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Which Linux today?

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Your Text: Insert Slimies » Insert UBB Code » Close Last Tag \| All Tags UBB Help	Sooooo.... for the sake of keeping this thread alive and documenting lots, here is a "fresh Ubuntu installation guide for the noob (like me)". PICKING A LINUX ============ In favor of Ubuntu : - designed to be user friendly - supported to an extent by Dell - based on Debian and the .deb packaging model Unix/Linux basics, you get a kernel (OS core), a filesystem (drives), and a shell (text-type interface) with each version. On top of that, GNU distributions include a set of basic apps. On top of that, recent Linuxes offer graphical interfaces, among which the popular KDE and Gnome. Knowing some shell commands is useful, but not required. My general and basic understanding of Linux distinguishes three major "branches" to the family : - deb / Debian based (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu..) - packages are fast to download, easy to install, and result in stable stuff that works. - rpm / Red Hat based - less stable when I tried it, a couple of years ago. - BSD, Berkeley software license, they go under a very heavy review process between each new release. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PICKING A DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT ========================= KDE vs Gnome is a matter of choice / philosophy. Gnome tends towards less redundancy. KDE tends towards Windows like windowing, contextual menus with options available in several places. [url=http://www.psychocats.net/essays/kdevsgnome]Interesting comparison of KDE and Gnome[/url] Theory says there is not such a thing as a Gnome only app or KDE only app, in theory they can be exchanged, BUT I have seen Gnome made apps refuse to start on my KDE, and generally, it seems better to stick with one or the other, as settings and config files and locations may vary a bit namely. With this in mind, if you opt for KDE, then opt for Kubuntu : it is the distro I chose, and it works a threat so far. INSTALLATION AND PARTITIONNING ========================== Ubuntu and Kubuntu, and other flavors of Linux, generally come as iso images of bootable CDs/DVDs. These will take care of installation as transparently as a Windows CD would do (at least). They allow repartitionning, and seemless resizing of partitions. However, if you can afford pre-partitionning your HD, keep in mind that Linux reads NTFS but does not write it, reads and writes FAT, and that Windows does not read Linux partitions (let alone writing them). So if you go for dual boot, try a partitionning scheme like : 20GB Windows OS 20GB Linux OS xxGB Data formatted as Fat a few MB Linux swap Again, the installer will assist you when doing this, and you can repartition/remount your drives later on, but the easy way to dual boot seems to be this. There are plugins in both worlds to extend capabilities, but more software may mean other difficulties, so sticking with the default sounds good, and preparing your partitionning correctly sounds even better. (end of part 1...) Loading...
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