[Sussex] New & fairly incompetent Linux user

[John D.]

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 19:27:34 +0100, Paul Baines <paul.baines at gmail.com>  
wrote:

I, yes I, insist that It's me that still holds the crown and title of "LUG  
nugget".

I might be rubbish at the linux "thing", but I've been rubbish for over 2  
years,
so here goes.

<snip>
> Mandrake - Good for Linux-virgins as it has lots of nice GUI's and can
> do lots for you but a bit restrictive and cumbersome once you know
> what you are doing. (Particularly unimpressed by most of the Mandrake
> Control Centre progs). So, I want a change...

FUD. Life is a little easier, if like me, you use "paid for, boxed set  
disc's". Luckily
I have a DVD drive so I just go for the powerpack with no paperwork to  
keep the price
down. Plus with a few "proprietary" packages already configured (Nvidia  
driver, real player, etc)
it makes life a little easier.

Provided that I use "mandrakised" RPM's, I've never had any real problems  
whatsoever. And
given the excellent support community, places like  
http://mandrakeusers.org/ and even
http://plf.zarb.org/ theres everything that you get with the so called  
"Power" distro's.

Yes, lot's of GUI stuff, but it's all there and available.

<snip>
> Debian - Awe-inspiring, seems to be the holy-grail to most Linux
> enthusiasts that I've spoken to. But needs a decent web-connection i
> think?

Popular with some of the more "vocal" LUG members (Steve D and Nick B  
:-p). A massive amount of
packages available (10k+). Lot's of variations available, potentially to  
suit all tastes.

But, when I tried it, I got nowhere. Luckily Steve D. came over and got it  
installed/configured. Without his
valuable assistance I would have been "completely buggered"!

So I suppose that would qualify as "can be hard work, with lots of manual  
configuration".


<snip>
> SuSe - Not really sure about this one, not met any users but seems
> fairly popular...

This was the first distro that I ever tried. It's a bit of a fav' of Dave  
Chapman, for it was him
that kindly supplied my first ever disc's. It installed painlessly. The  
only thing I never managed was to
configure, was my USB adsl modem (an ex-modem, it is, no more etc etc) my  
brother was kind enough to
config that for me - during the time I had it running, I downloaded my  
first mandrake (8.2), and when I
managed to screw up the SuSE, I installed the mandrake, and it felt more  
"homely/comfortable" and the base
GUI felt less sterile than with SuSE. the YAST facility is quite a piece  
of work, but nice enough to entice me
back from mandrake.

<snip>
> Gentoo - Bit quirky, used by the bloke who introduced me to Linux but
> again I'd appreciate any info...

It was partly the fault of the unfeasibly knowledgable Mr G Teale that I  
tried this one. I made extensive efforts
to prepare for my install.

Even by installing it as a "Stage 3 +GRP" (GRP is pre compiled packages),  
I found it hard work, but I enjoyed it.
Once it's installed, which can still be a very long and drawn out process,  
the management of a gentoo install is
arguably easier than Debian IMO - but if you don't pay attention, like me  
you can still screw it up - In glorious fashion.

<snip>
> Knoppix - Good for diagnostics. Thats it.

Knoppix is debian based anyway. After managing to screw up the "Proper"  
debian install that Steve D. helped me with, I
thought that I might be able to diagnose what I had done wrong. I presumed  
wrongly.

What I did find out though is that the knoppix hardware detection is so  
good and the basic GUI that normally run's from a
CD can be installed to a hard drive relatively painlessly. So I did just  
that. Brilliant. Enjoyed it, and what with the debian
base, it's just as easy to manage, some minor changes to the apt-sources  
list meant that I just meddled in the same way
that I'd done with the proper debian.
</snip>

I also had a go at dipping my toe in the world of Slackware - Zilch.  
Didn't even get as far as finishing the install, before it finished
me!

Hence I've ended up back at mandrake for the moment. A distro that I'm  
comfortable with, even though, at times I've had up to 3 different
Linux distro's installed at the same time (mandrake, knoppix hard disc  
install and gentoo).


My suggestion would be that if you know mandrake, stick with it, but at  
the same time try other distro's. Partition up a HDD, and use mandy
until you find something else that you enjoy using etc. As long as you've  
got a seperate /home partition and don't format it, you don't loose any
data, and can swap between things at will. Just have a mandy boot disc if  
you're gonna try that, then it doesn't matter too much
If you screw up the bootloader as well.

Just my 2 pence worth, but whatever you try, good luck and it doesn't  
really matter which distro you settle on, you're away from
Redmonds' Satan :)

regards

John D.
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