which linux??

[rudeboymcc]

hi. i'm fed up of windows. my pc just crashed, again. and i want a more reliable OS. ie. linux. i've read a lot about it. and now my first question is whcih distributer do i go for? i've read mandraka and redhat are the most popular. but i don't know whcih one's best. i'm not a very advanced pc user, but i know all the basics and i can always learn.

another thing, i've seen many sites selling linux. i thought it is freeware and it's downloadable?

[killingspree]

i don't know much about linux and i just know one version of it (Suse) so i can't really give you a recommendation. Still i think to learn the basic steps on linux it doesn't matter that much which one you use!
anyway... about sites selling linux: yes it is freeware and afaik these sites only charge for shipment and material. You can download it, but be aware of the fact that my linux version comes on 7 (!!) CDs. so you might consider buying a version somewhere. Compared to Windows it's almost free anyway!

regards
steVe

[Koepi]

I'd recommand madrake linux for beginners. Download the 3 ISOs from the web, and play around with it. It's really easy I think.

But then again I'm not in the position that I still remember which troubles I ran into with first trying that out, coming from the dos/windos3 world - I use linux since 1993 and it was quite different back then.

Regards
Koepi

[rudeboymcc]

i already have a copy of the redhat version. but someone told me it isn't good for beginners. i don't see how there can be that much difference. i'll try then. thanks.

[ppera2]

If you can download Mandrake or Red Hat distributions from their sites - usually 3 CD's. Mandrake is little better for beginners because of easier install, but installation of Linux is usually easy if you have standard components in your PC. Also as I see Mandrake is better for multimedia at start. Just don't use Xine - it has poor quality. Use Mplayer...

About reliability: are you sure that your problems are software nature ? Perhaps you need only new installation of Win ? Get rid of Win Me in any case.
And finally, best is to have both worlds on machine :)

[Infophreak]

I can also recommend that you download the distribution "Knoppix". Have a look at LinuxISO (http://www.linuxiso.org) and find it there. Knoppix is smart because it can boot from a CD into a complete Linux system without writing anything to your harddrive. Probably the best way to find out if your hardware is supported. Just don't be very afraid if something doesn't work. Not everything is auto-detectable with Knoppix though, so you will also want to take a look at Mandrake Linux's list of supported hardware (http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/hardware.php3).

[rudeboymcc]

i'm using windows xp, i just reinstalled it 3 days ago, only installed office xp so far, have all the latest drivers for my hardware. i just bought mandrake from ebay for £3 including p&p. i've got 56k modem and downloading isn't an option.

[cypher_soundz]

i have only run 2 versions red hat 7 and mandrake 8.1 but i recomend mandrake . i'm not an experienced user of linux but i think you made a good choice. i also hear suse is good , my friend is running it and it does rock , but i chose mandrake .

[rudeboymcc]

my friend tells me that linux is more secure than windows, and htat anyone can hack into windows if you have adsl. seen as i'm soon to get adsl, what programs can i get to protect my pc in windows and linux?

[dvd2svcd]

Funny that Windows is always blamed when the computer chrashes when it's actually software written by other companies or hardware that is the cause of the problems. I have had my share of linux experience, and I find that Linux can easily be just as unstable (espcially when using XWindows) if you don't know what you're doing and using rouge software. Sorry for rambling on like this, but sometimes, blaming windows for your problems is like blaming a car for the accident when infact it is 99% of the times the people behind the wheel to blame (eg. other software or hardware and even users). For me W2K is the most stable system I've ever worked with, moreso than Linux. True, the kernel W98 and WME was built on is unstable, no doubt there (just the way they handle RAM should keep all users away from the system), but those built on the NT kernel (and esp. w2k) is imho stable.

Please don't look at this as a defense for Microsoft at all. I'm just defending the notion of always blaming the OS. Also, I like Linux a lot, the entire idea of Linux is a great one, and I sure hope that someday it will be a competative force against windows on the Client side. But, blame should be put where blame belongs which is rarely on the OS.

My preferred Linux is the Mandrake 9.0 Distro.

