Very Computer

I've already tried a few flavors of Linux distros and have my favorites,
but I wondering what the concensus is on what everyone thinks would be
the best distro to recommend to a newbie.

Please list your top three choices of recommendations for newbies.

In no particular order:

Mandrake- haven't used it much myself, though that may soon change. But
it's ease of use and installation make it an obvious choice.

SuSE- last version I had was 7.3 Pro, comprehensive to the point of
being excessive. YaST2 makes setting up and maintaining most things
easy.

What I would like to add would be a Debian based distro such as Corel,
Progeny or Storm. Unfortunately they all seem to be dead/unsupported
which is a shame as I am convinced that the package system is much better
and more suited to newbie use, if set up with a nice gui front end.

Xandros appear to hold the rights to the Corel distro so maybe we will
see such a distro again soon.

--
Ian.Potter
"There is such a thing as acceptable losses,
 yours wouldn't biother me at all..."

Somebody PLEASE post this conspicuously in the FAQ.

Quote:> Please list your top three choices of recommendations for newbies.

Mandrake
SuSE
Debian (not mine, but I can't handle the flames this morning)

--
|      An engineer is someone who will spend three hours        |
|      figuring out how to do a two-hour job in one hour.       |

A good choice, gave it a spin a couple of weeks ago and the installation
was very easy.  As a side note, I connected my Hauppage WinTV USB to the
machine and it even recognised that one!

Quote:> SuSE- last version I had was 7.3 Pro, comprehensive to the point of
> being excessive. YaST2 makes setting up and maintaining most things
> easy.

> What I would like to add would be a Debian based distro such as Corel,
> Progeny or Storm. Unfortunately they all seem to be dead/unsupported
> which is a shame as I am convinced that the package system is much better
> and more suited to newbie use, if set up with a nice gui front end.

I'm partial to Debian myself, been running it since version 0.95, it's
just that the installation of a Debian system might not be for
"newbies" and that the companies that tried to remedy that didn't
survive.  

Storm was nice one, I never tried Progeny but isn't the Debian project
planning on using their installer in future releases?

Quote:> Xandros appear to hold the rights to the Corel distro so maybe we will
> see such a distro again soon.

//Mats
--
My excuse for the day : Plumber mistook routing panel for decorative wall fixture
Mats Soderlind, registered Linux user 60496

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1. Mandrake
2. SuSE
3. Red Hat

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Ian Smith
Worst . . . signature . . . ever !
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Error Log for Mon, 19 Aug 2002 13:36:02 +0000: segfault in module
"francesca" - dump details are as follows...

Quote:> Please list your top three choices of recommendations for newbies.

Others have said the same, but since you did say this was a consensus...

1. Mandrake/Redhat  (I kind of consider these two as one) 2. SuSE (Never
actually used it myself, but I here that it's dabomb) 3. Lycoris/Redmond
(I'll get a sneer for this one, but it is very newbie oriented, especially
for those coming from the winworld)

Of honorable mention though no longer supported is Corel Linux, which is
what I got my flippers wet on.

--
rapskat -   1:00pm  up 1 day,  4:47,  0 users,  load average: 0.15, 0.11, 0.09
95 processes: 91 sleeping, 4 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states:  5.5% user,  2.7% system,  0.0% nice,  8.8% idle
drop the hot to mail me

I feel partially hydrogenated!

I may be responsible for a Mandrake server soon, though the company has
too many distros in use in my opinuion so it may be rationalised.

Diversity has its place, but I'd rather have consistancy in the server
room.

Quote:>> SuSE- last version I had was 7.3 Pro, comprehensive to the point of
>> being excessive. YaST2 makes setting up and maintaining most things
>> easy.

>> What I would like to add would be a Debian based distro such as Corel,
>> Progeny or Storm. Unfortunately they all seem to be dead/unsupported
>> which is a shame as I am convinced that the package system is much better
>> and more suited to newbie use, if set up with a nice gui front end.

