This thread is here to (hopefully) put some sense to the tons of posts about what Linux flavour to try (and if you should try it). I plan on splitting this into four sections: Considering, Planning, Installing, Playing.
First, a few terms to be defined:
- Flavour/Distro: Linux is open-source, meaning anyone can play with the code and make modifications to it and have their own customised versions. These versions are sometimes referred to as flavours (or flavors if you're American
). Another term you may hear to describe these versions is "distros", which stands for distribution. They all mean the same thing. There are many, many flavours of Linux out there. A few of the more well known ones you may have heard of already (Red Hat/Fedora (Core), Mandrake, SuSE, Knoppix/Gnoppix, Gentoo). They will be discussed below.
- Kernel/Vanilla Kernel: the base of the system that everything runs off of. In your research (or this document), you may hear terms like 2.4 kernel or 2.6 kernel. The numbers refer to a version. This will also be discussed below. A vanilla kernel is the plain version of the kernel, before the modifications of a Linux flavour are added (Vanilla flavour = plain flavour, no special features, get it?)
- Window Manager: the graphical gui system that you can run. The most popular ones are KDE and Gnome, although others do exist and may be touched upon in this post.
- LiveCD: A version/flavour/distro of Linux that can completely run off a CD, not requiring any modifications of your hard drive.
- Boot Loader: program that transitions you from your initial BIOS screen to running the kernel. The most popular Linux boot loaders (Grub and Lilo) allow you to boot to multiple partitions (which means being able to dual boot on your system).
Considering
So you're thinking of trying Linux. Good for you! There are a few things you should watch for. The suggestions below primarily exist for a Linux distro that you install (not a LiveCD), but can still apply for LiveCDs too.
- Be prepared to spend a *lot* of time with it. Dedicating a weekend to doing your first Linux install is not a bad idea. While installations for most distros are getting easier, it's not completely streamlined yet. You may encounter problems where you are dumped to a command line.
- When installing, it's helpful to have another computer close by that has access to the 'net. With that, if you run into problems, you can still Google for help. This leads me to the next point.
- Google will probably be your best friend here. Chances are if you're having a problem, many other people have run into the same problem. If you don't know how to do something, Google likely can point you to a page that tells you how to do it.
- Expect to 'screw up' and have to start again. Partitioning drives for a first time can be confusing. Thankfully, some distros do it automatically now. Still, if you mess up a partition, or your boot loader doesn't work.... you may have to reinstall. For that reason, it's suggested you use a hard drive/partition that doesn't have data you wish to keep on it.
- If you have a totally separate computer to do this, great.. use that. Linux doesn't require much (hell, it can be installed on a 486.. XWindows/GUI/compiling would be pretty slow though ) If you are going to do this on a computer that already has something on it, it's suggested using a whole hard drive just for the first install or two (just in case you accidentally delete a partition on the hard drive.. you won't have data on there you can't afford to lose)
- Backups are nice if you can, just in case. No one ever plans on losing their data
As a final note, SecretMethod70 posted an article called "
Why Linux is Not for You: The Lengthy Rebuttal of a Linux User". I highly recommend you
read it. It contains a lot more information, and goes more into the non-technical facts of Linux use (why do you want to use it? Are you prepared to commit to using it?).
Still with me? Good
Planning
Hardware
As mentioned above, it's suggested you allocate a separate machine (or at least a separate hard drive) your first time or two (to prevent data loss
). I won't delve into that much more. I think it speaks for itself.
Software
Linux has equivalents for most things you are after. The thread titled
Linux Software Equivalents lists a few suggestions, but I'll reproduce some of the major equivalences below. Remember though, Linux is about *choice*, and there are alternatives to the ones listed below. It's all up to you
Some notes:
- Mozilla/Mozilla Firefox/Mozilla Thunderbird are all different products. Mozilla is an all-in-one type client, which has a web browser, mail client, html editor, calendar, and address book. Firefox, which is built on top of the Mozilla web browser code, is a quicker, modified "browser-only" program. Mozilla Thunderbird, which is built on top of the Mozilla mail client code, is a quicker, modified "mail-only" program.
- Gaim is listed as a replacement for all those messaging clients because it can handle all those messaging networks in one program (like Trillian does).
- Outlook is separate from the other mail clients because it is a Personal Information Manager (PIM). It has tasks, a calendar, an address book, and more (and of course, mail). Evolution is a clone of that, with the same things.
