Saturday, May 7, 2011

Re: [LINUX_Newbies] Newbie

There are a few good distros that are newbie friendly and all offer
something a little different. Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu. It uses
the same repositories. It is more Windows-like with the panel at the bottom
and it uses a slab menu. It uses GNOME Classic, but the next version will be
based on GNOME 3. SimplyMEPIS is a Debian based distro that is similar to
PCLinuxOS in that it is from a single developer and it is uses KDE as its
desktop environment. Both Mint and MEPIS use Deb packages and have a bigger
package selection than RPM distros like PCLOS. Also both come in 64-bit
versions and at present PCLOS is only 32-bit. There at least 60 distros
based on Ubuntu alone. Not all are good, but most are. Linux Mint makes a
Debian edition as well as an Ubuntu based edition, but it is just
experimental at this point.

PCLinuxOS is an excellent distribution. It is based on Mandriva (way back)
and it has an active community, if small. It works well with most hardware.
If you can live with its limitations then it is a fine choice. One problem
with distros that come from one developer is that they often fall behind.
There was a time when PCLOS dd not produce a new version for two years and
even the most dedicated follower was wondering if they were ever going to
release a new version. They did. The developer had gotten sick and that is
what can happen with small distros.

Mandriva is a good distribution that is very old and has a good following.
It is well supported, but the developers are always running out of cash. It
is a commercial distribution that has a free version as well as a paid
support version. Not much difference between the two, except you are helping
them out financially. It is an RPM based distro. There is a community fork
of Mandriva called Mageia, but I have never used it.

Versions to avoid are Fedora which is excellent, but it is an advanced
distro and openSuSE because it is harder to use than most SuSE people like
to admit. Newbies can quickly run into trouble by giving the wrong answers
to all of the dependency questions in YaST, its package manager. Your system
can quickly become unstable. Both Fedora and SuSE are RPM based distros.
There is a Fedora based distro called Kororaa that I would like to try some
day. It is supposed to be easier to use. The one to really avoid is Debian.
They have tried to make it easier to use, but they have stripped all of the
proprietary drivers from the kernel, so newbies would have a hard time with
it and the community can be prickly at the best of times. It remains good
for experienced users who like stability over the latest and greatest.

There are many specialised Linux distros that are excellent and easy to use
including Puppy Linux which has a low footprint and is good for older
equipment. It all depends on what you are looking for. Ask ten Linux users
and you will get ten different answers. :) All distros have their fans and
detractors. Each one is good as something and less good at others. IMO,
there is no one single best distribution.

Roy

Using Kubuntu 11.04, 64-bit
Location: Canada


On 7 May 2011 09:03, Me <sgttutt2001@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>
> Hello to all, I am a fairly newbie to Linux(been using it off and on for a
> year). I have 2 computers with Linux on them, one with Ubuntu 11.04, and one
> with PCLinuxOS. Trying both out. Looking for other distro's to try that are
> newbie/user friendly so any suggestions would be welcomed.
>
> Kurt
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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