[TactX]

Originally posted by dvd2svcd
But, blame should be put where blame belongs which is rarely on the OS.
Amen. I totally agree with ANY word of your post.

For myself, I did not switch to linux because I wanted a more stable system (Win2k was always fine for me, too), but because I wanted to try something new.
I've started with SuSE and after a short period of learning and getting used to linux I switched to Debian, with which I'm perfectly happy. But for a beginner I would consider either SuSE, or RedHat or Mandrake as the best solution to start with, as they do most of your configuration automatically whereas Debian forces you to do it manually (which can be quite hard for a first contact with linux...)

[ppera2]

Right, Xwindows is instable, and as I see KDE even more...
But I think that under stability of Linux is considered something else. Actually stability of whole system for long term is much better. There is no trash collection in registry (no registry at all), settings are stored in many small files, much better organized.

If Win user installs many programs and drivers, codecs etc. it will destabilize system, and main culprit is bad conception of Windows. That's my opinion. It's true that Win2K is most stable, but it has big problems when change hardware.

Against Linux is a sad fact for us, video amateurs that there is not much software for video conversion and editing.

[chi]

i'm using debian and can say that i'm perfectly happy with it.. it's not too easy to install and configure in the beginning, but it's pure, fast and stable (even in unstable ;-7 ). if you like to invest some time and like to get to know something abozt linux, i recomment this one.. just search the web for proper docs..
to all of you that don't agree with debian for a newbie: i was one, too.. before i started with debian! suse, red-hat or mandrake are too bloated up for my flavour, and therefore i don't like those distros very much.. also they're implementing pretty much 'proprietary' stuff which doesnt's belong to a gnu/linux system (imo, of course)

btw. knoppix is great to get an idea what linux is and what it can do.. and it's based on debian ;-7

[redcane]

Originally posted by ppera2
Just don't use Xine - it has poor quality. Use Mplayer...



Mplayer loses sync really bad on my system, whereas xine is perfect (quality wise too). Just make sure xine is using the xv video extension.

Mandrake is a really good distribution for beginners. but if your an experienced computer user red hat is also fairly easy.

[cypher_soundz]

I would agree that windows 2k in very stable , i love it ...pitty it is made by Microsoft ;) , when i can do everything in linux that i can do in windows i might think about taking windows off all together , but not in the near future. I would agree that GIGO (Garbage in garbage out) weather it be installing crap , or typing in crap , if you don’t know what your doing then in the end your system will crash.

@rudeboymcc
i think your friend is referring to netBIOS (file / printer sharing) & windows file sharing service that is behind file and print sharing called SMB which stands for Server Message Block. As this protocol has no limit to password attempts you can brute force a computer until you get the right password, The faster the connection i.e. adsl the faster you get the password. But in order for someone to “hack” in you need to be sharing a folder/drive. To prevent being hacked if you do share folders/drives ,you can use a firewall and only allow certain IP addresses to connect, all other connections attempted (i.e. hackers) will see you computer as being off line and get no response, not even a port close message. (when i say share i mean in windows not using a 3rd party program/p2p)

I think Linux might be the way forward if TCPA / Palladium gets out of control
:scared:

[omol]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
my friend tells me that linux is more secure than windows, and htat anyone can hack into windows if you have adsl. seen as i'm soon to get adsl, what programs can i get to protect my pc in windows and linux?


In Linux, any distro, setup firewall with iptables for 2.4.x kernel or ipchains for 2.2.x kernel. Cron job for tripwire to check periodically if the installed binaries and files in /etc are intact or modified. Disable root access for everything except from local console. Also, install logcheck may sometime pick out the presence of security compromise. If you are planning to run X, disable xhost (though I doubt any recent distro still use xhost). Finding a way to not use pam to secure local console also well worthing if you are going to use RedHat/Mandrake/Suse. And last but not least, pgp and md5sum are your friends. Learn how to use them.

regards,
omol

[rudeboymcc]

dvd2svcd, i can assure you it's windows to blame. i know i said i wasn't good with linux, but i've had winows all my life, and i have literlaly jsut reinstalled xp, from a formatted harddrive, on its own partition. i used to have win2000 but it was incompatible with some hardware i bought.