It seems that every time someone asks a question, half the responses are trying to answer the question, and the other half are recommending the OP try a different distro. Now, I'm all for choice and trying different things, but if you can't explain how your favourite distro does something to solve the problem, how is it helpful to recommend the OP switch to it? This is especially bad news for newbies. I can only imagine how depressing and overwhelming it would feel to take the plunge in trying Linux (or what have you), to get a problem and ask a question, only to be told 20 times to try 20 different (and sometimes non-noob-friendly) distros. It doesn't really solve their problem, does it? Sure some distros do certain things better than others, but just saying "Try LinuXYZ" doesn't explain anything and doesn't help. Not aimed at anyone in particular, just concerned for the impression we give to the new recruits. [smile]

This is very true. This post should IMHO be made sticky.

The same aplies to programming languages. There's always people telling newbies to try *their* particular language, without actually being able to explain why that's a good idea.

And I agree, it can be extremely confusing to newbies.

Yes you are very correct. However, you must remember we are human. Humans can be very idealistic will only recomend what they like. The human nature is build off of opinions. The first impulse we have when it comes to giving advice is our opinion on what is best. It will always be that way. IMHO there is not really a newb friendly programming language and or Linux distrobution. Why, because newbies don't know anything about programming/Linux. This makes it all arcane to them. Personally before I even touched a Linux distro I learned about it first. I read books on Unix and Linux. Then I searched for a distro I liked. Turned out to be Debian. But I started out for a while with a simple install of FreeBSD just so I can learn how things operated without the gui. That is the key to linux is being able to do things without a GUI. Even with debian and or Mandrake or whatever distro it is you will find yourself in the Shell 98% of the time.

As for books for me to recommend my favorite book may have Unix in the title but it is written for Unix and Linux. Some of the commands may vary slightly in name depending on the distro but I found it about 98% accurate on all commands in both Unix and Linux.

Title is: Visual Quickstart Guide Unix Second Edition.
Authors: Deborah S. Ray, Eric J. Ray.
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