I just installed SuSE 9.0 Pro (I had it lying around) and it was pretty painless. I made sure to install a separate partition for /home in the event I needed to Ghost or reinstall - my data files would be intact.

I installed nVidia nForce drivers but didn't get the audio driver to install. The default audio driver works fine at the moment. This was a "regular" RPM and installed OK (contrary to the initial message in this thread).

I haven't installed the ATI Radeon video drivers - that's next.

I installed VMWare Workstation 4.5.2 and it went without a hitch. I'm installing Windows XP Pro with SP/2 as I write this.

I also installed GLTron for fun but without the 3D acceleration it's unplayable.

A few things that helped:

1) If you need to run a script, preface it with ./ such as ./script.pl

2) You will need to install something using root, therefore preface the install command with "sudo" such as "sudo ./install.pl" Enter your root password when prompted

3) If you still can't run the script make sure it's flagged with Execute permission; right click the file, select Properties, and next to User click *Execute. You can do a CHMOD from the terminal as well.

4) Consult readme files and Google for any pecularities

I've got more stuff to configure so who knows when I'll get stumped but so far it's been progressing just fine. My previous experiences with Linux weren't as smooth.

Enjoy!

Updated:
-Knoppix/Gnoppix (New Versions)
-Mandrake/SuSE Info (added subversion numbers)

A few handy tips for the command line:

To find out what kind of data Linux thinks is in a particular file use the 'file' command, e.g.:

>file format.exe
format.exe: MS-DOS executable (EXE)

To find out what program will be executed when you type a certain command, try the 'type' builtin bash command:

>type sudo
sudo is /usr/bin/sudo
>file /usr/bin/sudo
/usr/bin/sudo: setuid ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped

Information overload for me; I tried slax, the linux os that works from a small cd and was totally impressed. It was a good toe-dip into the linux lake.

I'm suprised I haven't seen a link to this site yet:

http://www.tldp.org

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.

Great post, Latch! This will come in handy when I upgrade to Linux from Windows later on. :D

learn to love the command line. learn to navigate the file structure and find information. once you do, you will hate using the mouse.

not sure what a command does or what arguments it can take? check the man pages.

not sure what chmod does? type

and a manual page is displayed.

you can even

if you want.

Slackware 10.0 user here in support of the Linux movement

updated the post with newest versions of fedora, mandrake, suse, and gnoppix.

Added amaroK for KDE in the software list as an audio player alternative. It's sexcellent :thumbsup:

I am currently running Fedora Core 2 on one machine and Windows XP on another! This is a handy setup for me as I can use my Windows PC for doing the day to day stuff I do and then I use my Linux PC for running my web server on (using apache). Just learning to do this has made me more determined to eventually move away from MS Windows in the end. I suppose the point I am trying to make is the transition isn't easy at first but it is enjoyable if your prepared to work at it.
Great thread and good info for all of us Linux newbies. Thanks.

Truly a great post, especially the warning about backups:
"no one ever plans on losing data"

Hilarious, or really sad, depenending on your take.

Just to continue on my new mission in life, there is a new distro out there based on Debian called Ubuntu and, for a brand new distro, it's friggin' awesome. Easy like Mandrake, but free and with access to all the Debian libraries (8,000+ software and file installers!).

Really, this should be included in every Linux roundup from now on because I really think they're here to stay, and may even be the solution for Linux on the desktop for many small enterprise situations. Just a thought...

Pierre

Has anyone installed Mandrake 10.1? I got it installed on my notebook (installation went smoothly). After rebooting all I get is a blue screen with Mandrakelinux 10.1 logo. The mouse cursor is visible and moves freely.

I do not get a logon screen per Mandrake manual. Mandrake tech support requires registration and of course I don't have a CD key. :D Is there a key combo to evoke the logon screen? Thank you for your help in advance. :D :D :D

Sounds like something is screwed up with your X server starting up. Hit ctrl-alt-F1 to go to a text prompt, log in as root, and take a look at /var/log/XFree86.0.log (Mandrake may use X.org, which might use a different log file...not sure) Hopefully you'll see something enlightening there.

