advice for linux newbie

[skakillers]

i am a newbie to linux, and i have tried Fedora core 1, but it sort of screwed up my computer. i want to rid my computer of the scourge that is bill gates and microsoft, but im unsure of a good distro for a noob like me.

[Refalm]

Well, I would recommend Mandrakelinux or SuSE for absolute newbies.

[Calum]

or just keep reinstalling fedora and fiddling with it until you get it "good".
visit http://voidmain.kicks-ass.net/ for more red hat/fedora tips, there's a lot of useful info and a discussion board there which is more red hat/fedora oriented than any other type of linux.

one thing: remember to have your /home directory on its own partition, this way, when you overwrite your / partition, your documents in /home will be untouched. you will have to redo your users, and chown the /home/ directories back to their right owner (perhaps) after your new system is installed, but at least you don't lose any of your configuration.

also, i often find that different version numbers and so on might make your config files (usually in the /home/ directory) do unpredictable things if you install for example SuSE when you had mandrake before and so on. so for example, if i had a problem with gaim after changing my distro, the first thing i would do is delete the /home/calum/.gaim directory.

anyway, i will shut up now in case i frighten you away, but never mind, that's my advice.

good luck, and enjoy.

[skakillers]

i  dont want mandrake, ive already read enough stories about how much it sucks, but i think SuSE might be for me

[liquid boy]

you could also try ubuntu linux http://www.ubuntulinux.org - you can order a cd for free (incl shipping )
based on debian, uses gnome as the gui...
it has a text installer, but i'ts pretty easy. the only complicated thing really is the partitioning... but then that's always going to be a little trickey.

the thing i like about ubuntu is that it comes with *one* text editor, and *one* web browser, and *one* office suite. you find with alot of the distros, you're overwhelmed with heaps of apps for the same thing. unbuntu keeps it simple, which is nice i think.

[WMD]

i  dont want mandrake, ive already read enough stories about how much it sucks, but i think SuSE might be for me

Mandrake doesn't suck at all...but Ubuntu is better either way.

[skakillers]

im havent tried mandrake, it just seems that alot of people on this forum dont like it.

[mathewjn]

:confused: Message moved to new thread

[Calum]

seems like you shouldn't decide mandrake sucks without trying it, since a lot of people (myself included) think it's quite good for a lot of purposes.
your choice though

[tux4me]

I just started using suse linux and I really like it> I just switched from windows after using it for 5 years. This was as a result of the fact that I own a OEM version of windows XP and had to reinstall it because service pack 2 hosed it and then i was treated like a criminal on the phone when I had to reactivate it even thogh I am a system builder

[MrX]

Mandrake okay if you have more 312 of ram, a new speed harddisk, and a cpu bigger than 1Ghz. if your specs are lower than this, stay away.

Mr X

[Brandon Paddock]

Mandrake is good for modern computers (it was originally one of the first i686-compiled distros, tuned for performance on Pentium II and later processors).  

Gentoo and Ubuntu are good as well.

However, I prefer to use "grown up" OSes like NT and FreeBSD.  You might want to check out the latter.

[Brandon Paddock]

This was as a result of the fact that I own a OEM version of windows XP and had to reinstall it because service pack 2 hosed it and then i was treated like a criminal on the phone when I had to reactivate it even thogh I am a system builder

Riiiiiiiight.

[Calum]

what the hell does "riiiiight" mean, brendon pillock?

who are you to cynically criticise what is clearly somebody's direct experience with microsoft's customer "service"?

[Brandon Paddock]

what the hell does "riiiiight" mean

It was an expression of disbelief.  That is, I don't believe a licensed System Builder would not know how to install SP2, or that SP2 could "hose" a system, or that Microsoft's customer support would "treat him like a criminal."  
 
However, that is, of course, my opinion - based solely on my experiences.
 

, brendon pillock?

huh?
 

who are you to cynically criticise what is clearly somebody's direct experience with microsoft's customer "service"?

I didn't criticize anything.  And I'm cynical by nature.  It's a bad habit, sorry Callus.