User friendly distributions

[linux_0]

Ubuntu

http://www.ubuntu.com/screenshots

http://www.ubuntu.com/download

FC5

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=423&num=1

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/5/

Knoppix

http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/

SuSE

http://www.novell.com/linux/

http://mirrors.kernel.org/


http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

 

[mitch074]

You're being too abrupt. If you want to push forward your favourite distros, you'd better be ready to provide a few lines of comments at least.

 

[choknuti]

This is a question that I’m throwing at all u Linux gurus.

I am a windozs, BSD and Linux (to a lesser extent) user, using slackware and FreeBSD but am looking for a good easy distro for a windows user to get into. Doing some open source preaching here. There are some who are interested but they complain about the setup. I am a terrible teacher so therefore I am looking for the easy distro.

It should be minimalist without too many choices in the initial setup. While it is a good thing that
Linux offers you sooooooo many choices this doesn’t help the newbies. Is there one where it sets everything up like windozs where the user is prompted only for personal info, password and root password (maybe network settings).

Thanks in advance.

 

[linux_0]

I've been up all night fixing stuff so I'll be improving this when I get some time to add to it :-D

 

[linux_0]

This is a question that I’m throwing at all u Linux gurus.

I am a windozs, BSD and Linux (to a lesser extent) user, using slackware and FreeBSD but am looking for a good easy distro for a windows user to get into. Doing some open source preaching here. There are some who are interested but they complain about the setup. I am a terrible teacher so therefore I am looking for the easy distro.

It should be minimalist without too many choices in the initial setup. While it is a good thing that
Linux offers you sooooooo many choices this doesn’t help the newbies. Is there one where it sets everything up like windozs where the user is prompted only for personal info, password and root password (maybe network settings).

Thanks in advance.

One could argue that the Live CD distros are the friendliest because they do not require installing or major configuration. Naturally the downside is you do not normally have permanent storage.

 

[choknuti]

Good Idea!

I could use the live CD distros for basic introduction and then move them on to something else.

Now only if I knew what this “something else” was!!!

 

[mitch074]

SuSE 10.1 when it comes out should be close to what you're looking for. Default desktop is Gnome. 5 CD images (1 required, 3 recommended). It is however crippled in that it can't playback MP3s or DVDs. It's very slick looking and comes with many up-to-date softwares. A CD containing non-free software is also available for download and allows you to install Flash, Realplayer and Acrobat Reader in a snap, but still no MP3 or DVD support in other apps.

The basic commercial version will have 3D drivers, Centrino ROMs, MP3 and DVD playback enabled in all apps. Also get support.

In short: looks good, impractical free version - go for the commercial version.

----

Mandriva 2006 gives you a lot of flexibility on install, but its default are very well chosen. It also doesn't require as many reboots (it actually needs only one). Default desktop is KDE. 5 CD images (1 required, 2 recommended). DVD-image is available too. It can playback MP3s and burn them to CD out the box but you need to configure it a bit to playback DVDs (configuring plf sources on easyurpmi.zarb.org and installing libdvdcss will solve the problem). It can be made to very closely resemble a Windows desktop, and is very good for beginners. For Ipod owners, Gtkpod is included.

The basic commercial version comes with bundled accelerated drivers, Flash, Sun Java, the ROMs for Centrino, and the like - you can get the equivalent in the free version by configuring easyurpmi. Support is provided mainly through very active mailing lists, and commercial versions come with 3 months of phone support.

In short: free version can be made complete through a visit to easyurpmi.zarb.org, is nice and fast, but doesn't look as streamlined as SuSE.

---

Ubuntu is Debian-based; it allows MP3 and DVD playback (I think) but is much less fleshed out for now. It is however very well supported, and you can order free CD packs for free (shipping included), including an install CD and a liveCD. However, you need a FAST internet connection and standard hardware to make it run easily: due to the limited media, fancy/exotic drivers aren't provided, and you can't compile them due to lack of kernel headers and compiler - so if the liveCD can't work well on the machine, you will have hell to install it.

