Ready 4 Linux but....

[Zinedene]

Hi,

i wanna try linux to see what its like, but am confused with all the names...im seeing suse, redhat etc...and dont know whats the difference.

can someone please help, or even direct me to somewhere, where I can find out about the differences, and what is the most common one used in home pcs

Any advice appreciated.

Zinedene

[Zinedene]

hi,

ok, just seen the above links (duh!)
am looking through them.
Still rather confusing tho, considering how many different ones there are.

Seems like a matter of preference than which one is better etc.

thanks anywayz.

[David M]

I would like to try Linux but not on the same computer I need to do my daily tasks. Seems like the counter-culture thing to do. Not pragmatic but interesting none the less.

I read somewhere that companies running Linux vs WinXp are spending more money on IT's than they would if they were running WinXP.

Not knocking Linux. It just seems that Linux's time is not here just yet. Linux sure has me curious though.

[RHLinuxGUY]

U should stick with the Big Name Companies like Mandrake Soft, SuSE, and my favorite RedHat. This is what I break down these Linux distros, RedHat is more of a Workstation/Server Distro(Also the most stable linux distro) SuSE is a family distro mainly multimedia/gaming(don't get me wrong they all can be gaming systems), and mandrake is an all purpose linux for the Criminaly Linux newbs. If anything go with one of these they are the best supported linux distros, and they have the most LUG's(Linux User Groups) as far as my knolidge goes. If u want to get nitty and gritty with linux get SLACKWARE!

[kilgoretrout]

I read somewhere that companies running Linux vs WinXp are spending more money on IT's than they would if they were running WinXP.

Yeah, you read that in a report of a study funded by guess who, that's right microsoft. It's generally considered laughable by anyone in the IT industry.

[monster]

Zinedene you can also do a 'dual boot' on the same computer with multiple operating systems.

[Zinedene]

thanks for the responses people,

I thought about dual booting, but i just wanna be able to turn on a PC which has nothing to do with microsoft on it!!
Im getting sick of Windows. same thing for so long..

I need windows on one machine, so my parents can use it easily, to write letters and emails etc. They took some of those free computer classes, and are a bit familiar with windows. Im giving them my PC with XP on it, and plan to make a newer one for myself, as mine is getting a bit old now (specs below).

Thats why Im thinking of linux. New machine, new OS. Time for a change. I am not a gamer, and have never played games on a PC. On PS2 yes, granturismo etc, yes, but never played a game on PC! I made sure to stay away, as I knew if I start to get games on PC, I will never stop playing them!!

I think it will be Redhat or Mandrake.
I had never heard of slackware, until you mentioned it, so now, ive got to go and find out what that is.

Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated,

Zinedene

[at_kernel_99]

Zinedine-
Try searching linux.org for more info on distributions and, more importantly, what 'distributions' are. There's a rather informative 'linux for beginners' tutorial hosted there as well.

Another good option is to buy a book that includes a CD. I started with the O'Reilley book 'Red Hat in a Nutshell' that helped.

Third option: download a bootable CD; I tried SuSE this way. i.e. download the ISO, burn a CD & boot with that CD. You don't overwrite your underlying OS, but do have a chance to mess around a bit with linux.

Personally, I've recently switched to Debian (recently as in I'm in the middle of the process now). I'm using a spare box I have to mess around with linux & eventually host my own web stuff. There's great info at debian.org in terms of 'how to'. Its a more raw distribution, but it will force me to learn a bit more about adding applications to my system, rebuild/customize the kernel, etc.

Finally, there's another good site called, I believe, linuxdocs.org. or tldp.org for the linux documentation project. I don't recall off hand, but a quick web search should find it. The site has a bunch of 'how to' articles.

Good Luck-
bs

[Zinedene]

Hi,

thanks for that at_kernel_99,
will look into all you mentioned now.
I think a book is a good point. I think I will get one iin the next day or two.


Much appreciated m8.