- The way most media players work with DivX/Real Player/Quicktime/etc is with the Windows codecs. There are packages of Windows Codecs out there (the MPlayer website has links to them). You can download the packages (really just need the one package of all the codecs), unzip them to a certain directory (usually /usr/lib/win32), and the media player uses them as needed.
- For the office clones, OpenOffice is able to read/write Microsoft Office files. Not sure about KOffice, as I use OpenOffice for my files. The thread titled "OpenOffice vs. MSOffice: Cutting Through the FUD is very informative. The thread titled OpenOffice is also a good read to see TFP peoples' opinions on it.
- The "cmd" line is just a joke, but it should be noted that there are many types of virtual terminals out there once you get into your GUI. They include Konsole, Gnome-terminal (page currently 404s because of the gnome site getting hacked, Eterm, and Aterm.
There are other equivalents for other products.
What if you just want to run a Windows program? That's where things like
Wine and
Win4Lin.
Wine is not a Windows emulator. It is an implement ion of the API. This means it handles the system calls that Windows programs makes and calls the appropriate Linux calls for it. What's that mean to you? It means you can run your window programs from Linux. See the website for more details. There's also a version of Wine called
WineX, which handles DirectX stuff, allowing you to play some of your Windows games in Linux. I can't say much about Win4Lin, as I've never tried it. It is a commercial wine-type program, with even more compatibility with Windows.
Leading into my discussion of window managers, I should talk about the underlying components that let a window manager do it's job!
XWindows
XWindows is the underlying component I was talking about, it sits between the kernel and the GUI, and translates GUI calls to the kernel and vice versa (among other things). A transition recently happened, and there are still a lot of references out there to the older program, so I thought I'd mention the two programs.
XFree86 was the reigning standard for quite a while. Recently, though, they changed their licensing structure (you'll see that most Linux advocates support Open Source by nature). The changed licensing structure caused problems, and a new group was formed (the
X.Org Foundation). The X.Org Foundation came out with their own version of XWindows, and kept the old license that XFree86 used. Because of this, most of the distros have drifted towards using X.Org instead of XFree86. It looks as if X.Org is THE version to use.
Anyways, with that said... on with the window managers! Linux is about choice, remember. You have a choice of window managers too!
Window Managers
I'll talk a bit about two of the more popular window managers and provide links to a couple others. The two primary window managers are
Gnome and
KDE. While they both are easy to use and user-friendly (for the most part), they both handle things their own way. Which you use is a matter of personal opinion.
- Gnome - Gnome recently released version 2.10 of it's software, fixing a lot of bugs and adding a lot of new features. The old version (by "old" I mean "came out about 6 months ago" is Gnome 2.8)
- KDE - KDE is probably easier to use than Gnome, and will probably seem fairly familiar to Windows users (in the way it's set up). KDE recently came out with version 3.4 of their software. The older versions were 3.3.
Visit the web pages to see more about the programs, there's too much to mention here (and for the people who know what window managers and session managers are.. they're both, while programs like
Enlightenment are only a window manager).
Other window managers include:
Most Linux distros come with a large majority of the programs mentioned above (it might skip Eterm or Aterm for example). Most distros also come with Gnome and KDE. Others may be possible, but aren't usually installed by default.
Alright, you think you can handle running Linux and using the alternatives. Where to next? Why, you need to pick a distro, of course!
Linux Distributions
Here I'll list some of the more popular distros and say a bit about them. Before I get to them, I am going to quickly talk about the kernel, that all distros are built off of.
Kernel
As said above, the kernel is the base of the operating system, the foundation. It is what talks to the hardware, among other things. Recently, the 2.6 kernel came out. This has a lot of improvements from the 2.4 kernel, but can still be buggy. (The 2.5 kernel is just a bunch of test versions, not to be used by beginners
) For a first timer, you should probably start out with whatever your distro recommends. I am just mentioning the difference so when I mention it below, you know what I'm talking about.
LiveCD Versions
LiveCDs are great because you can try Linux using one of them without screwing up your system.
- Knoppix - This version is quite popular for people who a) want to try Linux but don't want to blow away their hard drives/data or b) screwed up their system badly and need a rescue CD. The primary window manager Knoppix uses is KDE, although it supports a couple others.
