Linux OS Roundup from Newbie

Hi All,

After reformatting and partitioning several drives on several boxes, I installed various Linux flavors with which to experiment, and this thread represents my thoughts. I tried Ubuntu Dapper Dan, Ubuntu 64 bit, Novel Suse 32 bit, Fedora 2.6.18, and my favorite 64 Studio - a 64 bit Debian build for 64 bit hardware. The 64 bit OS's I ran on an AMD 64 bit Opteron, 32 bit Ubuntu and Suse on duo core Dell Latitude and Fedora on and old Dell Inspiron 8200.

I had no previous Unix experience, and I haven't had a Mac in 20 years, so I am a beginner. My goal was to give me an alternative to M$, learn more command line programming, and get the most from my 64 bit box. I have yet to tangle with the BSD's

First I was impressed with the wide array of tools and apps included in all of the builds: graphics, web browsers, networking tools, music and video players, IRC, PDF readers, games, Office, etc. I was surprised of find all the apps I would buy, download and install in Windows preloaded and free.

The next thing I discovered was that installing software in Linux takes some practice. There is no "Windows Installer" to guide you through and installs must be managed through the command line, but through a couple days trial and error I got some new apps installed. Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager was the easiest to use.

Here's my two cents worth on the flavors. SUSE struck me as having the most corporate sensibility, but a more experienced user appreciates its broad range of packaged apps. At a tradeshow, I wanted to run a powerpoint presentation in my booth, but I had just reinstalled windows and hadn't loaded office before show. I managed to get SUSE's Open Office to open and edit "read only" presentation and run most of it as slideshow.

Fedora got the most cursory test, but it features a software updater facilitates keeping it up to date, something I haven't been able to manage with Debian's 64 Studio.

Ubuntu is the most 'ready for prime time'. Its geared for newbies, and root access requires extra effort in an effort to keep it secure and stable from beginners like me. Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager is the easiest to use secondary program installer. User selects application to install and Synaptic Package Manager identifies dependencies and downloads and installs application and dependencies.

Another handy feature of Ubuntu that is not the case with the SUSE is that Ubuntu sees windows' partitions and allows you to access windows files as read only,

My favorite, and now default OS on my big box is 64 Studio. It is a 64 bit OS designed for music, graphics and video editing. The fact that such a sophisticated and broad range of multimedia tools is available free is astounding. It offers high end graphics, video and music editing applications. My favorite is the Jamin suite, which makes my computer the best stereo I have ever had. The sound quality produced is remarkable.

I spent a few days figuring out and installing the boot manager extipl, in order to manage OSes once they were installed. This proved unnecessary since Linux'es GRUB boot manager was loaded at end of Linux OS installation. It is easily edited to select default OS.

Anyway, in summation, experimenting with Linux OS on partitions has been rewarding and fun, and I recommend it to any other curious beginners.

Kevin

 

Not true, most linux os's will allow this. I run suse on all my servers and desktops.

 

I am no authority, but my install doesn't see them. Perhaps, I haven't configured it to find them. Thanks for clarification, nonetheless.

 

is there a "/windows" folder; the suse 10.2 install
I did generated that automagically -it contained folders for both ntfs and vfat partitions from my xp system.

 

I didn't have to configure anything for that either.

 

One daemon can do this for you.

Hal.

It generally(always?) comes with KDE. it also handles removeable devices, such as thumb drives and Ipods.

Want a distro to try?

Try Arch. www.archlinux.org

I feel sad being the only Arch user here

 

I am also fond of trying various flavors of Linux. I started with Mandrake, now Mandriva, several years ago. I have tried several but I tend to like the Debian based distros best. I think live cd's are a good way to get acquainted with some of the flavors, and most of them come with an installer if you want to enjoy the ability to customize. Some of the standalone tools on live cd's can be very useful also. I have found Gparted and Backtrack to be good tools. If you have a bittorrent client http://linuxtracker.org/index.php has an enormous selection of OS's Live CD's DVD's and tools for the linux enthusiast.

 

Another one of my favorite linux's is slax linux live:
www.slax.org