I have recently been considering getting a verson of Linux. The only operating system I have ever used is Windows, and my computer will not have access to the internet. What beginner friendly version of Linux should I get? Thank you for your time. ------ "All animals are equal; but some animals are more equal than others" ~Animal Farm, George Orwell "You grok?" ~Stranger in a Strange Land

Get Fedora or Mandrake. Those are very good for beginners, but don''t get Mandrake 9.1 or 9.2, they are full of bugs. You should get a computer connected to the net though to download updates and such.

quote: Original post by HTML
Get Fedora or Mandrake. Those are very good for beginners, but don''t get Mandrake 9.1 or 9.2, they are full of bugs. You should get a computer connected to the net though to download updates and such.

Could I possibly download these updates from another computer on to a cd, and then update the version on my computer? Could I install the actual OS this way?



------
"All animals are equal; but some animals are more equal than others" ~Animal Farm, George Orwell
"You grok?" ~Stranger in a Strange Land

Well I''ve only tried 3 different flavors of linux: Red Hat, Slackware and Mandrake. But IMO I would say Mandrake would be the best for a linux beginner. I''m using it now and I like it a lot. Red Hat wouldn''t be bad for a beginner too. Red Hat was my first linux earlier this year and I got around it just fine. Slackware is a very good linux, but I''d recommend that only to a more experienced linux user. So far, Mandrake is my favorite. It has many install options too. You can even install mandrake on your existing windows partition if you are wanting to dual boot and do not want to re-partition. Mandrake may run a little slower than it would on it''s own partitions using the file formats more comon to linux (ext2, ext3, etc), but it will still run very good no doubt. Or, if you are wanting to make partitions, DiskDrake is very easy to use to do this, it can even make all partitions for you if you want. I''d say go with Mandrake 9.2.


-SirKnight

I don''t know what HTML is talking about but I have had NO problems with Mandrake 9.2. This version is the only mandrake I have ever used so I can''t compare to older versions. But I have not found any bugs. Everything is stable and working perfectly. The only issue was that Mandrake forgot to put the kernel source on the ISOs. But it''s no big deal, it can always be downloaded.


-SirKnight

quote: Original post by Drewish

quote: Original post by HTML
Get Fedora or Mandrake. Those are very good for beginners, but don't get Mandrake 9.1 or 9.2, they are full of bugs. You should get a computer connected to the net though to download updates and such.

Could I possibly download these updates from another computer on to a cd, and then update the version on my computer? Could I install the actual OS this way?



------
"All animals are equal; but some animals are more equal than others" ~Animal Farm, George Orwell
"You grok?" ~Stranger in a Strange Land

I wouldn't see why not. I downloaded the ISOs at my university and then took them to install on my home PC. I'd assume you can do the same with the updates as well. There is rpmdrake which will search for updates for you similar to the Windows Upadate, in that case you need to be connected to the net. But I'm quite sure this is not the only option.


-SirKnight



[edited by - SirKnight on November 28, 2003 9:34:16 PM]

[edited by - SirKnight on November 28, 2003 9:36:12 PM]

While I was browsing through Mandrake's site, I noticed the Mandrake club, which lets users of Mandrake have access to tons of applications for download. However, this service cost money (which I do not have); are there are free sources where I can download applications?

EDIT:
Any other alternatives to Mandrake? It really bothers me how they are shoving this "Users Club" down my throat.

------
"All animals are equal; but some animals are more equal than others" ~Animal Farm, George Orwell
"You grok?" ~Stranger in a Strange Land

[edited by - Drewish on November 28, 2003 9:51:30 PM]

Mandrake comes with tons of apps...no need to sign up. And yes, you should be able to just download all the rpm updates to a cd and just put them on a disc. If you are going to get mandrake, get 9.0 and not the newer ones...too buggy..

other good sites:
linuxcompatible.org (updates and some distros)
linuxiso.org (download your linux distro here)


Do you know what an iso file is? Well what you do is you download the 3 mandrake isos or any other distro and burn them to a cd. Then put the cd in, go to the bios and set your first boot device as cd-rom. Then start the computer and it will bring you to the mandrake installer. Mandrake is very easy to install too.


You will be able to find a lot of free apps besides the ones mandrake gives you. KDevelop, anjuta, blender, ect...actually, go here:

Linux Programs equivalent to window's programs --Great site too!

You will probably like linux a lot. I have used windows for a very long time and tried linux a while ago and I like it more. The only problem I see is most games won't work with it. And other windows apps, but this will change in the future as they are starting to preload linux on more computers.

[edited by - HTML on November 28, 2003 9:55:59 PM]

I''ve used (in this order): cygwin (If you care to call that a unix!), Slackware, SuSE, Debian, Gentoo, and then a Linux from Scratch (LFS).

The ones I''ve been most impressed with have been Debian and my LFS system.

Slackware was nice. I didn''t like it much.

I had an active dislike for SuSE. It has a good graphical manager, much like Control Center in Windows. (start->control)
I found many cases where the options I wanted weren''t in the gui controller though.

Debian is very impressive. If you download all the CDs for debian, there''s more apps than I even know what to do with! The nice thing about debian s how to install things: apt-get install app-foo.

I didn''t like Gentoo much. I scrapped it after I typed "emerge links" and it compiled xwindows.

LFS ... don''t do that as a new linux user. Trust me. I''ve been very impressed with it though.

All in all, I must cast my vote for Debian. (The first time I installed Debian, I downloaded the CDs at university, and installed at home).

Scout


All polynomials are funny - some to a higher degree.
Furthermore, polynomials of degree zero are constantly funny.

Debian is great, but I wouldn''t recommend it for a first timer. It isn''t particularly beginnner freindly like Mandrake and others. Debian is better for those who''ve had a bit of experience first.

The following statement is true. The previous statement is false.
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