I reinstalled again without Xorg and still didn't work. I think by default network is set to modem, which I didn't specify. I set it up to lan with DHCP but disabled all options. Still didn't fly. My guess is the hardware isn't 100% compatible with Mandrake 10.1. Does anyone know where to get Suse or Redhat? Thanks!!

SuSE you usually have to pay for.

Consumer redhat is now called Fedora Core... they're up to Fedora Core 3 (which they originally released). Get it at http://fedora.redhat.com.

Check out my original post for SuSE links (and other links, like distrowatch).

What are your thoughts on Ubuntu? I got a bunch of free CDs in the mail.

Give it a shot. Bendsley will talk it up more than me (as it's Debian-based), but I've heard good things about it.

Let us know how it is, what you think, and what you would precieve to be the difficulty level/experience needed to be comfortable with it (if you wouldn't mind reporting back hehe).

I've never used it, and it's relatively new, so I can't really say much either way.

Well, better late than never, eh?

Installation went smoothly. I wanted a dual-boot with XP, and was afraid of Ubuntu (Debian) accidently axing my partition table (Debian doesn't have the ebst record for installation. Or configuration. Or, well, anything besides stability and package management). So I made some adjustments with Partition Magic beforehand. I got to a point where Ubuntu said that it was having problems with eth0, since it wasn't plugged in. I plugged it in in the other room, and told it to retry. Then it downloads eight thousand packages. Okay. But guess what one of them was... MADWIFI! That's right, linux did something that I never would have expected it to; linux made an executive decision that made my life a lot easier. Finding that out made my day.

After rebooting and everything, I checked out synaptic, the package manager. Easy to use, and contains a whole lot of crap I'd probably never use. But it's waiting for me. Root is disabled by default, making sure nubs like me use sudo instead of haphazardly munging system files. My only complaints are that Ubuntu doesn't detect my laptop's touchpad and doesn't like my soundcard. We'll see what happens when Hoary is released next month.

Overall, 9.8/10 -- if you're a linux n00b, this distro is very yes.

(I'll probably edit this in a couple months when I know more than three command-line, uh, commands.)

Debian doesn't have the best record for installation or configuration? How can you say that if you're new to linux and mean it? Debian doesn't have a graphical installer to accompany it, but then, do you really need one? Debian installs what you want and only the basic stuff needed to run well.

Ubuntu is going to go out and grab a lot more packages than stock Debian does because they install a GUI by default, and Debian doesn't

Slav: if you have issues, holler at me and we'll go through it.

If you have to rationalise something not having a nice feature for beginners (like a graphical installer) by saying "do you really need one?", you know you're fighting a losing battle ;)

Thanks for the review Slav, I'm keen to try it out.. installing madwifi by default's pretty good..

I use synaptic on a few fc3 boxes, and it's not bad. I've progressed to just using apt-get command line, but synaptic is still a pretty nice package (although rough around the edges).

All I know is that I've heard from many different sources that Debian is difficult to install and is not user friendly. I don't have any first-hand experience, but I figured that multiple sources couldn't be wrong. I don't need a graphical installer, I don't even need something like ncurses. I'll push a number to select what option I want. Eh, maybe blindly trusting the internet isn't the best idea, but you're experienced at linux. Perhaps you're so used to wrangling with the (relative) complexities of linux that you can't see them any more. Or perhaps I'm just rambling... :)

Fine by me. I was just surprised by it. I was raised on Windows, so life without a GUI is scary to me. Take as many packages as you need.

No issues right now, except for the touchpad and the sound problem. From what I've heard, sound is fixed in the next release, and I can live with using a USB mouse. Oh, that was something else I liked, hotplug USB support. I wasn't sure whether I could expect that or not.

