Topic awaiting preservation: Go on Sell me on Linux ! (Page 1 of 1)

Well at present i have been using Win Xp Pro and have not had too many problems other than the normal gripes, however, a few guys in work are singing the praises of Mandrake 10 and have suggested i give it a shot.

I know there are a few Linux users here and was hoping you could either recommend a specific version and also give me a basic rundown of what you feel the benefits are over windows.

Thanks

No Sig ?

Benefits over windows: Free, fast, stable, secure. Open source. Not Made By Microsoft (that's always a big plus). Almost infinitely customisable.

I personally used Fedora Core 4 here at home, and I have a copy of Debian running on my testbed webserver. I've heard that Unbuntu is the best distro for beginners, but I've never used it so I can't really say.


Justice 4 Pat Richard

Sell you? Okay: Linux is better than Windows.

What you call "the normal gripes" don't really exist on other operating systems, it's something long-term Windows users take for granted as a part of life.

As for which to try...hrmm, well not Mandrake 10 - Mandrake doesn't even exist anymore, it's now Mandriva.

Your first time out you might want something preconfigured (I didn't, but you might) - so maybe try Slax (Slackware based) or Morphix (Debian based), both livecds that you can try out/use before installation.

I personally use Gentoo. Ya.

There is, of course, no harm in trying a lot of them - so if your friends are yelling about Mandrake, just try it (better yet try Mandriva and you can laugh at your friends and their old software).

Best Linux?
OSX... (seriously, it's in my opinion the absolutley best UI running on a *nix platform)

At home, after having used OSX for appr a year (came from XP) I installed Debian Sarge and asides from some initial trouble with my wireless d-link card it's perfect for my needs (I don't do games though), mailclients are way better than outlook variants, OpenOffice works fine, Gimp is ok, development IDE's, no trouble, browsers, A-Ok...

Graphically install a new application? Open an interface to apt, choose the app, and go, pop it's there and working
Stable, heck yes, if my PC didn't sound like a vaccumcleaner on speed it would be on 24/7

Plus the above mentioned, Free, Open Source, Community support etc.

Hooking it up to the network at home to give/get access to other machines was a bit tricky though, Samba could be easier to configure. OSX does this way simpler and still secure.

About the only thing that is a risk is that you tend to stay in an account with higher priveliges than you "should" have and as such, it's easy to really f**k up the system...

A buddy swears by Ubuntu, he installed it on a brand new laptop with widescreen, built in wifi etc and everything, I mean everything was detected and working from first start...
/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{"Theories without facts are just religions...?}-

OSX is BSD, more specifically it is a FreeBSD based OS. This is not Linux. They have very different developmnt styles, they have very different licenses. In the past I have used FreeBSD for my desktop, it works very well in a development enviornment, and it fit well with my course work (at school) as my professors were either running FreeBSD themselves or Spark Workstations.

I can not recommend linux. I have used many different flavors, I had RedHat on the desktop, I have installed Debian and Gentoo, and I have never really liked them. They are just not as solid as a BSD system. The distro's are just that, a distribution of a bunch of different tools. They are not a system with all the tools developed to work together. The Linux kernel is also a bloat heap of code.

So, if you are up for a challenge I would say go with the BSD system. The learning curve might be higher than that of Linux but you will be free of the GPL license, and a IMO far more solid/stable system, oh yeah, it runs anything that Linux has via its Linux emulation.

Onto the generals. Everything following with apply to both Linux and BSD.

There are two reasons why you would use linux.

1. You need a reliable server.
2. You want to learn about *nix.

If you need a reliable server you should go with a *nix enviroment, no questions asked. You save a bundle on licensing fees, we are talking thousands of dollars. You will get something that is far more secure than windows, you will get a system with better user management, and a plethora of tools to make your job easier, all freely available. You will tend to get better uptime, and you will not need to restart the system every time you install a new tool or remove a tool. You will need to restart if you rebuild your kernel, and that should not be happenning all that frequently.

If you need to impliment a server go with a *nix solution. You should not even need to think about this, it just makes sense. It will save you money, and it will save you time. You will need to have experience or be will to put your own time in to get the experience. There are some major hurdles if you have never worked with *nix system. This takes us to #2.

If you are a player in the computer industry you should know about *nix. You should know how to move around the command line. You should know abouth the folder struture. You should have an idea of what is in the /etc folder, how to add users how to delete them. You should know how to create and modify files all without needing a GUI. This is a skill you should have or you will face becoming obsolete.

