Linux Newbie

[caboose]

hello everyone. I am new and figured that a jokes thread is a great way to introduce myself.

okay, first joke:

Quote: "I think it would be ironic, if eberyone was made of iron."

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome
Hope to see you around and do enjoy your time here.
BTW, we have a current jokes thread.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...ff-thread.html

[caboose]

hello everyone. i am new to linux, having only tried a few distros, and i have had very bad experiences with them.

can someone tell me what would be the best distro, coming from a windows computer, and making it an easy transition.

Note: No-one recomend ubuntu, i have tried it, and it is one of the worst i have ever tried

[Jonathan183]

Welcome to the forums caboose

Have you looked at the poll best distro for newbies?
Let us know what you have tried so far ... and since you mentioned Ubuntu - why it did not work for you.

Do you have a clear idea what you are looking for ?

Ed: and what sort of hardware you will be running on ... RAM, hard drive, CPU, graphics card.

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

After looking at the link from Jonathan, you may want to look at the Distro Quiz. It can give a few good ideas.

[caboose]

Yes, i have tried the poll. It showed that most people favour ubuntu. i have tried knoppix, which was an excellent live cd, but i couldn't install it.

I have also tried freespire, which is another excellent live cd, but with no way to install it.

ubuntu din't work for me because it seemed to be lacking in alot of basic qualities and plug-ins. because i am on dail-up internet, i don't have the speed to download the packages, so i felt as though i got half an OS.

I am looking for something that will work excellent out-of-the-box. something that is easy-to-use, and also has basic media playback capabilities. I have heard good things about StartCom. can you provide any info on that.

As for hardware, i am currentley between computerss

[Jonathan183]

If your on dial-up you probably want a distro you can install from DVD ... I used openSUSE for a few years on dial-up. I found Yast easy to use, and the DVD contained most of the applications I needed. I've stopped using openSUSE because I prefer Arch ... but Arch really needs a decent speed net connection.

I have not used StartCom at all ... so can't comment.

Hardware question was really to establish if you needed something for limited hardware ...

[caboose]

Thanks, johnathan. i'll give both distros a try

[Jonathan183]

Thanks, johnathan. i'll give both distros a try

I don't think Arch will work for you with limited download speed ... you can end up with 100MB downloads for updates (which would drive you mad on dial-up).

[caboose]

I don't think Arch will work for you with limited download speed ... you can end up with 100MB downloads for updates (which would drive you mad on dial-up).

no, i meant i'll try Yast and openSUSE