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advice for linux newbie

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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 :P )
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.

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