By
semi-popular demand, I am re-posting my Linux adventures that I wrote
several months ago on Facebook. Some have found this to be
useful information so it seems appropriate. This is the trials
and tribulations of a first time Linux user looking for that one
distro that has all the things a new user is looking for.
Keep
in mind I knew a lot less about Linux at the time than I do now.
However, it's a pretty good guide on what distros to try and
the strenghts and weaknesses from a total novice.
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Fedora
is really my favorite distro with the GNOME 3 windows manager. It has
virtualization already built into the kernel and because it's
basically the beta for Red Hat, it's fantastic if you want to learn
enterprise level Linux. It supports RPM YUM and APT and can run and
install the packages for most other distros (with varying degrees of
success). Fedora has rolling updates which means that it is always at
the very latest kernel version. That can be good or bad, for me it's
bad. The drivers for my Radeon causes Fedora to become unusable with
it's current kernel. I will probably be trying it out again on the
next update to see if the issue is fixed. Installation takes some
fiddling with.
I
tried Linux Mint with the KDE and Cinnamon windows managers. Mint
(Cinnamon) is the most Windows like distro I used. I don't like KDE
xwindows at all. The Cinnamon manager is fantastic. I really like all
the features of Mint. My favorite is having "Open Terminal Here"
in the right click menu on the file manager. Mint also had issue with
my Radeon drivers. It also has some stability issues that I am sure I
was the cause of but, it is way too unforgiving for trying to be the
"Newbie Distro". Also, it's just a mod of Ubuntu and uses
Ubuntu packages. If you are looking for a "My first Linux"
I would suggest Mint (Cinnamon). Installation is super easy.
Puppy
is SUPER light weight, it's mission is a distro that can run on any
computer, from a CD/USB with no issue. I actually have it installed
on my old ass notebook and it runs as fast as on my desktop. It also
runs very well from a USB stick (and I hear it runs great on a cd
too). I also have this distro on my USB stick for repairing other
computers. For it's light weight, it works with every piece of
hardware I have thrown at it, right out of the box, and it's the only
distro I have used that does that. I totally recommend this distro if
you are new to Linux and really want to get into the nuts and bolts
of Linux. They say it's good for pros as well except I have one
really big issue with it, it's not a "mainstream" distro.
It was built from the ground up by one guy. That means that it has a
different file structure than other distros. While it is supposed to
be able to use ubuntu/deb packages, they need to be
approved/repackaged before being used reliably and installing from a
tar ball is risky at best. Puppy also has it's own repositories and
uses it's own package management, so no apt, yum, rpm etc. I consider
Puppy to be one of the best tools a person who fixes computers to
have. Throw it it on a thumb drive and you can get into any computer.
If you have it on a 4gb+ USB stick there is no real reason to even
install it to a hard drive. Should you decide to install it (once
again I did install it on my old ass notebook) the installation is
somewhat more advanced than most of the distros I tried. You will
have to have some passing knowledge of boot loaders, MBRs and Linux
super clusters.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu has a lot of offshoots, for instance, Mint is just a
repackaged Ubuntu. Now Mint is different enough that most separate it
out as it's own distro, however, it's all Ubuntu under the hood. Then
again, Ubuntu is a fork from Debian, so Ubuntu is all Debian under
the hood. I didn't try Debian because although Ubuntu can run Debian
packages no problem, Debian cannot reliably run Ubuntu packages.
Ubuntu is also the single most popular distro right now by a wide
margin. I chose to use plain ole' Ubuntu because it just works. My
Radeon drivers work like a charm. It's really stable and difficult to
break (by Linux standards). It has just enough power and ease of use
for a Linux newbie coming over from Windows. The Unity windows
manager is a modded GNOME 3 desktop. The layout is very similar to
OSX with the exception that the object dock is on the left rather
than the bottom of the screen. Installation is exceptionally easy and
it even has the option to install along side another OS.
Bodhi Linux
I
would REALLY like to be able to recommend Bodhi Linux, but, for the
Linux novice it is a bit too young. Bodhi is Ubuntu that has
been tweaked to make use of the Enlightenment desktop.
Unfortunately, Enlightenment is still a bit too unstable for
prime time. The Enlightenment windows manager has actually been
around for as long as GNOME or KDE, it's just always been more of a
small GUI shell than a full fledged manager until the last
few years when the development team has started work to make it a
full featured main stream windows manager. It's
light-weight and and super beautiful. As I said before,
it's also pretty unstable. Bodhi comes with very few
pre-installed packages to the point that people have put together
"Bodhi Essentials" packages that can be found in the Bodhi
repositories.
In summary, if you have had the thought of trying out Linux, but you are not real savvy, I suggest Mint. If you are kinda savvy then Ubuntu or Fedora. I would suggest Fedora if you are interested in learning enterprise level Linux and don't mind having to troubleshoot issues with every update. For computer repair people it is a good idea to keep Puppy on a thumb drive or put it on some old hardware to bring it back to life as some usable equipment. I also kept my distro hopping to just the long standing mainstream distros. I found that many distros suffer from abandonment as soon as the team working on them moves to other things.
I hope this helps with anyone's questions of where to start with Linux. I know I wish I had a similar write up a few days ago when I started shopping around.
In summary, if you have had the thought of trying out Linux, but you are not real savvy, I suggest Mint. If you are kinda savvy then Ubuntu or Fedora. I would suggest Fedora if you are interested in learning enterprise level Linux and don't mind having to troubleshoot issues with every update. For computer repair people it is a good idea to keep Puppy on a thumb drive or put it on some old hardware to bring it back to life as some usable equipment. I also kept my distro hopping to just the long standing mainstream distros. I found that many distros suffer from abandonment as soon as the team working on them moves to other things.
I hope this helps with anyone's questions of where to start with Linux. I know I wish I had a similar write up a few days ago when I started shopping around.
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It has now been several months since I wrote this and as an update I am currently using Lubuntu exclusively on all my computers. Lubuntu hits all the major selling points of Ubuntu in a light-weight LXDE windows manager and no bloat. I would not suggest Lubuntu for the total novice though. The reason being that Lubuntu has very little pre-installed software and the software it does come with is selected more for performance than usability. So, unless you are familiar with what software is available for certain tasks it may be a bit overwhelming trying to find something to suit your needs. I would still recommend either Mint (Cinnamon) or Ubuntu (Unity) for the very first time Linux user. Both are pretty bloated and the windows manager uses a lot of resources, however, they have a lot of pre-loaded software, including several different packages of similar software which is nice if you are unsure about what software you want to use for a specific task.
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