[jayd512]

Originally Posted by tulledulle

How does distro hopping help you out

It's not exactly something that 'helps you out'. It's more like trying all the different flavors of ice cream out there. If you keep trying different flavors, eventually you find one you like the best. I started with Ubuntu, tried Mandriva and SuSE... now I'm on Fedora but still play with Slackware. Lately, I've been looking into CRUX or Arch. It's all about your choice of OS... gotta play with a few before you can really pick one as a favorite.

[Manchunian]

Now that i've got you.. Do you think you can enhance the computers abilitys or use it to the max, by working in terminals ? or it is actually easyer to let the OS do the work, i mean, doing it the graphical way?

That really depends what you want to do. If you compare Ubuntu with its big brother, Debian, you definitely notice a speed difference, even though Ubuntu is essentially a tarted up Debian testing. The main difference between these distros, from a newbie's point of view, is that Debian is not a point and click distro in the same sense as Ubuntu is. I mean, Ubuntu provides you with GUI tools to do almost anything, which Debian lacks.
However, it probably isn't these tools that make the speed difference. As jayd512 said, most of them are just front ends to the command line, writing out the commands you'd put in yourself. I expect it's more to do with the fact that Ubuntu comes with everything but the kitchen sink, to guarantee that it works with as many machines as possible. Debian doesn't do this, and might require you to do quite a lot of work yourself. However, where these tools do have a detrimental effect, some of them anyway, is in stability. For example, you'll see tools to help you find your codecs, tools to download and install Java, tools to get your graphics card up and running. Some of these tools can break your system, especially after a system upgrade.

I was wondering if Mandriva could be of any interest for me.. can you recommed it ?

I haven't used this for about two years, and a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Mandriva really is an excellent distro, but has one shortfall: it's an rpm distro (so too is Fedora). Now, this is my own personal opinion, because a lot of people like rpm, but I find that Debian-based distros like Ubuntu and Mint are much easier to use than rpm ones. This is because rpm distros can lead to rpm hell where what you want to install can't be installed because it needs another program; and that program can't be installed because it needs yet another program; and x can't be installed because it needs y, but y can't be installed because it needs x...Well, progress has doubtless been made but this drove me mad! However, Mandriva has an excellent tool to configure your software repositories called Easy urpmi, which makes setting up repositories probably easier than it is in Fedora (at least Fedora core 6, which was the last Fedora I ever used.)

How does distro hopping help you out

Massively. Your taste in distros is like your taste in clothes. No one can tell you which one to choose, you just have out as many as you need to to find the 'perfect fit'. And with each install you come across different situations which help you to learn more and more about Linux. IF you really want to learn, install a hard-core distro like Slackware or Archlinux. You can even try Gentoo, but that made me foam at the mouth! Stick to the easy ones for now, though, like Ubuntu.

[jayd512]

...which makes setting up repositories probably easier than it is in Fedora

Actually, setting up repositories in Fedora has gotten very simple in the last few versions. The main one that you would need is the Livna repo. Open a terminal and execute

su
rpm -Uhv http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm

Done! That simple! After that, most of the applications that you would need are readily available. But I do also agree that for now, advanced distros should be left for later experimentation... mainly after you get your hands dirty with a few command line successes.

[Manchunian]

Yes, it looks like it's become easier than it was. However, I still think that Mandriva is easier to set up. You go to Easy urpmi, choose your country, your machine architecture (64 bit, 32 bit), copy the commands that the site spits out and paste them in a terminal. I think the easy urpmi tool is the best system there is for setting up repositories, although a little more explanation about what the different repositories do would be good (cooker, for instance, should not be enabled by a beginner as it's Mandriva testing.)

[Jonathan183]

I think openSUSE 10.3 introducing the community repositories setup in Yast makes it easy ... just tick the boxes for the repositories you want. Yast seems to be pretty good at sorting out dependencies as well. If you want to use rpm directly to manage the distro then it is likely to be more work.

As a normal user use of the CLI is optional for quite a few distros. The system administrator role usually requires use of CLI at some point. Which distro you find easier to use will depend on what you have used before ... I only really mentioned Yast because openSUSE is rpm based but Yast makes it easy to configure.

If you want to do some reading before and during the install then Arch and Gentoo are not beyond a new user ... but they are not a typical first distro either

Try a few distros and see which ones you like. Make sure you backup your user data ... and even real disasters can be fixed with a fresh install

[Manchunian]

Yes, one of the nice things about Linux is that, so long as you back up your data, the most disastrous thing that can happen is that you have to spend a few hours re-installing and re-configuring it. Compare this with Windows where (if you think Windows is the only thing that can run on a computer) trashing Windows can be a very dramatic and traumatic experience. Having said that, it's very rare that you'll do any real damage to Linux. Most of the problems that you might encounter can be undone - if you know how. I'd like to add too that another difference between Linux and Windows is that any damage that is done is usually done by yourself rather than someone else! I always find this thought reassuring!
When things go wrong, and they will at the beginning, try to resist the desire to re-install for as long as you can - and ask us here if you need help. Mending your mistakes is the best way to learn - hence so too is making them in the first place!

[tulledulle]

Well i can only say that im starting to love you guys.. the only way to learn is indeed by learning from your mistakes.. and of course alot of reading about command lines.. When ive set up fedora or Ubuntu (I'm buying a 500 gb harddrive to install it on, this computer is gonna keep windows, for the familys sake) - what is the first thing i should do ? any programs i should install ? fire wall ? anything? Jay said something about a command?.. the only thing im working on right now is reading the whole linuxcommand.org site and learning command lines.. - And when you guys pick distros.. what do you look for ?

Hmm something tells me its a good idea to learn how to back my data
Any ideas where i can read about this 32 or 64 bit thing? i dont really get it.. how will i know which one my computer is..

[jayd512]

Well... when I look for a distro, I just try to look for something that I feel comfortable with. Something that's nice to look at and is fairly responsive. I want alot of options when it comes to being able to configure things my way.

Here... try this link:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...ead-first.html

As far as the first thing to do... That would be totally up to you That's the beauty of it all!

[Manchunian]

Don't install an anti-virus unless you're sharing data with a Windows machine. It isn't necessary in Linux.

[tulledulle]

Originally Posted by Manchunian

Don't install an anti-virus unless you're sharing data with a Windows machine. It isn't necessary in Linux.

I just got a Samsung model: HD501LJ (500 gb/7200 rpm/16m) hard-drive home.. i got a 200 gb in the computer right now.. it has XP OS on it.. and it is set as Master.. So the question is.. Can i plug the new 500 gb hd in and set it as master , but whit a linux system.. so its like 2 computers in one.. just whit the same main board.. but different hard-drives and OS's.. and can i pick when the computer boots, which OS and hd id like to work whit... is there someway this can be done?