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Home > Archive > Linux/Unix > February 2001 > Linux Flavours...
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| Hi,
If I'm just starting to learn linux, which flavour of linux should I be using. Also, how much variation is there between the different flavours of Linux? | |
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| Heh, heh, heh. You just walked into Baskin Robbins:-)
There are so many routes you can go. Since you are new Linux-Mandrake (recommended) or Corel Linux would be your best choice. I would have recommended Corel Linux, but with all the financial problems they are encountering, I do not know how far they are going to go.
Slackware is a the most UNIX like of the distributions, but you will really get your hands dirty. Red Hat is an obvious choice which you cannot go wrong with. Then you have SuSE, Storm, Caldera, Turbo, etc.
The choice is yours. Check out some reviews and decide which one to try. Pick a distribution that you feel comfortable with (and have a wide range of documentation) and stick with it.
http://www.linuxlookup.com/html/main/distro.html
Good Luck:-) | |
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| Caldera, Mandrake or Corel would be good choices to start with. Slackware or Debian would not . . . it doesnt hold your hand as much, those two are basically for guys who already know what they are doing. Check your hardware to make sure you have all of the right stuff (i.e., no WinModems). If you choose to put a version of Linux on a machine that already has an OS on it, you'll need a version of Partition Magic if you want to save your data. Caldera comes with a basic version of PM but it wont help you in partioning a Win2K or WinME machine. | |
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| Oh, yeah . . . variation . . . after installation and configuration, most of them are mostly the same. The overall look or feel may vary but basically the commands and performance and software is similar. | |
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| I'd say go with Mandrake. The install is very intuitive and it comes with a lot of GUIs.
The partitioning portion of the installation allows you resize your current Windows partition (works with 9x, but not NT or 2000, not sure about ME).
As far as hardware goes Linux is actually pretty good at autodetecting most things. PCI cards seem to work better then ISA and winmodems are more of a hassle to get working then it's worth. | |
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| I have to agree with ccieToBe; I have been using Linux since the 2.0.33 days and have been using Mandrake since 98. Would have to say that just because it has a GUI doesn't mean it isn't for the more adventurous, just why reinvent the wheel. Also, Mandrake is considered to be more cutting edge than many other distros. | |
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| Ok,
Now where do I download these from? And how do I install it. With Microsoft products, you always create a boot disk, and start the installation from the boot disk. How do I do about it with Linux? | |
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| Try LinuxLookup.com http://www.linuxlookup.com/html/main/iso.html
Downloading ISO images are much easier from here and you have a lot of distributions to choose from. I also hope that you have a fast connect because these downloads can be lenghty. Expect over 600MB per distribution. | |
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| If you have a fast connection and a cd writter the ISO images are the way to go. You can get a list of FTP mirrors at http://mandrake.com | |
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| Thank you.
I'll check it out tonight. I'm also going to try to do some installs this weekend.
Do I have to have a seperate hard drive for each falvour of Linux I would like to instsall, or can I duel boot between os's if I create different partitions? | |
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| You can all put them on one drive if you create partitions. You'll need a program like Boot Magic to allow you to choose which OS to startup with though. That's what I always use, anyway. | |
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| So there's no boot.ini or such like windows NT. I have to use a seperate partition loader. How much is it? | |
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| Are there any free partition apps that I could use? | |
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| CFDISK comes with every Linux distro I've used. It's simular to DOS FDISK but more advanced. The Mandrake instalation has a GUI for partitioning (Disk Drake I think). The first time you install, free up some disk space if there's not already some, then tell it to auto-allocated the empty space. You can worry about the best way to partition later after you've learned the basics.
BootMagic is a good program, but if you're low on cash like me, LILO (LInux LOader) works too. It's installed by default and does a good job of autodetecting Windows. | |
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| Thanks you guys. I'll have a plentora of new questions after the weekend I'm sure  | |
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| Are any of you guys using suse? I am going to try and install a different flavour of linux to see first hand the differences and similarities between flavours. I hear a lot of you talking about mandrake, but I had never heard of it before coming to this forum. Is it used it in the indusrty? Would you recommend I install Mandrake or suse for comparison purposes? | |
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| Mandrake started basically as newer version of Red Hat with some extra add-ons, and it is unusually easy to use. Very smooth, especially for beginners.
SUSe's approach is more along the lines of "everything but the kitchen sink". It is a HUGE distro and I love it, it comes with TONS od stuff to play around with and although not quite as friendly as some of the other distros, it will really give you a taste of all that is available on Linux -- I would recommend SUSe even more so than Mandrake. If you are beginning to feel comfy with Linux, go for SUSe, it's a great distro. The major ones to be aware of are Slackware and Debian at this point -- both are stable, but are more or less intended for experts.