If you want to learn, it really doesn't matter what you install and use. You are just going at it to learn. I do not recommend that you install it on your work desktop. But you should install it on your home desktop (but I recommend having a second computer available that you know is working, this will allow you to trouble shoot problems if you can not access the internet from your newly installed *nix system). You should gather a list of bookmarks of sites with trouble shooting information, so that you can access them to help you learn and know what to do. I would also get a book on your system. I have a number of books on FreeBSD, I reference them all the time. Absolute BSD is like a bible to me. I would pay the $60 and get the FreeBSD Bundle. It will make your first time a snap. It is tempting just to download and go, but having the book is important, and having the nice CD case, and CD's is pretty cool.

You will stumble and you will fall a couple of times, but you will learn a whole lot about how to use a computer and what it can do.

Now, if you want to learn, but don't want to get rid of windows you can start with Cygwin. I have this installed on my windows box. It is a Linux emulator. It does a good job of thing I might add. You get the Bash shell and away you go, it is a great way to easily learn how to use a *nix command line. It is a good method to learn if you do not want to give up a box that you already have configured.

If you don't fall into either camp I have to say there is no reason to use *nix. If you don't want to learn you can become a dinosaur, that is fine with me, it makes me more marketable. At work I use Windows XP, at home my desktop has Windows XP on it. The reason, games, and IE. I need IE for my work, and I have to play WoW. You can use Wine to make these things work on you *nix systems, but that is just too much work for me to bother with, and technically you still need a windows license for the libraries to run IE (unless that has changed in the last 3 months).

Whatever you do, good luck. Drop me an email if you run into problems. I ran into a bunch and I wish there was someone around who really knew what they were doing who could have helped me with my system problems.

Dan @ Code Town

WarMage, I know OSX != Linux, however, using the terminal in OSX and the type of functionality I have access to is very similar to a *nix enviroment, that's why I said what I said.
/D

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{"Theories without facts are just religions...?}-

Linux is great! Updates are always free and quick. Very customizable, there are plenty of different ways to do things so you can find a very comfortable work flow. It has an extreamly powerful command line interface which allows the user lots of power, but there are also many amazing GUI tools which offer amazing ease of use.

Ubuntu is the best linux to start out on bar none. Don't mess with any thing else unless you know what you're doing. Their developers put a lot of effort in making Ubuntu very easy to install, easy to add/remove software, easy to USE, and mostly pre-configured, these are all areas where the other distros need some work. I use ubuntu on my desktop and my laptop (it has great laptop support). I also have a debian based mythtv box. I've used gentoo, mandrake, debian, and archlinux in the past. They're all good for certain things, but Ubuntu is your best bet to just dive in.

Also, don't be affraid to try some liveCDs first. Ubuntu has one. The mono project also has a great one: http://www.mono-live.org/

OS X is not free; Darwin is, though.

Linux distros are plenty good compared to BSDs, but BSDs are also excellent and they all have pretty much the same software available to them (along with many other POSIX-compliant/Unix-like/etc. OSes), so it's no biggie.

They're also both suitable for desktops, not just servers and "learning".

1. Write down linux options
2. Put in hat
3. Pick one from hat
4. Burn ISO
5. Install
6. Learn

The rest is really not important for now and your choice of linux distro will be dictated more by your uses than anything else.



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

I'm with BD on this. The differences between the major distros are largely cosmetic and personal preferences. If you're "serious", then it really won't make much difference.

However, if you're only dipping your toe in to test the waters and are really comfortable with Windows, and not quite ready yet to step outside a GUI, then you should first try Ubuntu, http://www.ubuntu.com/ It was designed from the get-go to be easy for new computer users and Windows converts to install, set up and use. It's based on Debian, BTW.

I have two boxes running in the volunteer office of a local not-for-profit and have had zero issues with them. Volunteers come in and do their thing without really noticing any differences. When they do, it's just that "the icons look different." I also gave my parents a Ubuntu box, primarily so I wouldn't have to support it.

When installing the latest version, 5.10, it also detects other operating systems on the disk and asks if you want to resize partitions and make it dual-boot. If so, then it just does it.

For myself, I run RedHat on my servers, so it's just plain easier to also run it on my workstations.

But see? These are personal preferences. What I learned running RedHat applies equally to Ubuntu and to any others I might use in the future. Bottom line, they're all pretty much the same under the hood (or bonnet) so it doesn't much matter where you start.

I do not recommend Ubuntu.

(and it's Red_Hat)

Is it? According to the RedHat (or ocassionally Red Hat) Academy it's RedHat. That's how they write it in all their class materials I've seen thus far. Could be wrong, though.


Justice 4 Pat Richard

Well having read all the info you guys took the time to write, i think i am going to go with Ubuntu for the time being, and get used to that. Then i will probably hand the box over to my kids as it sounds like there will be very little maintenance to do once it is all setup.

I am looking forward to to the learning experience as it is something i have always wanted to get my hands into and no doubt i will have a lot of questions to ask.

Many thanks for all the effort you guys put into educating me with this one.

No Sig ?