Black_V!per

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the "enterprise edition", we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms.

Ubuntu includes the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the Free Software community has to offer, to make Ubuntu usable by as many people as possible.

Ubuntu is released regularly and predictably; a new release is made every six months. You can use the current stable release or the current development release. Each release is supported with security updates for at least 18 months.

Ubuntu is entirely committed to the principles of free and open source software development; we encourage people to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.

You can even get a CD sent to you for free (Free CD+Free Shipping "Limited time onyl")

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CingularDuality

Isn't all Linux free? I don't get it...

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Black_V!per

No its not that, its the fact that its free for the shiped CD, that and its a real good and sound OS, for those that want to try something new and dont want to hurt there computers.

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Root

Yes it is, but you *can* charge for distribution costs etc, which is why you can (foolishly) go into a shop and spend £50 on a distro like suse.

Xandros does just fine for me so far.

Root

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Apophis

I've never come across a Linux distro that will "hurt" your computer. I've installed Ubuntu and I guess it's okay. I wouldn't migrate from Fedora Core 3 over to Ubuntu though, not a chance.

If you've got Broadband you can download just about any Linux distro you want for free. RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Debian and the list goes on....

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GhostintheShell

If you are looking for a painless way to test out Linux I really like Knoppix.

All in one on a single cd you boot from, it decompresses itself on the fly and automatically detects the needed drivers. I put it in my laptop and was running in 2-3 minutes, then I can remove the cd and reboot back to XP with no problems almost like a dual boot.

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Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter.
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micr0c0sm

Here is the thing you need to do when you are experimenting with linux.

Make a list of your goals.
At first, usually everyone's goal is 'try something new', or 'see what it's about'.
The best distribution of linux to get a feel for what it is for falls under the LiveCD categories. Currently the top three LiveCDs for this is SLAX linux, Kanotix, and Knoppix, in that order.

If you want to install on your computer and dual boot to see if you can switch everything to linux (except gaming) then you want to try madriva (used to be mandrake), fedora (los red hat!), or a hard drive install of SLAX, or possible beatrix.

If you actually want to learn why linux works the way it does, or why it is gaining popularity, and get into the reasoning etc, use Arch Linux. Period.

A little about Arch Linux. Arch linux is the simplist, most fool proof way to learn about linux, how its set up etc, without losing yourself or screwing anything up. All the defaults are wonderful, and the installation tells you exactly what is going on and why. It installs a base system on your computer, that is just enough to log on, do some config editing if you want to, and get internet access. Then arch starts to shine. Pacman -S "gaim" and it will download and install the latest version of gaim on your computer, optimized for i686 (P4 / AthlonXP or later) processors. Unlike gentoo, no compiling is necessary, and I ran benchmarks myself of gentoo vs Arch and there were only very specific cases where gentoo beat arch (basically 10% of the tasks I normally do on linux were faster on gentoo). This is with me changing the use flags, the optimization flags and everything on gentoo.

A little about me to know if my goals / opinions are similar to yours:

Distributions I've Tried:
Gentoo Linux (2004 series and the last edition of 2003)
Sorcerer Linux (pre 2004)
Lunar Linux (2004)
EvilEntity (2003)
Knoppix (still use for specific tasks)
Kanotix (use regularly)
SLAX (regular and KillBill editions)
PHLAK (excellent for its purpose, the hard drive install worked well too)
Ubuntu (this was a mess...I will explain in a bit why I didn't like it)
Red Hat (pre 7)
Mandrake (2 quarters ago, and only for a day)
Debian (same as mandrake)
Arch Linux (current system)

A bit about Ubuntu:
Plus: Marketing. One Man Team. Excellent and Clear Goals and Focus.
Minus: It's far from linux. Basically this is a distribution to get if you just want to say 'i use linux' for the sake of saying it. The dependencies are not debian friendly, it is very easy to break the system if you change even the simplist settings (like which repository to download from even if the site says it is compatible). If you want to have an optimized, easy to use linux to jump in and try out everything linux has to offer Mandriva, and Debian distributions do it better than Ubuntu.

However, with that being said try Ubuntu. Try every version of linux you can because you will eventually find one that sticks with you, and thats the beauty of the OS - there is a version for everyone, that seems to be perfect for you.

What I Use Linux For:
- online chat, web browsing, music and movie watching, listening and converting
- programming, server setup (http, ftp, smtp, steam, unreal, other game servers)
- working (spreadsheets and word processing)

This is a rough reaction by me. I am sure I missed out on some things, if you want any help installing, configuring, maintaining, or just learning about linux ask away in this thread, through PM, IM, or email and I will be glad to help.

