[Wylug-help] Which Version of Linux?

[david powell]

On Monday 24 October 2005 11:14 pm, Smylers wrote:
> david powell writes:
> > [Dave Fisher writes]:
> > > Many people experiment with several distros before finally settling
> > > on the one that suits their particular needs, but I would endorse
> > > Smylers's view that beginners should choose the one that
> > > (level-headed and helpful) mates use.
> >
> > tend to agree with this , be shure to try out the diferent window
> > managers kde and gnome ,
>
> I wouldn't stress that as important.  For many purposes either KDE or
> Gnome will do.  Of course, feel free to try them both out if it's
> something that interests you.  But there are many other things that
> somebody new to Linux might want to do, and if fiddling with your window
> environment doesn't strike you as interesting then just stick with
> whatever you've got.
>
> Almost every part of a Linux system can be replaced with rival software.
> You'd never get anywhere if you didn't use a text editor (or boot
> manager or web-browser or word processor or command-line shell or
> 'Tetris-alike or ...) until you'd evaluated all the possibilities.
>
> Dave observed that most people end up using a few different
> distributions in their first few years of Linux; I don't think you can
> extrapolate from that a recommendation that trying out different window
> environments should be a priority for a beginner.
>
> > > If you are on your own, I'd recommend Ubuntu (or Kubuntu, the KDE
> > > desktop version).
> >
> > one of the points i recommend suse for is the auto configuration on
> > installation it seems to find and configure everything ok first time
> > network , internet , printer , sound , video , mouse etc ,
>
> Aren't all the distros pretty good at this now?  I installed Ubuntu 5.10
> a couple of weeks ago; it didn't ask any questions about the hardware
> and got it all correct.  I've heard others say similar things about
> Fedora, so I don't think Suse is particularly special in this respect.
>
> However, if whatever distro you first pick does for some reason trip
> over your hardware, it's probably easier to arbitrarily pick a different
> distro and try that than to debug the problem; it might not help, but
> it's worth a shot.
>
> > realy and i know you will find this in most places asking what is the
> > best distro usualy results in distro war where each prefers one over
> > the other
>
> Indeed.  Also, very few people giving you advice will have up-to-date
> experience of more than a couple of distros; most can only describe what
> the distro they are using is like, but aren't in a position to know how
> that compares to others.
>
> > ...any of the main distros should do , thay all have pros and cons
>
> As such, be particularly aware of anybody who seems to be fanatically
> promoting one particular distribution: they are obviously deluded.
>
> > i recomend buying one in the first instance
>
> I wouldn't: there isn't really any need.
>
> > for one main reason it should have a printed manual that will help you
> > install it and set it up ,
>
> If the installer is any good it shouldn't require much text to explain
> it (and if it isn't any good, try a different distro), and printing out
> a few pages isn't hard.  Also, there tends to be a delay with producing
> boxed sets over just releasing files for download.
>
> Generally it isn't necessary to have the very latest release, but
> hardware detection is an area that has shown recent improvements (and
> continues to require work as more hardware gets developed) -- and of
> course having your hardware detected correctly greatly reduces the
> amount of manual you need to read to get Linux working.
>
> > and the cost of a linux distro in a box with manuals is about the same
> > as a good book on linux
>
> I'd hope that a good book on Linux would also cover lots of things that
> a distro's manuals don't, such as lots of command-line programs.  But
> now I think about it, I don't actually know of a good book on Linux.
>
> Smylers
like the responce 
was going to leave it at that but feel i must point out 
the manual may not be needed to do the actual install 
but i have the suse manual here it describes in detail things like how you 
want to organize partitions on the hard drive etc it also explains the 
install process and helps you customize it to fit your needs 
 and gives you a lot of info on what any of the setup options do and options 
you may want to try also very usefull for a beginer

besides that theres a good administration guide and a guide to some 
applications also , i seldom look at the manuals but for a beginer having 
them can be a god send especialy when they tell you the distro spesific 
features , 

don't know about you but when things go wrong its takes longer to reinstall it 
to search the cd for the docs and print out the page to find how to correct 
your mistake especialy if its something silly like accidentaly switching the 
display to the secondary vga card (that you don't have a monitor connected to 
at the time ) and not realising whats happened :) 

btw it costs more to print out the manuals in paper and printer ink than it 
does to buy the boxed set 

dave