If my post seemed to be a rant/attack against Debian/linux, sorry. It wasn't meant that way at all. And I expect to have fewer problems with this than I did with my ill-fated Mandrake installation; I can access the internet.

If you don't have an immediate desire to dive into it, wait until April when Hoary is released. It's supposed to smooth out a bunch of things, and I heard that a graphical installer might make an appearance (not that it's really necessary. ;) ). Or you could try a preview CD. Array 5 came out last week, I think.

EDIT: Also, Hoary will use x.org instead of Xfree86 if that makes a difference to you.

EDIT2: Hoary preview release 1 is out today.

* Updated the main post with latest versions of some distro/dev releases, removed references to X.Org and 2.6 being new technology that most distros don't have yet :) *

I actually downloaded the Hoary PR 1 LiveCD the other day, just to have a play and see how it was. It's not bad (for a Debian system :P). I didn't dig into it too deeply, but it booted up/went straight into gnome 2.10 nicely. I like having sudoers set up so you can sudo straight away... that was handy. Will have to play with it more in the future.

The only thing I didn't like was the lack of options in the Gnome menu... but since this distro is geared towards the beginner/intermediate.. I can see why the choices are limited. To each there own.

I played with Ubuntu maybe 2 weeks ago, I really wasn't that impressed with it. Though, it is easy to install and move around in.

I'm not really a fan of Gnome either, I like KDE or E.

It's funny. When I hear die-hard Debian fans talk about Ubuntu, they really don't like it even though all the APT functionality is there. But poeple who are new to linux, or switching from an RPM based packaging distro, they like it a lot.

I think it comes down to choice versus plain functionality. IF you want a K envirnoment, you can have it, but you need to load it seperately then do a lot of tweaking which doesn't seem like lots of fun.

However, if you're looking for a distro that works very well "out-of-the-box" then I think Ubuntu has a lot going for it, especially if you're new to linux. It installs quickly, updates easily and quickly (if you have broadband connection :) ) and has all the apps that can get you started right away. All with the added bonus of having the stronger and historically most stable distro anywhere as the basis for the whole thing - Debian.

If you know linux and want the power and control of a power user, install Debian. If you're not, and you just want to use GNU/Linux, install Ubuntu.

Either way, try open source and free your mind.

Peace,

Pierre

I heard (haven't actually investigated) that there's already a Kubuntu distro out there, which is Ubuntu with KDE instead of Gnome. That's what I love about open source.. people can just fork something and create their own version.

And after you grow outta that and want even more control, install gentoo :)

Yes, there is a Kubuntu, but they are their own group and releases may differ from the original Ubuntu. From the reviews I've heard, if you're a KDE fan, it works as well as Ubuntu with all the cool K stuff in there, like my fvourite burner ap K3B (which I also use under Gnome because, even though I have to fudge a few things, it's still better than gcombust or any of those crappy Gnome burner apps)

Then, when you really get to know which way is up, you install Slackware and impress even your computer science grad friends! :) :)

Peace,

Pierre

currently I have FC3 and it is running smoothly and handle all my hardware easily. the desktop use is perfect for me after adding mp3, ntfs support (take one minute with yum) and the most important is that it run my small home server perfectly...
I already heard that under Fedora the KDE support might not be perfect, but so far I mainly use KDE and I didn't notice any issues, it seams to be much faster than gnome, that' all I can see :rolleyes:. Does anyone of you had some issue with KDE under FC3 which kind of ? performance, bugs ?
My server box is quite old duron 1300 Mhz, and my desktop is a pentium 4 2,66 Mhz and both of them run kde perfectly...

Regarding ubuntu, it seams to be interresting and a good way to start with linux but comming from FC3 where I got servers running and my desktop working with all I need (and much more) I don't feel the need of switching since I m not sure that ubuntu can bring me anything more.
I might give a test to kubuntu when a good release will come, but for servers I think that Fedora my choice for quite sometime at least. and for my desktop use since everything works well with a nice KDE environment I think I will just look around to know about all the new linux distros and keep Fedora.