Latest Knoppix Release - 5.0.1
Kernel Version: 2.6.17-rc
KDE Version: 3.5.2
- Other distros have LiveCDs, but the distros generally are used for the installed version. I'll discuss them below.
Install Versions
The following versions you actually install on your hard drive. Most come with a graphical installation option, making it a lot easier on you when you install.
- (Red Hat) Fedora - Fedora is the new name for Redhat Linux, basically (there's some details behind it all, but it's sponsored by Red Hat). Fedora is a fairly user-friendly system that supports Gnome and KDE, although it's Gnome support tends to be better. It has easy graphical installs and is RPM-based, meaning it can install RPM packages you download off the Internet (makes installing software ALOT easier).
Latest Stable Release - Fedora Core 6
Kernel Version: 2.6.18
KDE Version: 3.5.4
Gnome Version: 2.16.0
- Mandriva (formally Mandrake) - If I was to order this list in terms of easiness, Mandriva would come first (I didn't do it like that because I wanted to say the next line...). Originally, Mandriva was built on RedHat, just with better KDE support, but it has grown exponentially and really come into it's own. It has an easy-to-use graphical interface from the install to the usage. It is also RPM based (as it was based on RedHat). I recommend this if it is your first install ever.
Latest Stable Release - Mandriva 2007
Kernel Version: 2.6.17
KDE Version: 3.5.4
Gnome Version: 2.16.0
- SuSE/OpenSuSE - I've never done the graphical install of SuSE Linux, but reading over others' posts, it sounds like the graphical install is just as easy as that of Mandrake or Linux. SuSE is RPM-based, but has it's own "version" of RPMs, making it stand out a bit differently from the Fedora/Mandrake group (not that that's a real bad thing). OpenSuSE is a version of SuSE without all the proprietary stuff SuSE includes (Flash, Java, etc). Because SuSE/OpenSuSE uses their own version of the RPMs, other RPMs will not work on their system.. so you have to find SuSE versions (and of course, you can manually configure, compile, and install the software. It's a good experience). Novell occasionally has an offer where they'll send you a bunch of SuSE software for free! This includes a recent version of SuSE Linux. For more information, see here. A huge thanks to Fallon for finding it.
Latest Stable Release - SuSE 10.1
Kernel Version: 2.6.16.13
KDE Version: 3.5.1
Gnome Version: 2.12.0.1
- Ubuntu - There's been much talk about this distro of late. Based on the popular (but difficult for newbies) Debian distribution, it hides a lot of the hard stuff from you, making it a very new-user-friendly distro. Because it's based on Debian, it uses .deb packages, which are very similar to rpms. It comes with a graphical installation manager (Synaptic) that makes installing new programs fairly painless. The default window manager is Gnome. There is also a Kubuntu distribution, which is Ubuntu with KDE as default. Both also have LiveCDs to test the distro with. If you use Ubunutu (and you should ), check out Automatix and EasyUbuntu. Both programs allow you to install a lot of the extra stuff you'll want (mp3/video codecs, plugins, etc). I suggest this one for your first install!
Latest Stable Release - Ubuntu 6.10 ("edgy eft")
Kernel Version: 2.6.17
KDE Version: 3.5.6
Gnome Version: 2.16.0
- Gentoo/Slackware/Debian - You may hear about these distros from others. They are not suggested for your first install. They're all good distros, and each have their own great features to them.. but if you try to tackle one of these on your first try they'll probably swear off Linux forever .
- LindowsOS/Linspire - DO NOT USE. They don't work for the good of Linux community (as other distros do.. while still making money). They are just in it completely for themselves. Not in the "open source" spirit at all. See the thread here for more info. Also, the thread here asks for opinions on Lindows, none are good
Any other distros, you'll have to google. The following threads/links could be helpful to you:
Google - If you don't know this, you're in trouble
Distrowatch - This keeps track of the (many, many) distros out there and when new versions are getting released.
Which flavor of Linux? - A thread from almost a year ago (they're talking about RedHat 9.. before Fedora!)
linux basics? - A thread about Linux basics (a couple months old).
