Best Version of Linux for Me

[SpankySTD]

i am new to linux and i want the power on my laptop, its a gateway 400SD4, its my baby. what OS should i buy?
and could you list each OS i might want and why maybe?
and im curious about Slackware, any good?
im gonna buy one tonight, so your opinion would make many thanks.


Spanky

[SpankySTD]

im downloading Slackware ISO two files, anyone has an opinion if i should go with this? seems pretty interesting..

[j.drake]

i am new to linux and i want the power on my laptop, its a gateway 400SD4, its my baby. what OS should i buy?
and could you list each OS i might want and why maybe?
and im curious about Slackware, any good?
im gonna buy one tonight, so your opinion would make many thanks.


Spanky

Lordy, you are new if you're buying linux!! :wink: You know what most folks here will recommend, and it's free.

[SpankySTD]

hehe im downloading a few now from www.linuxiso.org , very nice site.

i have knoppix and std, bought them because i support the cause and was a way to make a nice donation :-p

but since im new, does anyone disagree with my putting slackware on my lappy? and is slackware like any other linux? theres so many, whats the diff in them!!! help! lol

knoppix is nice to snag stuff from my HD if its passwd'd, but it dosnt catch my eye....

[eco2geek]

Nobody here's going to "disagree" with you putting Slackware on your laptop! :) Good luck! It's supposed to be a really stable distro, and it's been around a long time.

A lot of it depends on how comfortable you are asking and searching for answers on various Linux forums, on the Web, and on Usenet, really. For some people (including myself), having a book handy beats having to rely on the Net for answers.

FWIW, I encourage new Linux users to play around with Red Hat's Fedora Core, not because I particularly like it or think it's that great, but because you can walk into almost any Barnes & Noble (a bookstore chain in the US) and select from three book-length tutorials about it that come with the distro on CD. You can also select from two "bibles" about it that also come with the distro on CD/DVD. And they're all updated fairly frequently.

(Why does Red Hat/Fedora Core get the "book treatment," when other distros don't? Dunno.)

Then, when you're familiar with Red Hat, you can move on to something more complicated.

Anyway, check out this "The Best Linux Distro for a New User? (http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/21/0435241&mode=thread&tid=106&tid=185)" thread on Slashdot (http://slashdot.org) for a ton of opinions.

[SpankySTD]

dude, that was a great reply to my question, thanks :-D im gonna cheack that out!

[OErjan]

the book UNIX Bible comes with Slackware CD1 and a second with some other stuff.
CD1 is the one needed for install. the second is just kdei and gnome iirc. that is, internationalization files for Kde an the Gnome desktop.
i prefer Icewm but...
there are minor diferences between Debian and Slackware, not insurmountable (Knoppix is a customized Debian).
EDIT hmm, might be an older Slackware version though, my book is not exactly new so... /EDIT

[SpankySTD]

well i just slapped Red Hat 9 Shrike on a dell i boosted... 3ghz, 256mb ram, 40 gb hd, 32mb ati radeon 7500.... works great, playing around with it still but i cant get a connection to my network, if someone could IM me at untouchablemike5 on aim, and maybe give me some hints on what to do, that would be killer, thanks.
and is it possible to copy files from the knoppix and std cd's to my new OS?

[rcook]

I've done Slackware since early Linux releases 1.-- or so. It and Knoppix are my two favorite distrobutions. First installed on a new box.
Slackware is a little different in configuration than redhat, mandrake etc. A theological difference on configuration: BSD type rather than System V or some such. I am not a theologian. Within a run level, most distros have a series of shortcuts to start and stop various services. Slackware doesn't. It is straight forward and understandable, what and how it is done. It uses tgz files for packaging and install scripts. It works well and is basically command line for install and administration. The windows tools are there, but not as robust. I prefer it to Red Hat and have never gotten on well with the rpm packages. If Slackware has a weakness it is in X-windows install. Until version 8.?? or 9.0, I couldn't get it to work easily. It is now much better. You will get a solid exposure to command line tools, install, configuration and sysadmin with Slackware and be able to deal with most other distros without difficulty. KNOPPIX and Slackware are my two favorite distro's and Mandrake one of my least favorite. It does too much and doesn't always to it right. Red Hat is solid but not a favorite. I expect the same with Fedora. I have two copies of Fedora 1 & 2 which I haven't gotten around to installing.

[SpankySTD]

so if im starting out, your sayin go with Slackware since its pretty easy?

[SpankySTD]

i still cant get red hat to get online...it finds my network card but nothing! if anyone can help, plz holla.... untouchablemike5 on aim, 9852854106 on cell... thanks

[SpankySTD]

BUMP BUMP BUMP, BUMPIDTY BUMP BUMP.....

i still cant get linux on line, finds my card still, but no connection, the card shows a orange light but not a green one for the connection, i can also access my network but just cant connect! HELLLLLPPPPP

[gowator]

what distro are you trying from ???

Id start off with knoppix and see if you can get online,

you haven't said either which card (DSL/modem etc.)

first Id try knoppix live then if yuor happy Id
a) Do a HD install
b) install Debian from netinstall (a bit harder)
c) install kanotix which is a knoppix deriviative BUT more standard debian once its installed. It doesnt make sense to try and learn your first distro with knoppix as a HD install becuase its not designed for it.

If all you wanna do is the same as Windows its fine but for some of the more advanced stuff its a pain to get it behaving like a real debian install.

nothing wrong with slack ... and if you go that route I'd also start off with a live CD becuase you cant accidentally wreck anything while learning!

[SpankySTD]

well it works under knoppix and std. but when i got into Red Hat, it wont work, i can access my network files but no connection. im on a 4mb connection, dsl. regular linksys wireless-g hub and running a cable right to it like normally... so i dunno...
I went to Red Hat... but if it seems borring, should i just format the hd and do a different distro?

[eco2geek]

According to one of my books :wink: there should be an applet in RH9 called Network Device Control, under System Tools. If you only have one ethernet card, it'll probably show up as a device named "eth0", and its status should show as "Active". You can configure it by highlighting it and choosing "Configure..." (for example, to set it to use DHCP).

Does that help?

[SpankySTD]

already did that, its active and its set for the auto ip. still no twirkage...

[eco2geek]

Rats & mice. Does DSL mean you get a static IP, or do you use DHCP? (I'm on a cable connection and it uses DHCP.)

Couple of other things to try: Can you ping your router or another computer on your local LAN? (For example, using the command ping 192.168.0.1, replacing the IP address with your router's IP address. Press Ctrl+C to stop the pinging.) Does the output of the ifconfig command indicate that your Ethernet connection is running?

[SpankySTD]

i did that, and it does show that its running because it pings at 64 byters... but still no luck on what to do for a connection...

[eco2geek]

OK, so you know your equipment is working correctly. Obviously, this is over my head, so please head on over to the Configuring Linux (http://feenix.burgiss.net/ldp/adsl/configure.html) section of the DSL HOWTO (also available at the Linux Documentation Project (http://www.tldp.org)).

This quote may be relevant to your situation:

"If you are subscribing with one of the Baby Bells in the U.S., you can count on [the ISP's implementation] being PPPoE, and thus you will need a PPPoE client."

[garyng]

if you can ping your router(better post the ping result here), the only thing that would stop you from accessing the net is DNS setting. try ping a known site like www.yahoo.com.

[rcook]

Ping a site with a known IP address, such as yahoo, some site you know is on line. If you can ping it with the ip and not by name, you need to specify the DNS server(s).