In short: very good for slightly older machines, very nice support, easy to use, but lacking in choice and flexibility.

---

Most free distros don't come with accelerated proprietary drivers. There is a free Ati driver for cards from Radeon 7000 to 8500 (?) supporting accelerated 3D and pretty much all Nvidia cards are 100% supported in accelerated 2D, but no 3D out of the box. Installing the Nvidia drivers on SuSE is very difficult for now, you can install them with a click in Mandriva provided you configured easyurpmi.

 

[mitch074]

errr... what new thread are you talking about? This one is pretty recent...

 

[choknuti]

Suse does sound good but I am looking for something free with out of the box support for stuff like MP3 and DVD since I won’t be using it myself but handing out for other people to try.

There is no way I’m going to subsidize their OS costs. As it is I’ll be providing them with support till they get the hang of things.

 

[choknuti]

Sorry I already deleted that post. It was meant for the other thread that we hijacked.

 

[mitch074]

In that case:
- try Ubuntu
- or get familiar with Mandriva's easyurpmi.

My choice distro is Mandriva. The nice thing about it is the number of ISOs you can get on so many ftp mirrors. It is also flexible enough to handle Fedora Core packages. Moreover its adherence to Linux Standard Base and freedesktop.org directives make it quite compatible with other distros. Another nice touch is the basic ftp tree: if you set it up as current (instead of 2006) then every time a new version is out and you start the package update process, the distro actually updates from top to bottom while you work, with a very high rate of success. On next session restart, everything is up-to-date (no, you don't actually need to reboot to update a running piece of software). Most other Linux distro are able to do so in theory, but I can personally attest to Mandriva going through the process flawlessly.

Ubuntu would be my second choice: the pressed CDs with the liveCD gives you a very good indication on whether the installation CD will run or not.

 

[linux_0]

Ubuntu is reasonably user friendly.

SuSE is good -- great for Novell users.

Mandriva is good but they fired their founder, are getting sued and have $ problems.

FC is good, updates very frequently, works pretty well, install is simple.

Debian is great but not good for new users.

Slackware is great but not good for new users.

Xandros is nice.

Linspire is horrifying but it mostly works.

I'd say start them up on Live CDs / DVDs then graduate to Ubuntu, SuSE, FC5, Mandriva, etc.

:-D

 

[mitch074]

Debian isn't so beginner-unfriendly anymore. But to get the hang of it, well, try Ubuntu - it is Debian-based, and to agree with linux_0, provides a liveCD.

 

[choknuti]

Is Mandriva what Mandrake called today?? If so then it is a good choice to introduce my friends to the world of linux with. My first distro was Mandrake. I later moved on to slackware and FreeBSD.

Sorry for the dumb questions but since using those 2 OSs I haven’t checked what is going on in the wonderful world of open source OSs.

BTW Any of you heard of PC-BSD? It is supposed to be a user friendly version of FreeBSD and IMHO BSD rocks!!!!! (Guess why my Linux distro of choice is Slackware?)

 

[mitch074]

Mandriva is the result from the Mandrake/Conectiva merger. It is still more Mandrake than Conectiva, but much better-looking.

 

[linux_0]

@ Mitch074

Tru64 bit debian but is still kinda intimidating, I've even heard some admins are intimidated.

@ choknuti

Yes Mandriva is what used to be Mandrake.

Mandriva is currently having problems as I mentioned above.


Don't forget about Knoppix :-D

 

[mitch074]

Mandriva is pretty much out of its problems: they're turning up profits these days. They did fire their founder, and are focusing more on businesses than on home users.

Their distro is still one of the most game-ladden ones I've seen apart from Debian.

Knoppix is an extraordinary good liveCD (or liveDVD), but its install on HD is either messy or pure Debian.

 

[linux_0]

Mandriva is pretty much out of its problems: they're turning up profits these days. They did fire their founder, and are focusing more on businesses than on home users.

