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help-a-noobie

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jmh547

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
ok guys i have been reading (and looking at screen shots) and i think i am ready. so i downloaded knoppix just to check out linux. :attn: assuming all goes well i will download something a little more complex once i get off dialup in about a week and a half. i have a couple questions

1) i read the noobie thing on linux and saw that there are the noobie versions to install or you can go with yopper and such. what would you guys recomend be the best. i want to eventually just run linux because of my hate for microsoft. so i need a good reliable os that is free (or close to it)

2) since i want to ditch windows i will need a word processor

that should be all for now. wish me luck
 
you can install knoppix to your harddrive and have a working linux install based off of debian or as you said you can try other distros as you see fit. knoppix is fairly newbie friendly if you install it and uses a good package manager (apt-get) to install things. for a word processor use openoffice. it comes with knoppix and you can install it on other distros as it is free and mostly compatible with microsoft word documents. the only problem i've found with openoffice opening word documents is that if they have all kinds of weird formating and such it doesn't always display it the way it would in word, other than that i have never had a problem with it.

if you have any other questions along the way feel free to ask and someone will no doubt have an answer.
 
thank you very much. i got knoppix to work and i like it. i think i will try to download another destro.
 
I would recommend Xandros OCE if you are looking for a distribution that simply works, does everything automatically, autodetects all hardware, etc. It's easier to use than Windows. It is often the best distro to get your feet wet in.

Later on, you may migrate to other forms of linux, such as Gentoo or Debian. However, I really think that Xandros is the best to start with, as the install couldn't be easier, it always just works, and the package manager will allow you, with only minor mods to /etc/apt/sources.list, to install new software with ease.

Whatever you do, avoid distros that are based on rpms, as they will make you hate linux. These include Red Hat, Fedora, Mandrake, Suse, and some others.
 
I am pretty new to Linux myself, and am still in the process of learning my way around. Although I feel Knoppix is good in its own right, I really don't feel it is all that good for someone who really and truly wants to learn Linux. My biggest complaint with it is that you can't really save anything and get into configuring files, etc.

Really for most uses in daily life Windows or Linux can be very similiar. They are both GUI's that make using the system pretty easy, just point and click. Using a Knoppix doesn't really get you familiar with the different installation and configuration issues in Linux. I played around with Knoppix for a bit but only really started learning Linux after I did an install. Now I get to fight my way through configuration, installation of programs, and customizing my box.

As for which distro to choose as a first one I am sure others could be of more help than me. All I will offer is that you should also consider how much you really want to learn about the OS, and what your comfort level with computers and OSs is in general. I really wanted to dig in and start learning Linux, so I went for a bit of a more difficult distro, Slackware. If you want to just get your feet wet I know that there are other distros available that would be easier.
 
It all depends what you want out of your linux experience. If you want to use linux, but don't care about understanding how it works, Xandros is the way to go. If you want to really understand linux and learn to customize/hack it, then Gentoo/Debian is better (Gentoo is the best for that really).
 
Probably really, really easy. But I haven't done it. Xandros has amazing autodetection.
 
ok trying to download xandros and on my moms dsl it will take 246 hours what the heck. BitTornado is horrable
 
BitTorrent limits your download speed to your upload speed, so if you've restricted what speed you're uploading at, it also restricts the speed you're downloading at to the same number.
 
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