> I'm partial to Debian myself, been running it since version 0.95, it's
> just that the installation of a Debian system might not be for
> "newbies" and that the companies that tried to remedy that didn't
> survive.  

> Storm was nice one, I never tried Progeny but isn't the Debian project
> planning on using their installer in future releases?

A nice gui installer and maybe some gui management tools is about all
Debian lacks for newbies. I wouldn't hesistate to give one a pre-
configured system though if I was to support it.

My favourate distibution is Gentoo, Gentoo and Debian. My two favourate
distros are Gentoo and Debian, and Slackware. My three favourate distros
are...
--
Ian.Potter
"There is such a thing as acceptable losses,
 yours wouldn't biother me at all..."

That's real helpful!

Do I really need to reword it has "recommendations for newbies to Linux?"

I was hoping to find out is there's a consensus with individual distros.
     But thinks for replying.

2. SuSE (Never

Quote:> actually used it myself, but I here that it's dabomb)

So I've heard, as well.  I only I"ve gotten the impression that it's
more of a power user option.  Hence, my asking for a consensus on what
most would recommend to newbies.  So can cut through the over all
reviews of what's best.  That, IMHO, would best determined by the
individual after they got their flippers wet.

  3. Lycoris/Redmond

Quote:> (I'll get a sneer for this one, but it is very newbie oriented, especially
> for those coming from the winworld)

So I'm not the only one.  I would like to get feedback on the 'direct
from winworld direct distros' from the power users.   From what I"ve
tried experimented with it, it seems like it might be more eye candy
then sustance, but I"ve only just got my flippers wet.

I would put Caldera and ELX in the same category.  But I'm not sure if
these would truly be good for newbies in the long run.  You, eye candy
can be *ing.  : )

Well, I've only had direct experience with SuSE 8.0, but I've had great
success with it.  The installation process is very smooth, and with KDE 3.0
you can get used to using a command-line interface as quickly or slowly as
you like.  The advanced tools are there if you want them, but I think it's
very newbie-forgiving.  (Especially seeing as how I'm still mostly a newbie
myself...)

--
Xaonon, EAC Chief of Mad Scientists and informal BAAWA, aa #1821, Kibo #: 1
Visit The Nexus Of All Coolness (a.k.a. my site) at http://xaonon.cjb.net/
"Remember, kids! Don't try to stop Russians from picking mushrooms! Or
they'll nuke you!" -- James "Kibo" Parry, in alt.religion.kibology

With "Kraut Killer" you do. Just look at his "name" and email address to get
an insite to the mental make up of this person.

<snip>

Quote:

> 2. SuSE (Never
>> actually used it myself, but I here that it's dabomb)

> So I've heard, as well.  I only I"ve gotten the impression that it's
> more of a power user option.  Hence, my asking for a consensus on what
> most would recommend to newbies.  So can cut through the over all
> reviews of what's best.  That, IMHO, would best determined by the
> individual after they got their flippers wet.

No, no, no, no.

SuSE is not a "power user" distro. It is for folks that want to use the
computer to get things done. It is, perhaps, the easiest distro out there.

SuSE is very, very good. A newbie can not go wrong with SuSE --- and I am a
RedHat man at work. (gentoo/Slack/SuSE at home)

You can run SuSE and never see a command line. Or, you can CLI all day long.
They (the SuSE folks) are very, very workman-like in their distro.

It is almost as if they have a German-like attention to detail. (I wonder
how that came to be)

--
Regards, Joe
GNU/Linux user # 225822

SuSE 8.0 is a very, very fine distro. It is what I would put on my Mother's
computer (she is in her 70s) to make sure she needed no real help from
anyone. They do a great job.

That said --- I like Gentoo better than them all.

--
Regards, Joe
GNU/Linux user # 225822

Storm was an excellent distro. Shame they didn't make it. There is
libranet which is a Debian based distro. Installation is marginally
easier than Debian and they provide more up to date packages for many
major applications. I can recommend it though. I was using it until
gentoo arrived on my disc. :-)

http://www.libranet.com/