Linux or Unix

[avx]

Hey guys,
Im looking to shake things up a bit and I want to get more firmiliar with cmd prompts and the like, and because I only got into computers after I got WinXP, my knowledge of the more "manual" ways of working a system are limited. So I want to get a new OS to hapefully kill 2 birds with 1 stone, I know Linux is more complicated to use, but thats what Im looking for...but the variants of it are endless...Redhat, Mandrake, Mandreva, Yellow Dog, Nitix....

Where do I start? Im looking for something that will require me to do some mind racking, I dont want something that is going to hold my hand to much. Its going to be for home use, basic stuff, nothing fancy...I was thinking of maybe getting a dual boot system going, just for the fun of it. What would you guys recommend?

Thanks guys
-avx

[ffreeloader]

Where do I start? Im looking for something that will require me to do some mind racking, I dont want something that is going to hold my hand to much. Its going to be for home use, basic stuff, nothing fancy...I was thinking of maybe getting a dual boot system going, just for the fun of it. What would you guys recommend?

If you want something that you can learn on, and learn a lot on, try Debian. While it has wizards, you can configure everything through the usage of configuration files. About the only distro that could probably teach you more would be Gentoo. You could also try Freebsd too.

I'm kinda biased but I'd say Debian is the best compromise between being over-the-top geeky and excessive hand holding. It allows you to learn a lot of what makes Linux tick.

[mikeL]

Personally I would start with one of the easier distro's like Mandriva, Fedora, or one of the cd bootable distro's, from your post you seem to be fairly new to computers / Operating Systems, so one of the above mentioined distros would be a good start.

You can get alot of practice compiling software from a tarball, rather than using .rpm packages, etc, etc. The learning curve is quite steep on a "easy" distro, it can be pretty brutal on one of the more "geeky / techy" distro's like debian, gentoo, slackware if your just getting into Linux.

this is just my .02, the final decision is up to you

Mike

[ffreeloader]

You can get alot of practice compiling software from a tarball, rather than using .rpm packages, etc, etc. The learning curve is quite steep on a "easy" distro, it can be pretty brutal on one of the more "geeky / techy" distro's like debian, gentoo, slackware if your just getting into Linux.

Well, the guy said he wanted a distro that would stretch his mind, not hold his hand. I'd agree that Gentoo is too much, but the very first distro I actually got to really work was Debian, and when I did it using Woody when I was basically a raw noob to Linux. It had been almost a year since I'd given up on Redhat and Mandrake. I'd installed RedHat and Mandrake, but didn't like either one. Redhat seemed to be really slow and I hated rpm hell, and Mandrake was so buggy I couldn't get make it run.

I've also installed Slackware, but just like Debian much better. Debian isn't all that hard to install, but it will definitely let you stretch your mind with all of the ways it can be customized.

[mairving]

I wouldn't dual-boot unless you install an extra hard drive. This makes it easy if you don't like the flavor of Linux that you loaded to add another one.

I would take it in steps. It doesn't really matter that much what you start out with. Some of the more popular ones like RedHat, Mandriva, Ubuntu have some pretty easy hand-holding installers and plenty of driver support. Others like Debian and Slack don't hold your hand all that much and don't have as much driver support. You can still do command line stuff in any distro.

I rarely use Linux nowadays after converting over to FreeBSD. Don't have to worry about the kernel as much and the ports/packages system can't be beat.

[avx]

Originally Posted by mikeL from your post you seem to be fairly new to computers / Operating Systems, so one of the above mentioined distros would be a good start.

Ouch...cheap shot!

Actually I am pretty good with them. Just unsure about the linux variants, but I do appreciate the input guys...I guess Ill get one of Mandrake, and one of Fedora...see which one keeps me occupied.

Thanks everyone.
-avx