I decided to switch from Gentoo to FC3 for my desktop machine (bendsley: I don't wanna hear it). I tried to install via NFS and had major issues (which were my fault, I believe). During that process I had my desktop running Ubuntu hoary livecd for a while... it pissed me off, initially. I knew apt-get, but didn't know there was a 'universe' repository that was disabled by default. Anyways, trying to play a video (once I apt-get'd xine) cause my machine to lock up (after using all it's memory). This could be the livecd, or the preview version, or just ubuntu itself. I'm guessing it's the first reason.. but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Finally got FC3 up and running, and am very happy. Got apt-get going (I prefer it over yum), got beagle working, got Gnome 2.10 going, got mythtv going w/ my digital tv card (and the card going itself). Although I had to rebuild a few rpms for udev and beagle to work properly, it was a good experience.

Updates:
- Mandrake->Mandriva
- Updated Mandriva's test ver
- Added Ubuntu section

Updates:
- Suse 9.3
- FC4t2

Very well written post, will most certainly remain in my bookmarks.

If I'm allowed to be a nitpicker, though:

You already mentioned Debian in the same paragraph, so I believe this was just a lapsus.

Great post, nonetheless. Well done.

It was.. I've fixed it. Good catch ;)

Thanks.

Hello. Fellow Linux user here. :D

Started with Mandrake 9. Moved from there to RH9 >>> Fedora Core 1. Played with Arch/Slackware/Debian/Gentoo. Now my main distro is Ubuntu with KDE ( NOT Kubuntu) installed through apt. Kubuntu is still pretty buggy yet.

Since I just joined the community yesterday and only really "skimmed" though this whole thread, I will keep an eye on it and see if I can lend a hand here or there. :)

FXRS: Good deal. Welcome.

You'll see on here that Latch is a Gentoo user turned FC3 (moron), and I myself am a Debian user. We poke fun at each other because we each think our distro is "better". Though, we all know Gentoo is inferior to Debian. :thumbsup:

Oh, by the way, Debian sarge (testing) tree was frozen just recently to become the new stable branch soon. Woody (debian 3.0, stable) has been around for about 3 years. Debian gets a lot of criticism because they don't release enough for they're stable branch. But, what people also don't realize is that the stable branch will never ever break. They can move to the testing branch (sarge) if they're more ambitious or to the unstable branch (sid) if they're want bleeding edge.

I just recently installed Debian Sid and Asterisk 1.0.7 and am playing around with it. I'm trying to get it stable enough to roll out among 100 users or so. I'm thinking about adding an asterisk box at my house and make a SIP connection back to the office.

For those who don't know what Asterisk (*) is, check it out at the links below.

www.digium.com
www.asterisk.org
www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk

That's one of the trademark things I admire about Debian. The other is that it'll run on anything with a processor and motherboard. I was kind of shocked when I read on Slashdot a few months ago that Debian was considering dropping support for a lot of platforms.

More links
 

Latch, maybe you will consider adding these links to your post.

<a href="http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php">Distribution Chooser</a>; it asks you questions and then chooses an appropriate distro for you.

<a href="http://www.livecdlist.com/">LiveCD List</a>; find the right LiveCD for your needs.

<a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux on Laptops</a>; find out how that laptop you're eyeing handles Linux before you buy it.

<a href="http://www.sane-project.org/">The Sane Project</a>; get your scanner working with Linux!

Updates:
- FC4 is out! (I'm not sure why I'm so excited.. but I am). I updated the Fedora info to reflect this.
- Created a new section at the bottom of the post: User-Supplied Links. Included all the relevant links I saw in the posts in this thread. Thanks to everyone who suggested them.

is it ok to add a few links here, i run Ubuntu Linux on my computer and have had much help from the guys over at

http://www.ubuntuguide.org/
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

:thumbsup: