Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of adecold
adecold

asked on

What's the deal with Linux?

Hi all,
   I just got a new laptop and i was wandering of a way to put the old one to use, then i came up with installing linux on it to see how it works...
  The problem is first i search for linux and i see some websites trying to sell different versions from $15 - $3000 ( I thought any software assocaited with an OSS was supposed to be free?) and then i see another website where you can download them for free(linuxiso.com). But the problem is there are over 14 different types of Linux.

I was just wandering, which one is the best for Professional (Aspiring) personal use and is "windows-like"?
 I think the most popular ones i've heard or seen is Red Hat, Slackware, SuSE, FreeBSD.

Adecold
SOLUTION
Avatar of avizit
avizit

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of knollbert
knollbert

Thanks avizit, I forgot about knoppix

adecold:
If you have problems with one of the above installations recognizing hardware
Use Knoppix
Knoppix Recognizes Almost everything as avizit stated and is very useful in laptops.

If you find that you love knoppix there is a harddrive install feature
check out  http://www.freenet.org.nz/misc/knoppix-install.html for a howto
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
No one mentioned Fedora because its a beta system and classed as unstable its a test bed for RedHat enterprise server
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
The down fall of SuSE personal is that it does not have server or development tools :-(
which means you cant compile your own software you will need the SuSE .rpm's
which you can get off the site you can download the development tools off SuSE's ftp
All you need to do is to change the installation source in YaST2 from the CD to the SuSE ftp server. Once you've done this, you can add the additional packages - without having to download them one by one only to realize that you forgot to download a library that they depend on.
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Mandrake is also a good choice, its up to you what you want to get into. Why not get them all and try them out one by one. Most of them are very simialr sometime being built off one another.
like you said readhat and mandrake are the most popular and well add debian into it. anyways good luck with your choice , if things go well you should appreciate any which distribution you choose.
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of adecold

ASKER

Thanks all... I think i get the idea..

I'm going to start of with using Knoppix to see how linux looks first.... Then i'll install SuSE... then mandrake.... then anything else...
SuSE was the first i saw and I thought it looked really cool and different

I better close this question before i end up splitting the points among 50 people

Adecold
Avatar of adecold

ASKER

Pont increase to try to increase individual expert points
Thanks adecold, it wish nice assisting you :)