New to Linux, which version

grs · Apr 3, 2006

I have an old PII desktop and though I'd stick Linux on to see what it's all about. Someone suggested I try Open Suse 10.0. I read the other day that certain files types (some audio files, something to do with patents/copyright?) will not work with this, is this true and can people give me other suggestions.

Thanks

anon1 · Apr 3, 2006

Personally, I'd recommend sticking with a Debian-Based Linux distribution, because SuSe hasn't been that good to me in the past. I would recommend either going with Pure Debian or Ubuntu. If you go with Ubuntu, you can have Cds shipped to you for free.

hibner · Apr 3, 2006

I went with Ubuntu, just because it was free and well supported. You can find plenty of info about Ubuntu on the web and here around the forums. I have never used Linux before, and was able to set up a dual boot XP and Ubuntu system. I also set up a third partition that can be seen by both OSes. I have set up Ubuntu to fold (for team 32 of coarse

) and find my self using XP less every day.

infinitevalence · Apr 3, 2006

Gentoo, or Debian-Based. I think Gentoo has the best beginer tools out there, with an awsome install handbook and really really good documentation.

Cheator · Apr 3, 2006

Ubuntu, SUSE and most other linux distros now don't come with the ability to play MP3 and DVD because of copyright issues. There are easy guides out there though to remedy that and if you go with ubuntu, it is generally easy.

FudgeNuggets · Apr 3, 2006

I've tried Knoppix, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mandrake and SUSE. I found that for someone that has little to no Linux knowledge SUSE was by far the least cumbersome to install and start using. It boots a bit slow but it autodected darned near anything and the only driver I had to worry about was for my NVIDIA gfx card because it installed the "base" driver and I wanted the accelerated driver. That was a tremendous pain because it was clear on the packages I needed but not which ones to update. It took me about a week to get the driver installed.

anon1 · Apr 3, 2006

hibner said:
I went with Ubuntu, just because it was free and well supported. You can find plenty of info about Ubuntu on the web and here around the forums. I have never used Linux before, and was able to set up a dual boot XP and Ubuntu system. I also set up a third partition that can be seen by both OSes. I have set up Ubuntu to fold (for team 32 of coarse ) and find my self using XP less every day.

Woot Woot!!

Cheator said:
Ubuntu, SUSE and most other linux distros now don't come with the ability to play MP3 and DVD because of copyright issues. There are easy guides out there though to remedy that and if you go with ubuntu, it is generally easy.

The newest version of Ubuntu (5.10) plays MP3's perfectly. I use XMMS for my MP3 files, and they work great. I know that the previous version had a few problems with MP3 files, but this one works excellent.

FudgeNuggets said:
I've tried Knoppix, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mandrake and SUSE. I found that for someone that has little to no Linux knowledge SUSE was by far the least cumbersome to install and start using. It boots a bit slow but it autodected darned near anything and the only driver I had to worry about was for my NVIDIA gfx card because it installed the "base" driver and I wanted the accelerated driver. That was a tremendous pain because it was clear on the packages I needed but not which ones to update. It took me about a week to get the driver installed.

SuSe has an installation and auto-detection for a beginning Linux user, however, it is often very slow, and in fact, the base system contains more games than actual applications. (Which I dislike) I've installed SuSe twice, and then I just dumped it, because it doesn't have much support (dependency-wise), however, I did like YAST...

grs · Apr 3, 2006

Thanks for the advice. I already have Suse 10 downloaded and I'm getting Ubuntu 5.10 as I type. I'll give them both a go over the next while.
Quick question about Linux application, will applications written for Linux work on all versions of Linux?

khiloa · Apr 3, 2006

grs said:
Quick question about Linux application, will applications written for Linux work on all versions of Linux?

Yes.

BTW: :welcome:

to the forums!

anon1 · Apr 3, 2006

grs said:
Thanks for the advice. I already have Suse 10 downloaded and I'm getting Ubuntu 5.10 as I type. I'll give them both a go over the next while.
Quick question about Linux application, will applications written for Linux work on all versions of Linux?

Not necessarily. As long as the file has the extension tar.gz or tar.bz2, then you know for a fact it will. If it has .rpm, then it can be installed on all of them, but it won't be necessarily easy. With SuSe, rpm's can be installed easily, and on both SuSe and Ubuntu, tar.gz and tar.bz2 can be installed very easily.

New to Linux, which version

grs

Member

anon1

Member

hibner

Member

infinitevalence

Member

Cheator

Member

FudgeNuggets

Member

anon1

Member

grs

Member

khiloa

Open Source Senior

anon1

Member

Similar threads