[Wylug-help] Which Version of Linux?

[Dave Fisher]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2005 at 10:14:42PM +0000, Smylers wrote:
> Dave observed that most people end up using a few different
> distributions in their first few years of Linux; 

Actually, I deliberately wrote '_many_ people' ;-)

> I don't think you can
> extrapolate from that a recommendation that trying out different window
> environments should be a priority for a beginner.

Absolutely! 

I tend to think that one of the two big desktop environments does have a
slight edge in usability, but if that edge doesn't hit you immediately
the differences aren't going to matter very much to you.

> 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; 

Sage advice. 

> it might not help, but it's worth a shot.

Definitely worth it.  

Hardware debugging is not a sensible use of beginners' time.

My own recent experimentation with installing 6 uptodate distros
(CentOS, Fedora Core 4, SuSE 9.3 and 1.0, Debian Sarge, Ubuntu Breezy,
and Gentoo 2005.0) on Xen suggests:

  1. They all do pretty well on a range of hardware
     
  2. There are small variations when it comes to support for
     experimental or very new drivers (seemingly related to distro
     release dates)

For what its worth, only SuSE 9.3 failed to install a driver for core
devices (it needed manual prompting to use an experimental broadcom
ethernet driver B44?).

<snip>

> As such, be particularly aware of anybody who seems to be fanatically
> promoting one particular distribution: they are obviously deluded.

Agreed, but note the qualifier 'fanatically'.

The absence of grounded value judgment is also a bias, i.e. towards
mean, media or modal opinion.

> > i recomend buying one in the first instance
> 
> I wouldn't: 

Neither would I.

> there isn't really any need.

Hell, one distro will even send you free CDs to save you the bother of
downloading and burning them ;-)

> > 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 

Too right.  

<snip> 

> 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.

Sadly, I'd have to agree.  

Moreover, I doubt whether any book is likely to help much with hardware
headaches on beginner installations, since they tend to be
device/manufacturer specific.

In my view, the nearest candidates as general references are:

  Linux Administration Handbook, Hein, T
  http://www.compman.co.uk/scripts/browse.asp?ref=528551


  Running Linux 5th Edition,  Dalheimer, M
  http://www.compman.co.uk/scripts/browse.asp?ref=762639

Dave