heather1113 Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 Well, I was away from my computer and the internet (other than checking e-mail at the Library) for about a year and now I am back. I have been back for about a week but it took some time to get caught up and updated. So to get to the point I have fully converted my roommate to Linux and we are ready to get rid of Windows which is taking up a 10+ gig partition. My question is does anyone have some good ideas on a new distro to try? Since I have been away from the world of Linux so long I have no idea what's new/good. I would like something fairly user friendly but that's not that important as long as the documentation is good. Also I would like something .deb based. I will probably not get rid of Mandrake this will just be something fun to mess with. Thank you in advance. Oh by the way I apologize if this is in the wrong section, it seemed the best but I wasn't certain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 Ubuntu is fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 To be nonpartial about it.. I would start with this web site.. http://www.linux.org/dist/ It has documentation on each distro and is kinda fun because you can see all the different "intents" behind each distro. I'm in the process of installing Gentoo. I'm going to keep my windows distribution (since I do windows software development) but get gentoo up and running. If I don't like it, I might try something else.. PS.. Did it take you a year to dig your way out of the snow? :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 ubuntu is great especially if you use gnome. Only gnome is installed by default though....it is a one cd distro, but you can get kde after install if you have broadband. Community is ok and there is docs. #6 at http://distrowatch.com/ http://distrowatch.com/ubuntu http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/FrontPage http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ It is my main distro but my wife still uses mandrake cooker ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heather1113 Posted February 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 Thank you all for the advice and especially the links. Simply Mepis is sounding good so far but I have some more reading to do on that. I also ordered a Ubuntu cd but I have to do a lot of reading on that too. I feel so out of the loop with these distos I've never heard of before. They sound great though. PS.. Did it take you a year to dig your way out of the snow? :P Actually I had to make some sacrifices which included phone and internet. I had a cell phone through work though so it could have been worse. But I have a roomate now so the expenses are more affordable. It's weird how much I have forgotten and have to reread and relearn but to me the learning was always part of the fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a13x Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 If I don't like it, I might try something else.. If you like it, make sure you make a tarball of your install to be able to experiment freely without having to recompile everything in case of massive system failure. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 My question is does anyone have some good ideas on a new distro to try? how about trying out all 300 and something distros? :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a13x Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 how about trying out all 300 and something distros? tongue.gif That would take a while .... :D So far I have only been able to test Mandrake 9.2 , 10, 10.1 10.2 Cooker, Fedora Core 2, Red Hat 7, Knoppix, Slackware 9, SLAX and my current main OS, Gentoo. That is 7 distros out of 300 ... There still are plenty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heather1113 Posted February 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 how about trying out all 300 and something distros? :P <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So you see my problem then. I have too much to choose from and my knowledge is about a year out of date. I'm getting up to speed slowly but surely though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted February 5, 2005 Report Share Posted February 5, 2005 So you see my problem then. I have too much to choose from and my knowledge is about a year out of date. I'm getting up to speed slowly but surely though. Aside from being Debian-based... is there anything it should include or be able to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heather1113 Posted February 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 (edited) Aside from being Debian-based... is there anything it should include or be able to do? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> To be honest I have no idea just something fun to try. Challenging but not so much that I pull my hair out. The biggest thing is I want something that wouldn't be too difficult to keep up to date with the very latest software. I've also been thinking though that I really like KDE way better than Gnome. Not that it matters since I could just apt-get it. The most important thing is good documentation. Edited February 6, 2005 by heather1113 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 To be honest I have no idea just something fun to try. Challenging but not so much that I pull my hair out. The biggest thing is I want something that wouldn't be too difficult to keep up to date with the very latest software. I've also been thinking though that I really like KDE way better than Gnome. Not that it matters since I could just apt-get it. The most important thing is good documentation. In that case I'd recommend Ubuntu. Even though it's younger, its documentation seems much more complete: Mepis Knowledgebase: http://faq.mepis.net/ Ubuntu support pages: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/ You can find a LiveCD too if you want to try it first: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/download/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 ubuntu? he does not prefer gnome :P my advice: mepis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 ubuntu? he does not prefer gnome :P my advice: mepis. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The most important thing is good documentation. Which is why I recommended Ubuntu... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heather1113 Posted February 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 ubuntu? he does not prefer gnome :P my advice: mepis. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> She actually ;) I think I am going to try all the good possibilities. I have a Ubuntu cd on the way in the mail and I'll download or order from cheap bytes Mepis and Libranet. I really like the theory behind Ubuntu I only hope they don't go out of business for lack of money. Thank you all for your help especially for the links as I had no idea where to look for information other than google and distro watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.