What Linux OS?
 

What linux os should I use? I have mandrake 7 installer, but I know a new version is out. There is an ongoing battle between red hat and mandrake and I suppose this will not be the expetion lol.

I have never used linux/unix in my life but I am interested in it. Which one should I get, and being free, where coudl I get it from (direct link to torrent or dload page if possible please)

Thank you in advanced to anyone willing to help a brotha out.

I would go for Mandrake. IMO it's easier to use than redhat. Probably a bit faster too since it's compiled for i586 out of the box whereas redhat is compiled for i386.

i got mandrake 9.1 in cd, should I get 9.2 instead? How hard is it to instal stuff in it?

I have just seen that red hat 9 will no longer be supported. Hmm that sux huh?

well I am a Windows Users and wish to learn unix

which one should I chouse (doesnt have to be red hat vs mandrake)

go with mandrake, hands down.

I am new to the linux GUI (not the OS) and I was able to get all my hardware working under Mandrake. I tried first with RH8 and RH9 with no luck.....

I no longer have windows in my machine.....

I have a picture of my destop under this link

http://www.motorworld.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5643

I installed mandrake the other day, and man I couldnt even use the print screen key!

Lol, what command did you use for the print screen?

How did you learn all the necesarry commands?

I am interseted in this OS. Can you explain me in brief how to install stuff? I dloaded java se and it was a .bin file. I had to type some stupid commands and i managed to unpack it, but I wasnt able to see java in the browser =/

My laptop didnt like mandrake 9.1, whenever I typed fast, keys repeated themselves. I mean I couldnt type correctly without two o's coming out and stuff like that, even though I turnd off the auto repeat!
any commands list or help page?

I Use Suse and Phlak they are pretty good ones.
www.Linuxiso.org they have all the good ones there :D

if its red hat make sure you get the new red hat fedora, as thats where all future developement will be

DeMoN, maybe you should get Lindows :mrgreen:
I think they're still giving the developer edition out for free. Take a look at: http://www.nvu.com/landing_page.html

I downloaded mine the other day, have yet to install it. From what I've heard, it works very well with laptops.

Personally, I use Mandrake 8 myself (on another box) and it works pretty well even though it's only a k6-400.

more questions

wtf is i386 vs i686 ????

and what is RPM? (no not like in cars, but linux rpm)

i386 means it's optimized for 386 or newer machines and i686 means it's optimized for 686 or newer. In general, i686 distros are faster since they take advantage of additional "features" of the processor.

RPM stands for Redhat Package Management I believe. Think of it as the Add/Remove thing in windows.

in other words, i got a p4 so go for the 686 huh?

where can I got to learn the commands? I have no idea how to even do a screen shot of the comp!

I dunno how to install or uninstall... dont now anything =(

go to www.linuxiso.org they will teach you what you need to know

thanx t bird

before I start on this quest, how much time do you think it will take me to learn linux? I know dos, c++, c, and java.

No problem glad to help out just be careful, don't mess up your computer.

Yes, go with a i686 one if you have a P4. However, I would rather go for a better distro than one specifically compiled for i686. It maybe faster but you won't see any difference on a P4.

There should be a few RPM tools included with both redhat and mandrake. Just look for them. I know, there're way way too many choices to make in linux, that's what make them hard to use IMO. But then linux is probably more targetting the geeks than needs.

To make a screenshot, you have to use that screen dump program. Can't remember the name off my head but you just have to go through all the programs one by one.

As for commands, do you mean the console ones or things to run in the GUI? For console, you should print out a reference card like http://www.indiana.edu/~uitspubs/b017/b017.pdf

Hope this helps.

0X

Oh yea, if you don't want to mess up your computer, you can always try something like Knoppix, which is CD based. You run everything from the CD so you can't mess up any setting on your computer. It has basically every tool you'll need since the CD volumn is compressed.

I also have SuSe 8.2 which runs off the a CD.

i suppose that by messing you dont mean, totally fucking it up? I mean, chipwise?

If by messing you men having to repartition and reformat, that is no problem.

By messing up I think he means partition wise...You can fuck up your hardrive so bad that you wont be able to fdisk, or see its existance in DOS. The only way is repartitioninng through linux it self.

With my first Linux experiance I fucked up bad...but then got out of the mess after 5 or so hours.

Yes that's what I meant. And One of my friends accidentaly reformatted his hard drives and lost everything, thankfully he had hard copies of most.

And I've used Suse and Knoppix aswell and i would recommend them for beginners If you're a Hacker :roll: try Phlak I've used it to hack hot spots :wink: takes a while though.

2 hours? Linux is just another OS, nothing special...

When you're pissed off, you can always do a rm -rf /
Just joking, don't try that! :mrgreen:

Forgot to mention, if you have a LG cd-rom, don't try a certain version of mandrake. I believe an early version of 9 or 9.1 can "accidentally" overwrite the firmware of the cdrom. But since you're using it on your laptop now, it should be fine. Doubt they use LG cdrom for laptops.

well weel, now you KNOW I must ask what this does huh?

Ok, so here is the thing. I have a 40GB hard drive which I want to use ONLY for Linux, so I want a dloadable version, no running from cd (cuz I assume it is much slower). I dont need any gaming or any of that crap. I just want to learn Linux. Is sorta in my to do list. The only OS I have tried is mandrake 9. I am not sure why, but it does not like my laptop's keyboard. I cannot type anything without a key being repeated twice. You know how annoying it is to type very slowly and gently (it is not a keyboard malfunctioning cuz I am using windows right now on the same laptop but with a different hard drive) in an OS which requires you to type it all huh? Needless to say, I got bored of deleating and decided not to attempt anymore.

So I have narrowed it down between

Red Hat Feudora (since they dropped updates for version 9)
Mandrake 9.2 (and pray to god that if I use this, it will accept my keyboard)
Gentoo (even though they say its harder to install)

If it helps, my laptop is a P4 1.8GHz, 512 DDR SDRAM, GeForce 4 go 440 64MB, 40GB 5200rpm Toshiba HD

Whatever I get as an answer, I will try! Please also post which version I should get

for example, Mandrake 9.2 has three different version and Gentoo hast plenty too ( http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=45 )

Thank you in advanced.

N E 1?

help plz?

Linux gentoo since 2 years