Re: Takin' the plunge...
Royce Bell wrote:
>
> Okay, this is it. I'm about to take the plunge into Linux, but my
> experience with dumb terminal-based Unix is over 20 years old. In the
> interim, I've been on Windows; a sometimes happy, but always frustrating and
> infuriating marriage of convenience and productivity-enslavement.
>
> Debian Linux was recommended to me by a friend, but (this is embarrassing to
> admit, as I feel like a newbie all over again) quite frankly, I'm
> confusingly overwhelmed at the different products now available. Debian,
> RedHat, etc. Everybody says theirs is the best, but they cannot all be
> correct. I don't particularly want to go back to the command line, but I do
> appreciate the minimalist approach of Unix, especially from a security
> standpoint.
>
> Any suggestions to ease the mind and grease the process?
redhat, mandrake: easy to install, they try to make the system usable
by general public.
suse: not sure what is good in their distro, they include (at least
used to include) some non-free software - e.g. X server...
slackware: hands off approach, good defaults - it let's you install
the linux that looks similar to unix systems and doesn't bother you
anymore
debian: easiest to maintain - it's just incredible, the install is not
extra nice but it's not very hard either. however once you have the
system installed it's a pleasure to maintain it! you have to experience
it yourself to believe it.
as far as using linux all distros are basically the same, you can
install the same programs, same HW is supported etc...
btw the command line interface did not change much, the shells are
more comfortable but you should feel right at home... (no matter which
distro you choose)
erik
Reply to: