Linux Debian support - Second Best Linux?

Author

Second Best Linux?

Another Internet Wise Guy - Macon, Georgia USA

2005-01-19, 7:45 am

I am fed up with windows - had another virus get me today. I don't know
anything about Linux, but I am about to start reading the books I bought
today starting with "Linux in a Nutshell."

I realise that asking what the best version of Linux is here is like
asking an insurance salesman whether I need insurance, so let me ask
this: Other than Debian, what's the second best Linux? I am looking for
one that is really stable and has been around for a long time. Thanks!

--
Another Internet Wise Guy - Macon, Georgia USA
<another.internet.wise.guy@macon.georgia.com>

Andy Fraser

2005-01-19, 7:45 am

In alt.os.linux.debian, Another Internet Wise Guy - Macon, Georgia USA
uttered the immortal words:

> I am fed up with windows - had another virus get me today. I don't know
> anything about Linux, but I am about to start reading the books I bought
> today starting with "Linux in a Nutshell."

Starting with the hard stuff eh? ;-)

Don't get me wrong "Linux in a Nutshell" is excellent (I'm the proud owner
of a copy myself). I use it more as a reference work, a brain extension
that reminds me of the stuff I've forgotten.

> I realise that asking what the best version of Linux is here is like
> asking an insurance salesman whether I need insurance, so let me ask
> this: Other than Debian, what's the second best Linux? I am looking for
> one that is really stable and has been around for a long time. Thanks!

This is quite an interesting question. It's also a very difficult question
to answer. Slackware has been around for ages and is very stable. Gentoo is
also very stable but has only been around for a couple of years. Neither
are what I'd call newbie friendly though.

Of the newbie friendly distros out there I quite like Mandrake and Fedora
Core. Both have been around for ages (if you count Fedora as being Red Hat
which some will disagree with so read the Fedora website first) and have
been perfectly stable when I've tested them but judging by the number of
Fedora related questions either a larger than average number of people are
using it or it has issues for a lot of people and can't really be called
stable (depending on your definition of stable).

The choice is of course yours.

--
Andy.

John Hasler

2005-01-19, 5:46 pm

Another Internet Wise Guy writes:
> I realise that asking what the best version of Linux is here is like
> asking an insurance salesman whether I need insurance, so let me ask
> this: Other than Debian, what's the second best Linux? I am looking for
> one that is really stable and has been around for a long time.

Most beginners seem to find Debian too difficult to install and configure.
However, there are a number of Debian-derived distributions around that are
aimed at beginners. I suggest that you look at Libranet and Ubuntu.
--
John Hasler

Madhusudan Singh

2005-01-19, 5:46 pm

John Hasler wrote:

> Another Internet Wise Guy writes:
>
> Most beginners seem to find Debian too difficult to install and configure.

Pretty outdated advice. Have you taken a look at the new installer ?

(Your other suggested choices are good too - I would like to add MEPIS and
Knoppix to that list.)

Robert Tucker

2005-01-19, 5:46 pm

John Hasler wrote:
> I suggest that you look at Libranet and Ubuntu.

Ubuntu downloads and installs "like a dream" from the Internet and it's
an excellent desktop but if multi-media is your thing you may be a bit
disappointed. You may have to choose between either having MPlayer with
a GUI or with the browser plug-in and you probably won't be able to find
the rp8 version of RealPlayer it requires. I'm referring to Warty
Warthog - things may be better with Hoary Hedgehog.

Ranjan Grover

2005-01-20, 5:45 pm

I used to like Suse, installed like a dream. However, it used to crash on
me a lot and I was quite surprised by that, so I switched over to Debian.
I later found out that the Suse distro I was using installed reiserFS by
default and that was creating havoc on my system. So, I can definitely
give you a thumbs up for Suse, especially because of YaST which is by far
the best setup tool I've seen in any Linux distro. For a newbie, this is
very important. However, a lot of the helpfiles are in German. If you do
end up installing Suse, send me an email and I'll send you some website
bookmarks that I have which have a lot of good Suse specific information.
Just make sure that the filesystem that you install is not reiserFS. ext3
is safer.

Ranjan

francesco

2005-01-22, 2:45 am

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 07:36:45 -0600, John Hasler <jhasler@debian.org>
wrote:

>
>Most beginners seem to find Debian too difficult to install and configure.
>However, there are a number of Debian-derived distributions around that are
>aimed at beginners. I suggest that you look at Libranet and Ubuntu.

Why not Mepis?

John Hasler

2005-01-22, 5:45 pm

I wrote:
> Most beginners seem to find Debian too difficult to install and
> configure. However, there are a number of Debian-derived distributions
> around that are aimed at beginners. I suggest that you look at Libranet
> and Ubuntu.

francseco writes:
> Why not Mepis?

Because I don't know anything about it.
--
John Hasler

Andrew

2005-01-27, 5:45 pm

Another Internet Wise Guy - Macon, Georgia USA wrote:
> I am fed up with windows - had another virus get me today. I don't know
> anything about Linux, but I am about to start reading the books I bought
> today starting with "Linux in a Nutshell."
>
> I realise that asking what the best version of Linux is here is like
> asking an insurance salesman whether I need insurance, so let me ask
> this: Other than Debian, what's the second best Linux? I am looking for
> one that is really stable and has been around for a long time. Thanks!
>

I have found that Mepis is good for people who are trying to wean
themselves from Windows.

Now understand that I have only been running Linux for a month or so.
I have been through Mandrake, FC2, etc. I settled on Mepis.

--

Andrew

Andrew

2005-01-27, 5:45 pm

francesco wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 07:36:45 -0600, John Hasler <jhasler@debian.org>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Why not Mepis?

http://www.mepis.com

--

Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple

Dowd, Elwood P.

2005-01-29, 5:45 pm

Another Internet Wise Guy - Macon, Georgia USA wrote:

>
> I am fed up with windows - had another virus get me today. I don't know
> anything about Linux, but I am about to start reading the books I bought
> today starting with "Linux in a Nutshell."
>
> I realise that asking what the best version of Linux is here is like
> asking an insurance salesman whether I need insurance, so let me ask
> this: Other than Debian, what's the second best Linux? I am looking for
> one that is really stable and has been around for a long time. Thanks!
>

You may want to try a distro with a LiveCD so you can get a feel for it in
advance. Many major distro's (like SuSE, for example) have a LiveCD version
so you can boot from the CD and have a working system, without changing
your hard drive.

knoppix.net has info on many Debian-based LiveCDs - some of which can be
installed on your hard drive permanently, if you like.

Don't ignore Debian, I was a bit hesitant to try it, even though I've used
several other Linux distros for a number of years. I was amazed at how
easily it installed and am very happy with it.

--
Rgds,

Elwood