dad and i are thinking of putting linux on our computer, just wondering what linux is like to use?

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Cody

Computer 1 - Toshiba 4200: Pentium III, 1Gb HD, 128Mb RAM, Win ME

Computer 2 - Optima: Celeron D, 40Gb HD, 512Mb RAM, Win XP

Heyy,
Well Its defintaly different from what your use to (I'm Guessing Windows)
But to me, it just seems to.. work?

The main user account that you use isn't an administrator account, or root account. If you need to do anything that needs root permissions, you can use the terminal (Which is like cmd/command prompt) to do things. and if your not too keen on using text commands you can normaly start up a graphical version of what you are trying to do.

Most of the software that you will ever need is contained in the synaptic package manager. This is pretty much a big check list of all available applications. Just tick the one you want to download & install, click apply and you're done.

Although that may seem a little bit of hard work,its really not that bad. & you security is greatly improved from using this method, then the windows default user being an Admin.

As you most probably already know, there's a lot of different distros of Linux. I personally recommend Ubuntu, although I have heard Gentoo is another good choice. - Most Linux distros offer Live CD versions, so if you re unsure of what one to use, you can have a play around with them before installing.


Hope I've been some help!

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That is a great post Jam! Can you go one step further please and explain what a 'distro' is?

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Thanks

And yeahh sorry, by 'Distro' I mean a distribution (of Linux)
So there's a lot of different distributions, like Ubuntu, gentoo, Suse etc.
Some of these use the Gnome window manager, and others use the KDE environment.

In my eyes, KDE is more 'Windowsish'
Ubuntu uses gnome, and also have another version called Kubuntu.. which uses
the KDE one. I prefer Gnome, but its down to what you like I guess

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Its also useful to know that a lot of Linux Distro's are available in Live mode. This means you can put the CD into your drive and boot into the Chosen Linux Distro and run it just from system memory. This gives you the chance to have a look and get the feel for the distro before you actually commit to installing it on your hard drive. This is an excellent feature and i highly recommend doing this before you actually install.

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Have a look at Ubuntu linux, its one of the easiest.

Yup! Ubuntu is the most user friendly and the easiest to use, so is Gentoo but a little more advanced. Try dual-booting so this way if you dont like linux and its experience and controls, you can always go back to whatever you were using. Also try looking at the BackTrack linux distro. You might be surprised as to what you find, but DONT use the BETA!! ive used it and its extremely unstable, so if you happen to want to use it, then wait till it gets a patch, its updated, or a stable version comes out. Happy learning!

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I think that Mandriva is rather easy to use for beginners, and has some nice auto-configuration abilities that make setting it up easier. I agree with Justin, download and burn a Live CD version, most have KDE desktop (GUI - Graphical User Interface) configured.

The KDE desktop has in my experience worked on more systems when it comes to getting sound/video to work at all. Some hardware (in the past) did not identify well, or did not have support under Gnome. However, like Jam, I prefer the Gnome desktop, it just feels smoother to me.

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