So many versions of Linux, what do I do!!!

[Ashley Weed]

I'm at that point, where I just can't handle Windows/Microsoft all the time when working on IST. I started to browse around at different versions of Linux until I found out there are thousands of them! How do I choose? I do a little programming in C++, but its not necessary that I do it in Linux. I would like to be able to do web editing in my Linux OS eventually. What about messengers and web browsers? Will I be able to switch over Trillian, Firefox, and my webcam? Looking for a good version to start with at this point in time, all suggestions will be appreciated!!!! Thanks!

[Rafi A]

well, this may not be exactly what you're looking for, but there is a version called Knoppix that boots from a CD, if you want something that's not permanent and will help you get the feel for it a little bit. By the way, I know very little about linux, but knoppix is pretty cool. As for firefox, there is a version you can download for linux. Also, as for Instant messenging, there is a program similar to Trillian called gAIM. Good luck
Forgot to add: Knoppix is based on Debian, which is one of the major distros, some other major ones are Red Hat, Mandrake and SuSe.
You can search for the right one here

[CmptrGk]

one of the people on another forum that i go to has a very good guide to getting started with linux.

http://www.ramsinks.com/linux.aspx

[sanddrag]

I installed Mandrake Corporate Server Linux once and got it to serve html documents and it worked fairly nicely as a usable workstation OS. It took forever to install because there are so many options with the setup. A lot of the terminology used during the install was very unfamiliar to me. Anyway, it had a nice GUI but you need a bunch of software of course, in order for it to really do much. And I don't really know anything about Linux, so it was difficult at first.

[evulish]

Linux on laptops can be a problem sometimes, as I know that's what you have. Especially new laptops. The best solution is usually googling for your laptop model followed by 'linux'. Usually someone will have tried this beforehand and maybe even posted what worked/didn't work online somewhere.

Many browsers are available in Linux.. including Opera, Netscape, Mozilla, and especially Firefox (the most popular). Gaim is also the most popular IM client for Linux. It's a multi-client IM, so it's pretty much like Trillian. In fact, the Gaim team and Trillian share their work occasionally (I remember Trillian figure out how to get around Yahoo!'s block and let Gaim in on the secret) Gaim is also the base for many other IM clients (including Adium for OS X). Webcams can be a bit tricky to get working. It really depends on the camera itself.. because most companies don't release Linux drivers for things like that and the Linux community depends on people to reverse-engineer the technology to release drivers. Many webcams use the same chipset so one driver will work for dozens of different cams.

There are some great dev IDE's for all different sorts of stuff. It's common to just use text editors for development of all sorts but there are also bigger things like Bluefish and KDevelop that are both popular. There are thousands of Linux programs at www.freshmeat.net and www.sourceforge.net .

Knoppix is a great distro to try out but not the best to totally base Linux on. Mandrake, Fedora, SuSE and Debian are all good distros (my favorites being Debian and SuSE).

A few good resources are:
www.distrowatch.com - latest updates on all the distros and a few reviews.
www.justlinux.com - great linux forum I used to populate (biggest one I know of)
www.linuxquestions.org - Another linux forum

[MikeDubreuil]

I am an officer in the Linux User Group at my school. I would reccomend you stay with one of the major distributions first. Particularly one that is suited for new users such as Mandrake or SuSE. Once you get comfortable in Linux than you can try other distributions.

[Aignam]

In my experience, Red Hat's Fedora is the best choice for your first time with Linux.

More information at http://fedora.redhat.com/.

[gobeavs]

I started out with Mandrake. Mandrake 10 is very good for newbies. The install is easy, and it comes with a lot of the software needed to get going. If the machine you are putting it on is of decent speed (>1ghz, 128mb RAM) it should run it fine. Most of the distros that are user-friendly are pretty hefty on they system (Red Hat, Mandrake, etc). The one problem I found with Mandrake was I didn't find any dependency/software solver. Basically, most of the software you download needs another library that you have to download. That library may need another piece of software...etc. With Mandrake you have to get all that and install it manually, with Debian and Slackware a lot of it is done for you. This only pertains if you need to install additional software though...