Thinking about trying out LINUX... - The thread that caused this to be made (well, the straw that broke the camel's back).
mandrake linux 10.0 community - A thread about the latest (test) version of Mandrake
[Linux] RedHat vs. SuSE - A thread about RedHat over SuSE
Linux Newbie - Another "new to linux" thread
Mandrake vs Redhat? Which do you prefer? - It goes into other distros as well
There are more threads on this board that address the "which flavour to use" issue. Just search the Computing forum for "linux" and you get around 12 pages back
. I will add more later, when I have time.
Wow.. all that and we haven't even gotten to installing. Let's move on!
Installing
This section will be relatively short, as every distro has it's own individual install process. If you can, I'd recommend you just do an "install everything" option (if your distro's install process has one, it probably does). That way you can play with all the stuff on the system. Otherwise you may miss stuff that could be useful to you and never know it
Most every (good) distro can be downloaded. Check out
LinuxISO to download most of the ones mentioned in this post. Use Nero or some other program to read the ISO and burn it to CD(s). Pop in the first CD (which should be bootable) and off you go!
Different distros come with different boot loaders. As said before, Grub and Lilo are the primary ones. Grub has a more graphical interface to it (well, from what I've experienced of the two). It's all a matter of choice
.
It is *highly* recommended you make a boot disk when prompted. If your system screws up, it can be a great saviour (although some distros do have a "Rescue Mode" on the bootable CD).
Alright.. it's all installed.. now what?
Playing
Another short section.
Congrats on getting it installed! Any problems, Be sure to
Google (or ask here at TFP
).
So now that it's installed.. what should you try, what are some hints? Here's a few from me (other people will probably post more tips in this thread as well):
- To un-tar a .tar file: tar -xvf <filename.tar>
- To un-tar a .tgz or .tar.gz file: tar -zxvf <filename.tar.gz> or <filename.tgz>
- To un-tar a .tar.bz2 file: tar -jxvf <filename.tar.bz2>
- To install a .rpm file: rpm -Uvh <filename.rpm>
- To un-install a .rpm file: rpm --erase <programname>
- If you're in a GUI, and you want to go to a text console: CTRL-ALT-F1 through to CTRL-ALT-F6. CTRL-ALT-F7 will take you back to your graphical environment. (note: this is not for opening a normal terminal window, if you want to do that, just run your window manager's console/terminal program)
- If Xwindows freezes on you, try CTRL-ALT-BackSpace to kill your X session
- To change resolutions in Xwindows: CTRL-ALT-(plus key) and CTRL-ALT-(minus-key)
The following thread could also be of interest to you:
Top Linux Downloads. It has some good software suggestions in it.
Finally, I'll finish off with
Freshmeat. Freshmeat is a site that keeps track of a lot of opensource programs and projects. If you're looking for something, chances are it's listed there
Also,
IceWalkers is a similar site, with plenty of Linux software available.
New Section (as of June 2005) - User-supplied links!
There are many good suggestions and links in this thread, but I thought I'd grab the links mentioned and make a list here so you don't have to dig through it. They are (in order that I've found them in the thread):
- samba.org - Samba is a program that allows you to share your files/directories and printers with Windows. It's very customisable and very useful. There is a lot of doco out there on setting it up.
- kernel.org - What a kernel was is defined above. This site is the "homepage" for the vanilla kernel. It's pretty technical, but a good way to see how the system works.
- linuxquestions.org - A very newbie-friendly site to help handle questions that come during the installing/running of Linux. From TurbineSlut (below): "They have an extensive Wiki on all sorts of Linux stuff but better yet the forums there are very active and you can find information there on pretty much anything."
- linuxiso.org - A site that has ISOs for many Linux distros, although it seems to be sort of slow to update.
- distrowatch.org - distrowatch.org was mentioned above, but it's so useful it needs another mention. It has comparisons, reviews, downloads, and statistics for almost ever distro out there.
- tldp.org - From skaven: "The Linux Documentation Project. It's always been my first resource when trying to figure out how to do something in linux. The alphabetical HOWTO list is generally the most useful for newbies."
- zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php - Distribution Chooser; it asks you questions and then chooses an appropriate distro for you.
- livecdlist.com - A list of LiveCDs you can use to give Linux a try.
- linux-laptop.net - Linux on Laptops; find out how that laptop you're eyeing handles Linux before you buy it.
- sane-project.org - The Sane Project; get your scanner working with Linux!
So that's it. Good luck, enjoy, etc.
This post is definitely open to suggestions/improvements/criticisms. Let me know if you think something should be changed/added/deleted. Thanks