Newbie Linux

GUI

Lads,
wanna dedicate a 20gig hard disk (not partition)
to installing a distro of linux..

anyone recommend best linux distro for beginners..

only now i have had the time to read into it..
and wine and crossover office,
really interesting me.

support for lotus notes 5 and office now,
makes the viable solution in work..

cheers for input
thanks

Repli

redhat is very newbie-friendly and has an easy to use interface and the full functionality of a linux system

i hear mandrake is good for beginners too but i've never used it so can't comment on it..

GUI

Also where on the net would i obtain the newest builds of these distros thanks

Repli

ftp.esat.net or ftp.heanet.ie
they're pretty big downloads (about 1.9gigs for redhat) but i'm sure some1 on boards will burn you a copy of redhat 9 if u give them the cds I would personally only i'm using redhat 7.3

GUI

last question
got vmware 4 latest rc installed..

i presume linux distros run nps on emualtors like these?

flamegrill

Correct :-), vmware runs everything i've tried from slackware to openbsd :-)

GUI

sam
vmware is a pc emulator not a particular os emulator.

sam

yeah i just realised my mistake, post deleted

Frank Grimes

I've used a few distros, I'd say Mandrake is the easiest one to install for a newbie plus I prefer it to Redhat.
If you've got a decent connection or access to one, just download a few distros and see which one you prefer yourself.

Gerry

I reckon redhat is the easiest to get started with.

mirrored on ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors

Jorinn

Originally posted by Frank_Grimes
I've used a few distros, I'd say Mandrake is the easiest one to install for a newbie plus I prefer it to Redhat.
If you've got a decent connection or access to one, just download a few distros and see which one you prefer yourself.

TBH, I've used mandrake and if you try to install it on a partition instead of a seperate HD you could run into problems, specifically related to the bootloader.I found slackware to be easier to install without messing up, although probably everyone will disagree from what i've seen in other threads.

Er, for the record, I'm a linux newbie, it's my 4th string OS after MacOS X, MacOS classic and win2k.

Typedef

Slackware is probably my favorite distro... that said... it's not for total noobies.

Mandrake does lots of hand holding.. which is good.... notable noobie friendly features

Mandrake : disdrake as opposed to Slackware : cfdisk (is about as friendly as that gets)

Mandrake : Automagic resizing of FAT32 partitions as opposed to Slackware : get fips and resize it ... that way.

err

Dare to Slack!

insert plug here < >

Frank Grimes

Originally posted by Jorinn
TBH, I've used mandrake and if you try to install it on a partition instead of a seperate HD you could run into problems, specifically related to the bootloader.

I've installed about 5 different versions of Mandrake on their own partitions rather than seperate HDs on 3 different pcs and have never run into a problem with the bootloaders.

Jorinn

Originally posted by Frank_Grimes
I've installed about 5 different versions of Mandrake on their own partitions rather than seperate HDs on 3 different pcs and have never run into a problem with the bootloaders.

Fair enough, I've continously had problems with it. Worked fine on one comp though strangely enough, in general it just seems to like to mess up,. i.e I've tried installing it about 6 or 7 times and indeed it installs, it just likes to prevent me from bbooting into any other operating system.

Oxidise

I hear that Mandrake is the best to go for if you are a noob to Linux.
I used to use Debian, which i liked very much, not for noobs on the installing part though.

Woden

i have mandrake 7.2 i think it was on my box for a while, i had problems with the boot loader as well if IIRC, picked it up cheap in Hodge Figgis of all places, it seemed alright but i couldn't get online due to lack of support for my modem chipset, and i was a bit pissed that i couldn't download and update to mandrake X.X i had to get the whole thing, oh and how come the latest version of red hat in the shop etc. are so expensive?

RicardoSmith

I got Mandrake 9 on a LXF cover DVD. I think its the full version, it required 3 ISO CD's anyway. 9.1 is out now though. If you want a copy of the 9.0 disks I have contact me via PM. Incidentally I see PC Plus has another distro (SUSE 8.2 I think) on this month cover DVD. Haven't been able to find it in any shops yet though. I've seen Red hat 7.1/7.2 and recently 8.2 (or 8.1 I can't remember) with some books in the PC World shop in Blanch (I was sheltering from a rain shower) and the books were €75.

I installed Mandrake 9 on a couple of machines and didn't have any problems. Its need a decent PC though. I've since uninstalled it as I needed the machine for something else. I'll go back to again when I've more time and manage to get book to learn more about it. Since its all new to me!

Woden

cheers ricardo if i get a new machine up and running later this year i'll drop you a line and hopefully my modem (hopefully dsl by then also) will be supported.

RicardoSmith

You probably need DSL for the size of the patches distros seem to need these days : (