BTW, I love your strategy! There's nothign better than trying it out first hand! Best of luck to you!
(READ THE DOCS!!!!) | |
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| Mandrake started basically as newer version of Red Hat with some extra add-ons, and it is unusually easy to use. Very smooth, especially for beginners.
SUSe's approach is more along the lines of "everything but the kitchen sink". It is a HUGE distro and I love it, it comes with TONS od stuff to play around with and although not quite as friendly as some of the other distros, it will really give you a taste of all that is available on Linux -- I would recommend SUSe even more so than Mandrake. If you are beginning to feel comfy with Linux, go for SUSe, it's a great distro. The major ones to be aware of are Slackware and Debian at this point -- both are stable, but are more or less intended for experts.
BTW, I love your strategy! There's nothign better than trying it out first hand! Best of luck to you!
(READ THE DOCS!!!!) | |
|
| Mandrake started basically as newer version of Red Hat with some extra add-ons, and it is unusually easy to use. Very smooth, especially for beginners.
SUSe's approach is more along the lines of "everything but the kitchen sink". It is a HUGE distro and I love it, it comes with TONS od stuff to play around with and although not quite as friendly as some of the other distros, it will really give you a taste of all that is available on Linux -- I would recommend SUSe even more so than Mandrake. If you are beginning to feel comfy with Linux, go for SUSe, it's a great distro. The major ones to be aware of are Slackware and Debian at this point -- both are stable, but are more or less intended for experts.
BTW, I love your strategy! There's nothign better than trying it out first hand! Best of luck to you!
(READ THE DOCS!!!!) | |
|
| Mandrake started basically as newer version of Red Hat with some extra add-ons, and it is unusually easy to use. Very smooth, especially for beginners.
SUSe's approach is more along the lines of "everything but the kitchen sink". It is a HUGE distro and I love it, it comes with TONS od stuff to play around with and although not quite as friendly as some of the other distros, it will really give you a taste of all that is available on Linux -- I would recommend SUSe even more so than Mandrake. If you are beginning to feel comfy with Linux, go for SUSe, it's a great distro. The major ones to be aware of are Slackware and Debian at this point -- both are stable, but are more or less intended for experts.
BTW, I love your strategy! There's nothign better than trying it out first hand! Best of luck to you!
(READ THE DOCS!!!!) | |
|
| Mandrake started basically as newer version of Red Hat with some extra add-ons, and it is unusually easy to use. Very smooth, especially for beginners.
SUSe's approach is more along the lines of "everything but the kitchen sink". It is a HUGE distro and I love it, it comes with TONS od stuff to play around with and although not quite as friendly as some of the other distros, it will really give you a taste of all that is available on Linux -- I would recommend SUSe even more so than Mandrake. If you are beginning to feel comfy with Linux, go for SUSe, it's a great distro. The major ones to be aware of are Slackware and Debian at this point -- both are stable, but are more or less intended for experts.
BTW, I love your strategy! There's nothign better than trying it out first hand! Best of luck to you!
(READ THE DOCS!!!!) | |
|
| Mandrake started basically as newer version of Red Hat with some extra add-ons, and it is unusually easy to use. Very smooth, especially for beginners.
SUSe's approach is more along the lines of "everything but the kitchen sink". It is a HUGE distro and I love it, it comes with TONS od stuff to play around with and although not quite as friendly as some of the other distros, it will really give you a taste of all that is available on Linux -- I would recommend SUSe even more so than Mandrake. If you are beginning to feel comfy with Linux, go for SUSe, it's a great distro. The major ones to be aware of are Slackware and Debian at this point -- both are stable, but are more or less intended for experts.
BTW, I love your strategy! There's nothign better than trying it out first hand! Best of luck to you!
(READ THE DOCS!!!!) | |
|
| Mandrake started basically as newer version of Red Hat with some extra add-ons, and it is unusually easy to use. Very smooth, especially for beginners.
SUSe's approach is more along the lines of "everything but the kitchen sink". It is a HUGE distro and I love it, it comes with TONS od stuff to play around with and although not quite as friendly as some of the other distros, it will really give you a taste of all that is available on Linux -- I would recommend SUSe even more so than Mandrake. If you are beginning to feel comfy with Linux, go for SUSe, it's a great distro. The major ones to be aware of are Slackware and Debian at this point -- both are stable, but are more or less intended for experts.
BTW, I love your strategy! There's nothign better than trying it out first hand! Best of luck to you!
(READ THE DOCS!!!!) | |
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| have no idea as tp what happened above, please ignore the extra (and unintended) postings. |
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