Their distro is still one of the most game-ladden ones I've seen apart from Debian.

Knoppix is an extraordinary good liveCD (or liveDVD), but its install on HD is either messy or pure Debian.

I hope they make it. It's not good that they fired their founder though and are being sued.

Knoppix is really an awesome Live CD and DVD and an even better rescue disk. Admittedly it's not that great when installed but that is not its primary function.

 

[CyberCam]

I've been using linux (off & on) since RedHat 5.0 (what a nightmare that was) and have tried Mandrake, Debian, Mephis, Fedora, Knoppix, Gentoo, Slackware and I'm glad to say that linux has come along way since the early days. I truely believe it's ready for the masses or at least by the end of this year it will be!

I own a small IT shop outta my home and have a about 12 small business customers along with about 60-80 personal users that I support and have converted about 40% of them to ubuntu linux. Ever since ubuntu Breezy Badger came out I've been going nuts spreading the word, I'm actually called the "ubuntu linux preacher-man" .

All of the business that I support have adopted linux and are quite happy. They have saved a lot $ by turning their heads the opposite direction of M$. As for the personal users I support that have made the transition, they too are quite happy with ubuntu and are happily working and gaming without many issues and they themselves have spread the word and have introduced their friends to the stable world of computing.

The main reason I and many others luv ubuntu is because of the community, that forum is gold. If you have an issue just type it in the search and waa-laa your answer appears in front of you 95% of the time. So I would definately recommend ubuntu for the first time user!

Here are a couple of my desktop pics;

A pre-release of Dapper Drake the next version due out June 1st.
http://www.fileden.com/files/548/cybercams_screenshot1.png

Take a look XGL & Compiz, together they create beautiful eye-candy that's fast and stable, unlike other OS's that attempt too do half of this using approx. 500mb of ram just sitting there doing nothing!
http://www.fileden.com/files/548/cybercams_screenshot2.png

 

[linux_0]

I applaud you for your efforts :-D

Please let me know if I can help!

 

[CyberCam]

Thank you so much linux_0, I try my hardest to give people a choice. Some try it and some don't, to each his/her own.

The one thing that sucks about all this is that I find myself being needed less and less with my personal customer base that have converted over to ubuntu. For those individuals my service boils down to hardware issues, additional training and remote back-ups. Oh well upward & onward, there's still a lot more to people out there to convert .

Happy, computing!

 

[linux_0]

Thank you so much linux_0, I try my hardest to give people a choice. Some try it and some don't, to each his/her own.

The one thing that sucks about all this is that I find myself being needed less and less with my personal customer base that have converted over to ubuntu. For those individuals my service boils down to hardware issues, additional training and remote back-ups. Oh well upward & onward, there's still a lot more to people out there to convert .

Happy, computing!

:-D

That's because Linux doesn't usually break like windoze does. Which is great, but I guess it can be bad for business. On the up side, there are millions of people who would switch if they were not afraid to do so!

 

[Zoron]

In Windows' defense... most of the time it breaks because someone was doing something they should not have been.

Of course, this isn't true in all cases, but I'm sure the people that "break" Windows on a regular basis could probably find some way to break Linux too...



Never underestimate the power of someone that doesn't know what they're doing!

 

[linux_0]

In Windows' defense... most of the time it breaks because someone was doing something they should not have been.

Of course, this isn't true in all cases, but I'm sure the people that "break" Windows on a regular basis could probably find some way to break Linux too...



Never underestimate the power of someone that doesn't know what they're doing!

This is true for every operating system to some degree. However windoze does break by itself quite a bit too. Or enables others to break it easily because of the way M$ does things.

 

[mitch074]

true; moreover, some Windows damages can't be fixed without reinstalling (Registry corruption) or very difficult purges (driver hell). Unix' way of putting every setting in config files may be space consuming, but at least it allows you to actually boot from another media (liveCD), fix said config file, and reboot - if simply logging in from another account isn't enough or possible.

I never EVER understood MS's need to link everything to the GUI.