Now that I've gone way overboard, I'll just say...go with Mandrake. But remember...Linux is not Windows. It will take time to get used to it. I found installing things to be the hardest to get used to since you can't just click on some setup app...its all text-based
That is...unless you use a package manager. But that is another post .

[NoodleKnight]

Originally Posted by Aignam

In my experience, Red Hat's Fedora is the best choice for your first time with Linux.

More information at http://fedora.redhat.com/.

I second that, I've used Fedore Core 2 a few times and like it very much. My server uses RedHat 9.0 which also was a great O/S, but its old software now. RedHat 9 and FC 1&2 come with a gui-install mode; also it comes with multiple setup-options; like workstation, server, home, laptop, etc...
All the other distro's are just as great too; I know a friend that uses Mandrake 9 for his server, I've used knoppix as a boot-from-CD linux (great if you wanna use linux at school or similar places). I always thought that SuSE had some $$$ involved, but I guess there's a way to download it.

From my experience RedHat has been the best for me; as for programs like a browser and chat client, most of it comes with the whole Redhat package. For other software, usually it'll take a bit of work to find a program, but 9 times out of 10 its better than the microsoft counter-part. Sure linux is a tad harder to use, but its worth it. If you still need windows you can always install a windows emulator, or wine (which oddly stands for: Wine Is Not an Emulator). If you have an extra hard drive partition, or just a bunch of free space, you can install redhat onto the same drive that has windows, making it a dual boot system. It uses the GRUB Boot loader, which prompts you which O/S you want to use during startup.

[Raven_Writer]

I've used Knoppix (versions 3.5x), SUSE 9.1 Personal, & I'm going to install Mandrake 10 as soon as I can reformat my computer.

I really love Knoppix, because if you do like it, you can just install it onto the HD, and dual boot (there's more info at http://www.knoppix.org I believe the website is).

SUSE 9.1 Personal is pretty good, I like it atleast. What I like about it is that it's actually fast on my 500 MHz Intel Celeron 2 year old HP computer w/ 64 MB of available RAM (oh...my...gosh...I don't know I remember that all).

I'd say go with Knoppix, but SUSE also has a LiveCD version if you want to try that out. It's got a pretty good speed, and it comes w/ a graphical boot loader & also comes with GRUB.

[evulish]

Originally Posted by Raven_Writer

SUSE 9.1 Personal is pretty good, I like it atleast. What I like about it is that it's actually fast on my 500 MHz Intel Celeron 2 year old HP computer w/ 64 MB of available RAM (oh...my...gosh...I don't know I remember that all).

You might want to give Debian a shot. It can be one of the quickest distros out there. (I moved from SuSE to Debian years and years ago).

Wait.. a 500mhz Celeron should be a bit more than 2 years old..

[gobeavs]

Originally Posted by evulish

You might want to give Debian a shot. It can be one of the quickest distros out there. (I moved from SuSE to Debian years and years ago).

I tried Debian to see if Apt-Get was any good...I got past the bad installer by using one of the test versions (sarge), but it still didn't recognize my network connection (I tried 2 different ones, on board and add in). So now I'm a slacker .

[Ashley Weed]

I've been playing around with SuSe 9.1 from the Live CD in my free time. It easily boots, and runs. My wireless connection was easily found, and I enjoyed that a multi-server chat client was already installed. I had a problem with the display, but I have found a forum for my computer so all should be well with that.

My next project coming up: deciding how to divvy up this hard drive of mine.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

[evulish]

Originally Posted by gobeavs

I tried Debian to see if Apt-Get was any good...I got past the bad installer by using one of the test versions (sarge), but it still didn't recognize my network connection (I tried 2 different ones, on board and add in). So now I'm a slacker .

Yeah, but just because it didn't autodetect your NIC doesn't mean it won't work. Network connections are generally easy to set up.

[gobeavs]

Originally Posted by evulish

Yeah, but just because it didn't autodetect your NIC doesn't mean it won't work. Network connections are generally easy to set up.

Worked like a charm in Slackware . Plus the error message that it couldn't find the network kept appearing over and over during the install and really made it difficult. I'm doing fine with Slack now, and Swaret does what I need it to do, so I'm fine. I may try Debian again in the future though.