer Mepis lite is way the best. Now if you want something newer and different and looks great, but can find all your hardware and run smoothly, you want Dreamlinux, I'm on it right now. Ubuntu had to get help from the makers of Mepis, so why take Ubuntu, they can't even compile a OS and they got money backing them, Mepis just have a super great programmer which is the owner. I got maybe 15 cd's still of Ubuntu/Kubuntu and I won't hand them to friends, anymore as i'll recommend Dreamlinux to anyone looking for a cutting edge, top of the line linux OS.
hbinded will just have to do as I did, try a few different versions and choose what he or she thinks is the best for them, and end the end. Mepis lite for laptops or older computers and Dreamlinux for everything else, will be the front runners. I made a new topic On Dream linux and i would like to hear feedback if anyone tests Dreamlinux.
Trailboss

you make me curious to try Dreamlinux...Will feed you back

Slackware, bloated ?

But anyway, you can install what you want on today's distros. What you want. Nothing is forced so if the install is bloated it is the user's fault.

ubuntu isnt bad and kubuntu is basicly the same as ubuntu except it uses ked instead of gnome

admitedly ubuntu 6.06 is alot slower than 5.04

mepis uses kde and i want gnome without having to download a copy

I'd use Ubuntu if I were you; it's what hooked me on Linux.

Also, I've had experience with Fedora Core. It is a solid OS, very similar in many ways to Ubuntu, but in the end it is Red Hat-based. Ubuntu is Debian-based which gives it a huge edge, especially when it comes to installing software.

And this isn't Linux, but you might want to try PC-BSD. It's package management system is just like Windows; you download a *.pbi file and go through an installation wizard. It also has the legendary FreeBSD ports system, which is excellent, but a bit harder to use.

to start off in the linux world i would start off with a livecd (runs straight from cd) so you get a taster of what its like if u like it >? install it currently im dual booting ubuntu and windows

i recommend Ubuntu to anyone...its a very reliable OS. i'm currently actually updating ubuntu from 5.10 to 6.06, and then if it lets me, i'll be going up to 6.10 so i can install Satanic Edition [as a joke, i'm no satanist]....

it takes a considerable amount of time to learn, but its well worth it.

i like opensuse
its nice
but the installing part can be an hard with all of the settings up there is
to like Fedora ...

but i like fedora / opensuse both are nice and easy to use

( opensuse i found picked up most of my hardware with easy )

I have given DreamLinux a try and I will tell you, its very nice looking. And it's fast. It's very easy t o setup and get running. I had my wifi card working in about 10 minutes. It uses NDIS Wrapper though.

Hm been doing linux for years I have used most of them. If you want something that just works for most desktop things including playing dvd's and such right out of the box so to speak try pclinuxos.

Ubunto/kubunto hardware detection is not as good.

Fedora well it's fedora.

And suse although I like it has been doing strange things lately. Not to mention that yast thier admin tool if you really need to admin the box is a nightmare. It will let you get the basics done but locks down the config of your system so bad that if you really try to admin it yourself never open yast again or it will mess up all your hard work.

The last relaease of mandriva was supposed to have been pretty incredible. It's very user friendly. More so that the ubunto based distros.


PClinuxos is based off of mandriva from about 3 or 4 years ago. He split it and did his own thing. He adds the best tools from whatever distro works well for each task. And packages things by default like dvd playback that you have to hunt for to find a solution with the others.

I didn't read what the guy said about slackware above but it is not named properly. If you try slackware be ready to do everything by hand when you want things to work.