I'm sorry to ask such an obvious flaimbait, troll, FAQ question. But my girlfriend's Windows XP just finally gave up the ghost for good. I managed to save her files with BG Linux rescue disk, but Windoze is toast.
So i am wondering, what do people think is the easiest, It-Just-Works, flashy desktop distro these days? I am kinda out of the loop with distros anymore. Thx!
So i am wondering, what do people think is the easiest, It-Just-Works, flashy desktop distro these days? I am kinda out of the loop with distros anymore. Thx!
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Mon, March 12, 2007 - 5:33 PMI'd use Mepis. As a matter of fact, Mepis 6.0 is the latest stable release but 6.5 is almost out and flashy as all hell. Supposedly makes windows Vista look weak. I like Mepis because it works with all sorts of things that other distros don't. -
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Unsu...
Re: Best beginner's distro?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 2:52 PMI agree.
Mepis is flashy, easy to install and comes with a lot of useful software.
The live install CD is great if you need to recover your system.
I am not a fan of ubuntu. I didn't like the confiugartion tools
and I didn't find it as user freindly as Mepis.
Just my opinion/preferences and not meant as a flame.
Another favorite of mine is ZenWalk.
This was extremely easy to install, is lightweight and comes with Xfce - a great little desktop.
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Tue, March 13, 2007 - 2:59 AMUbuntu would be my choice, provided you have a broadband Internet connection to facilitate software installation and updates. If you don't, it is still usable, but you may find you are dialled up a lot to download updates.
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Unsu...
Re: Best beginner's distro?
Tue, March 13, 2007 - 10:17 AMI'd shy away from the Gnome desktop in favor of KDE. Gnome is maddeningly limited, and bears no resemblance to Windows, whereas KDE has zero problem looking and acting like Windows with only a few control center changes.
So...
Xandros 3.0.2 OCE
Mepis/SimplyMepis
Knoppix
Kubuntu
Slax -
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Unsu...
Re: Best beginner's distro?
Tue, March 13, 2007 - 1:58 PMWhat do you think Gnome is lacking in?
I prefer it over KDE..
Visually cleaner.
the file browser handles every protocol i use wonderfully. smb,sftp,ftp -
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Unsu...
Re: Best beginner's distro?
Wed, March 14, 2007 - 2:06 AMGnome is lacking in utility, adjustability, and everything that Linux has ever stood for... Freedom to do things, namely. Gnome is locked-down for your computing safety, and I chafe trying to get the simplest things done with it. GAK!
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Tue, March 13, 2007 - 2:34 PMWhen I first got fed up with Windoze enough to actually hunt for something better, I was fortunate enough to run across the Knoppix live CD.
It was delightfully simple to use. I just burned the cd, popped it in the drive, and rebooted. I didn't have to setup anything. It booted up like it had always been there.
Since getting more comfortable with it I've gone on to Ubuntu, but have had precious little time to tinker with it enough to get myh Ipod and camera, or even my CD rom, to work with it.
If I hadn't found Knoppix and had seen first hand how moronically simple it was to install, I would have given up on Linux entirely by now. It is a bit limited in what it can do, but dude - it's free, and I can afford free.
Otter
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Tue, March 13, 2007 - 9:53 PMI cut my teeth on Fedora RedHat. But in the time since, I found I like Ubuntu for a desktop. Easy as pie to install (I like more control) and up and running - with the right drivers - in no time. I even accidentally found a wireless card that Ubuntu natively recognizes. The Knoppix Live-DVD is fun, but so far, I haven't had a lot of luck on several platforms. I have also installed SuSE 10 on neophytes old laptops as a learning tool. -
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Wed, March 14, 2007 - 4:50 PMBAH. i've been using linux in a mostly profession (or semi-professional :) manner for about 12 years now, and i say that a) gnome rocks like bacon in the morning and b) ubuntu is both the most sophisticated and user friendly distro i've ever used.
that said, all beginers should be forced to learn lfs :) -
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 8:05 PMYeah, actually my first thought was to lfs her computer, but it's one thing to put together a command-line box with a few utilities on it, another to do an entire graphical desktop that way--and i think she really wants something that feels as much like windoze as possible.
So far, i am thinking i'll go with ubuntu. I guess i'll have to do it without a bootable cdrom drive... oy. -
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 11:45 PMWow. Someone really installed Ubuntu using PXEboot from a Windows box.
help.ubuntu.com/community/...rverNetboot
Isn't that somehow wrong? -
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Mon, March 26, 2007 - 3:36 PMI'm with Jelly. Same cutting of teeth and everything. For servers, I'd rather run headless Cent or Deb, but Ubuntu is a great desktop OS -
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Mon, May 14, 2007 - 7:24 PMForgot about this thread.
People should post to this tribe more.
Anyway, FWIW i ended up just putting the new release of Debian on her machine since it was easier to do by bootstrapping with floppies.
So far i like Debian. Seems cleaner and easier than Fedora and MAN, are there ever a lot of packages available. I installed all the lisp-related packages i could find, just for the heck of it. Such fun. -
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Tue, May 15, 2007 - 5:36 AMOpenSuSE is my distro of choice, but I've been using Xubuntu lately just because most of the hardware I've been getting is old.
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Tue, May 15, 2007 - 5:42 AMI haven't actually tried Debian itself, but Ubuntu and Knoppix, both of which were referenced earlier in this thread, are descendants of Debian, so it doesn't surprise me to hear that Debian is good.
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Re: Best beginner's distro?
Wed, July 4, 2007 - 4:33 PMSince even I can do Ubuntu, I would say Ubuntu with a book like Ubuntu For Non-Geeks. I could not even unlock my files until I learned in the book. Since you may have skills with installing, there may be other distros that are just as, or are easier to operate, but since I had to install as well, and alongside Windows, it is Ubuntu hands down, for me anyway. Ubuntu is very hard to beat, and I have an extreme prejudice for Fedora, which keeps timing out on me, so I go Ubuntu. -
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Unsu...
Re: Best beginner's distro?
Mon, July 30, 2007 - 3:20 PMIf you aren't attached to Gnome, specifically, SimplyMEPIS 6.5 is so simple that my mom could do it, and it comes packed with _most_ of the power that a Debian-based distro _should_ have (for when you finally get around to wanting it/knowing about it).
The really nice thing over the **buntu brands of Linux is that Mepis has unmatched hardware support in comparison. Plus, it's a liveCD, so you can try it, first.
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