Just Some General Tips:
- Always have a backup system, install linux on a spare drive, make sure you have a way back, or at least a knoppix cd.
- Find out all the hardware models of your computer, video card revision number (not just Asus 9800 Pro 128Mb, which revision).
Network card make and manufacturer is a must. This will save you a huge headache if anything ever goes wrong. You want at least the info for your motherboard, network card, sound card and video card.

Thats all I can think of right now. Remember above all have fun.

=Sarc=

I'll give my thoughts about the distros I've tried.

Slackware - Whoa, if you get this installed, you just learned a lot. Then if you get something running after, you will have really learned something. It's bare, it's slack, it's for the elite. I could hardly find any documentation for it.

Fedora Core 2 - It was really easy to install and very easy to use. I didn't really like the package management system. It seemed to time out if I tried to download too many packages at once. I didn't feel like I had much control over the hardware.

Mandrake 10 - I liked it better than Fedora though. The only thing was paying for support. Maybe I didn't understand it but it seemed like I had to subscribe to keep Mandrake updated. Basically, I had to pay for the package management service.

Gentoo - It's hard to install and maybe harder than Slackware. However, there's great documentation on gentoo.org about getting linux running and installing hardware. Their forums have the best information I could find on anything linux related. It had threads on specific hardware/software. Once you get Gentoo running, you'll be quite comfortable with linux. Then it's just a matter of installing stuff you want and learning new things along the way. Portage is a neat package management system. It's command line though but maybe there's a GUI interface out there.

Whatever distro you choose, I recommend compiling your own kernel. It's not hard and you learn a lot by doing it.

If you have an AMD64, I've only used Gentoo 64 with it. It works but I haven't kept up since January. Most of the problems stem from unsupported hardware for 64bit. I waited a long time for ATI drivers and wireless Broadcom drivers.

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Mateo

No linux will mess up your computer. It might replace windows, but I'd hardly call that a bad thing.

What microscosm says about goals is right, although by definition, almost any linux OS can be whatever you want it to be, given enough time and hacking.

I have tried the following:

Red Hat/Fedora
SuSE
Mandrake/Mandriva
Debian
Ubuntu/Kubuntu
Zen
Frugalware
Arch
Knoppix
Kanotix
Overclockkix
Goblinux
SAM
Slackware
Vector
Minislack
SLAX
Xandros
Linspire
Vida Linux
Navynos
PHLAX
and
PCBSD (Not linux).

Of these, the best all round distro has been Kanotix. Easy to install, great overall package selection, easy to use.

The best overall desktop out of the box: Vector. Slackware on steroids. What's not to like? Fast, good package selection, dead stable.

Worst sham: Ubuntu. Sorry, but I have certain core criteria of any OS on my system. First, I need my tunes. No MP3 playback, no deal. Next, DVD playback. I don't care why cannonical broke DVD playback on Ubuntu-it should work right away. The fact that I can synaptic it isn't the answer. Right off install, basic multimedia should work.
Third, I want control of my system. That means, if I want to get rid of Open Office (which I do), then I should not have to remove Ubuntu desktop to do it.

But Ubuntu is still nice for the "I'm curious" set.

Best learning experience: Slackware. Nothing like Slackware to teach you the innards of linux quick. Most people would say Gentoo, but I would say that teaches you more about hardware than the software. Slack is not for the faint of heart, but the Slack community is pretty good. The people are the documentation.

I haven't found one that really gets it right for me, but someone will. Then again, I could do it myself. A fast, good looking, stable, easy to update linux that fits on one disk (CD or DVD) and does basic multimedia well: TacticalOS (TM).

Apophis

I use a Knoppix LiveCD to do some wireless auditing / penetration testing work. It's got some issues, but that's to be expected with any LiveCD type OS. But I agree, it certainly is a good way to test out Linux on your machine.

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nickhastapee

wow, i dont understand this thread.

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Mateo

That means you should download something.

CingularDuality

OK, so these LiveCD versions... They're boot disks that actually contain an entire operating system? Nothing is installed on your HDD?

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micr0c0sm

That is correct Cingular. Although if you really like the LiveCD many of them have a script to install to your hard drive permanently.

CingularDuality

So...

I could take this CD to my computer at work, boot from it and run linux off the CD? When I'm done, the HDD will be untouched, except for any data files that I may have messed with?

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