Discussed before, easiest distro for a n00b

[VeeDubb]

I know, it's been discussed, I just wanted to start it fresh since 9.2 is here.

 

I recently convinced a friend of mine to try linux, and while he enjoys the feal of mandrake, he has a REALY hard time figuring out the ins and outs of linux and is constantly dbating weather or not to go back to windows. I could get his comp set up and running smooth, but I just don't have the time to.

 

What distro do you think is best for a n00b?

 

Based on:

1. ease of set-up/hardware detection

2. interface (needs current, or at least recent kde)

3. software instlation. needs to be at least as easy as urpmi, the easier the better.

4. Idependence from windows, not emulaiton of it.

 

I know RedHat is supposed to have realy great hardware support above and beyond most distros, and I have found a few glowing reviews of the most recent s.u.se. though they were pretty thin on content. So, what woudl you reccomend for my friend.

[bvc]

1. =RedHat

2. =depending on what you consider current, RedHat may not fit.

3. =RedHat's out of the question unless apt4rpm is used. Which brings up Debian. Wasn't the easiest installation (wasn't hard either), but after install was the easiest distro I've used. It found and setup all my hardware. I have heard quite the oposite though, but the same can be said for any distro. Gotta be careful with the dist-upgrade though. It'll upgrade you to a kernel for which there's no alsa or lm_sensors yet, leaving you without sound and sensors, unless you just continue to boot the old kernel, or compile them from source. When I went from dialup to broadband (2 pc's through a router) I just installed the dhcp pkgs>was asked a few basic questions>and was cruizing the internet. It's just that good 8) ...not to mention more pkgs at your mouse-click with synaptic (apt gui) than you can even imagine.

4. don't run the emu apps :wink:

 

I know, I know.."DEBIAN :shock: :!: ...are you nuts :?: " Maybe....but if your friend is going to go back to windows......what's there to lose?

[DragonMage]

Redhat as the easiest to setup hardware wise? Yeah right.. :) Maybe for basic use, but a bit exotic hardware creep in and you are in trouble.

 

Anyway, I think knoppix is the best distro for n00b or people just willing to demo stuff because of the "no commitment clause" aka live cd mode.

1. The setup is as easy as pie and the hardware detection is decent if you just want it to just work, no 3d or whatever.

2. The interface is kde, but the menu system is quite messy since it tries to cram a lot of stuff into a 700 mb cd.

3. Software installation, hey.. it's debian.. my friend and I once managed to turn a hd installed knoppix into a full blown debian, just by apt-get upgrade :)

4. Independence from windows.. errr.. well.. knoppix has wine.. but I don't think anyone can get it to work without a lot of mucking around.. so that's safe. But the live cd nature of knoppix can make people say that "ah.. so this is linux, it's nice" then reboot and forget about linux, so that could be bad.

 

Anyway... linux is not for everybody. It requires that people is willing to learn. But a pre-set linux distro can do a lot more than a pre-set windows anytime of the day :)

[iphitus]

What is his hardware?? We can choose a distro better, one with less problems maybe.

 

Im thinkin Mandrake. Ive installedo n a few computers, 2 very very recent with no problems, except USB2, which i was prepared for in the second one.

 

James

[phunni]

Mandrake for hardware detection - or use knoppix and note down the modules/config

 

It's pretty impressive

[gmac]

"Anyway... linux is not for everybody. It requires that people is willing to learn. But a pre-set linux distro can do a lot more than a pre-set windows anytime of the day "

 

You do need to learn about windows. Like how do you stop the damn thing crashing and what do you do if it does. There are loads of it consultants out there earning a living out of windows because people don't bother learning, or think the help button has the phone number for the computer RAC.

 

I work in an office where they do things on a spreadsheet and then use a calculator to add up and check the figures.

 

 

What's SUSE like? I'm at the point where i need to make a decision about where I go next. The only thing I'm sure of is that its linux rather than windows. I work from home will shortly need to give serious thought to a server, I will have to keep windows for some apps but so long as i can save stuff to a different hard drive I can live with that.

 

One of the appeals about linux is that comparatively speaking its cheap enough to switch around. Unfortunately I only have one computer at present so I can't play aound as much as I would otherwise.

 

I like this forum and know I can get a lot of help if I need it, on the other hand I beginning to suspect that mandrake is like french cars. Really good ideas, brilliant engineering but if anything goes wrong they don't want to know, and once they've done the interesting bit they just throw the rest together.

 

Now I just want something boring and dependable. Mind you I still fancy a citroen C5 but I just know it will cost me a fortune as everything but the engine and suspension fall off it. My next car is a nissan, boring but reliable. Ban company car drivers that's what I say.

 

Sorry I digress.

 

Some of the posts make me wary of red hat. I'm a long way from being an expert in this stuff but I do want to know whats going on under the bonnet as it were. (thats hood to any americans)

 

So how does suse compare with mandrake pros & cons.

[phunni]

I recently had to install Suse for my ex boss. My initial impressions were not great when compared to mandrake.

 

The control centre wasn't as good, and it just didn't seem as intuative to me...

[jlc]

I've used every version of SuSE since 6.3 and all-n-all it's a solid distro. Sure they have some bad release just like all the other distro's, but 9.0 is pretty SOLID!

 

I'm not a big SuSE user anymore, but I still like to play around on it.

 

For noob's, MDK/RH/SuSE probably the way to go.

[Peep]

I usually suggest giving people a knoppix cd so they can just play around before installing anything, but lately i've been handing out MEPIS cds. mepis looks cool but isn't quite as loud as knoppix. it also installs onto hard disk MUCH easier, if/when they decide to make the leap.

 

once someone's really wanting to stick with linux i suggest mandrake, but that's probably just because that's what i'm familiar with, and it seems to have the friendliest support board around :)

[DragonMage]

SuSE is solid but a bit different considering that it's an RPM based distro. If you are used to RedHat / Mandrake 's scheme of files and configuration, you will find SuSE is different. I don't think it is as easy to use as mandrake but it's more stable distro (well it better be if you have to pay 40 dollars for a basic version). I think the support is better too but I don't use linux for the company support :)

[Gnubie]

I think Libranet is quite good. It is easy to install and automatically configures itself to your hardware, plus it is 100% binary compatible with Debian. :)

[Guest vande198]

I've fiddled with MDK and SuSE a lot (no RedHat because it doesn't use KDE), and I'd have to say that I like MDK the best as a newbie. MDK is a little easier to install (the download edition of MDK vs. the ftp install of SuSE), although it's KDE desktop isn't as nice as SuSE's, it's much more verstile via it's native urpmi (you can get apt4rpm for SuSE, but it doesn't have near as many repositories as mdk nor has it as many packages, especially those of involving legal issues, whereas you can get many of those w/ MDK via plf).

 

You might want to keep your eye on ark linux (http://www.arklinux.org/i). It's RedHat-based, but spruced up and extra-user-friendly. I hear it's pretty stable despite being in alpha. The new Fedora might be good, especially since it's gonna come with native apt4rpm capability, though I'm not sure if they'll ship an unbroken KDE.