I've an unused laptop around the house which I've decided to use as a machine for photo slide shows, music playing and torrent downloading. With the uses in mind and the fact that I've never used linux before what distro should i play around with first?

Ubuntu or Fedora.

Ubuntu - it's a bit easier for you to understand things with it; Fedora is a wild, wild beast.

Use Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic koala).

Definitely Ubuntu :)

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Debian? I think that the lack of proprietary stuff (Automatic detection of which proprietary graphics driver to use for example) could be very annoying. And Ubuntu is an easy way to get into Linux, you don't need to use the root account at all thanks to sudo. For me, I use Ubuntu because it smooths over the rough edges of Debian so well.

 

If I was looking to build a server, I might use Debian but for the desktop Ubuntu is great. I haven't had good experiences with Debian either (I managed to completely screw over IceWeasel just like 2 days after installing Debian).

Ubuntu seems to appeal to users who are not very familiar with computers in general,m or those who have been told that it is an easy way to get into Linux. As long as you know a little about computers and aren't afraid to ask for help when you're stuck.

I'm not sure I agree there as it's got nothing to do with your computer experience. I have had over 27 years of computer experience and am a very good coder, my experiences are quite varied, from masses of legacy systems to our modern technology. I have even configured my own LAMP server with DNS which I purposely selected no GUI just for the experience, I ran that for a quite a few years with multiple domains, websites, databases etc, plus there's no point in having a GUI for a server.

 

I still think that Ubuntu is a great introduction for new Linux users and when you are confident enough you can move on to something more taxing. But as is always, every Linux user has their own favourite and will defend that distro to the death. Try what you want, it's free after all :)

Ubuntu works great for advanced users too (I would consider myself as intermediate to advanced) as it gets a lot of unnecessary stuff out of the way and puts a nice GUI on top of a very powerful system.

Ubuntu works great for advanced users too (I would consider myself as intermediate to advanced) as it gets a lot of unnecessary stuff out of the way and puts a nice GUI on top of a very powerful system.

 

 

Lol, there are many people in the world who will rip your head off for saying that.

Ubuntu works great for advanced users too (I would consider myself as intermediate to advanced) as it gets a lot of unnecessary stuff out of the way and puts a nice GUI on top of a very powerful system.

 

 

Lol, there are many people in the world who will rip your head off for saying that.

 

Imagine what would have happened someone had said "Stuff Linux, go with windows 7 instead" LMAO :D

 

Obviously, I know that would never happen......

Give them all a go.

Get yourself a flash drive or 2 download unetbootin and install them on your flash drive.

 

I've tried various distros and they all have there advantages and disadvantages.

 

As long as your willing to give it a go and have some spare time I'm sure you'll find a distro which is right for you.

 

PS clares back :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Ubuntu works great for advanced users too (I would consider myself as intermediate to advanced) as it gets a lot of unnecessary stuff out of the way and puts a nice GUI on top of a very powerful system.

 

 

Lol, there are many people in the world who will rip your head off for saying that.

 

Imagine what would have happened someone had said "Stuff Linux, go with windows 7 instead" LMAO :D

 

Obviously, I know that would never happen......

 

Actually I think that would happen with windows fanboys, or mac with mac fanboys :P.

 

By the way, welcome back :).

Thanks guys, I thought it was about time I reared my mugshot again GIGGLES.

Ubuntu works great for advanced users too (I would consider myself as intermediate to advanced) as it gets a lot of unnecessary stuff out of the way and puts a nice GUI on top of a very powerful system.

Lol, there are many people in the world who will rip your head off for saying that.

Yeah. They're the people that don't recommend Ubuntu to new users because it doesn't follow the Unix philosophy. :lol:

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What happened with Iceweasel was a looong story but I switched back to Ubuntu since then.

 

And keep in mind that there are no free nVidia drivers.

Yes there is and for Windows they're on their website.

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Yeah, I guess I thought on the side of "free beer" lol, didn't think about it this way :S.

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I'm looking into a linux OS for http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetailPrint.aspx?WishListNumber=11056925

 

I've used Ubuntu for a bit, and I can now start to move away from it. It can be annoying at times, and I want a bit of customization. I don't want it to be too hard to get to work though.

 

I've heard Mandriva/Fedora/Debian

 

I'll be dual booting with win 7.

 

Also what graphical environment... I've used xfce

 

I got told: xfce4 might be a good choice, lxde perhaps, kde, gnome, or awesome if you want to learn a new very efficient one... something like that

openSUSE is a decent distro to for beginners.

 

I'm looking into a linux OS for http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetailPrint.aspx?WishListNumber=11056925

 

I've used Ubuntu for a bit, and I can now start to move away from it. It can be annoying at times, and I want a bit of customization. I don't want it to be too hard to get to work though.

 

I've heard Mandriva/Fedora/Debian

 

I'll be dual booting with win 7.

 

Also what graphical environment... I've used xfce

 

I got told: xfce4 might be a good choice, lxde perhaps, kde, gnome, or awesome if you want to learn a new very efficient one... something like that

XfCE or LXDE.

I personally like Icewm-lite or Awesome for some serious low-footprint usage, but that's definitely not made for new users. :P