fedora not for novices?

[penguin2]

I have Fedora on one of my partitions. I haven't booted it up and I wanted to copy some files to an exernal drive.

But, there is NOHING that can access any other directory but HOME. I finally had Konqueror showing / directory and could get a look at other directories.

Anyway, I read in Fedora Forums a thread of someone asking if Fedora is for a beginner. I have to say a loud NO! I know Red Hat does a lot for Linux and Fedora is used by many developers but imho, Fedora is a developer distro for experts.

I don't know why they need to make things so complicated but maybe users feel important or privileged or something that they're able to manage or something, I don't know.

I guess i'd have to read a few books in order to use the OS. I'm going to figure out how to copy my files, though. I was able to mount my external drive but not some place I can access via GUI. I guess those that like Fedora prefer CLI and that's fine.

I'm going to wipe out the partition when I get a chance. If I try a different distro than what I usually use, I'll put OpenSUSE in a VirtualBox or something.

I don't have time to figure out Fedora and why they only want experts using it.

[penguin2]

Yeah, I know. But, if there was a head-banging flash smiley/avatar, that's the one I'd use!

[previso]

Linux is different from Windows. In Windows, the user is automatically issued administrator privileges. (which is why those machines are so vulnerable)
In Linux there are two accounts: user, with limited privileges; and root (administrator) You must be logged in as root to grant the user account additional privileges. (ie, the power to mount and access a remote filesystem).
Linux is similar in that security arrangement to Windows Server. It helps prevent the user from inadvertently messing up the OS. Many a time a friend has asked me to fix their Windows machine after letting a nephew use it.
In Linux, the user account may be messed up, but the root account stays generally safe, able to fix it.
There may be missing applications or setups necessary for you to access the remote filesystem. Or your user account may be restricted. I agree that after being in the M$ environment Linux can be frustrating. User account privileges, applications, etc. are all different.
Be patient. Linux is a superior OS and it will be our pleasure to assist you.

[aetiv]

I think the best Linux distro for a new user is the one that comes with good support. As a beginner your going to spend quite a lot of time learning by making mistakes, working through them, reading, and asking others for help. Therefore, when you really run into a problem I would say to go with the version you like the looks and feel of, and has quite a few people who are willing to support you with your system. A big key to this is in remembering that you don't need to use only one support team such as to only use the distro owners forums. I use Mandriva and even have a subscription, but I hardly ever log on to use their support. I use other forums that I am more comfortable with.

[oz]

I don't have time to figure out Fedora and why they only want experts using it.

There aren't any distributions that everyone will find easy to use, so you just have to keep trying different distros until you find the one that best suits your hardware and your own personal tastes in an OS.

Hopefully, you'll find the right one without too much effort. Best of luck with it.

[techguy615]

I have played with a lot of them. I must say that I didn't like Fedora myself. The OS is more for those that know Red Hat going into it (but not always). I seemed to have better hardware support and found more solutions for my problems with Ubuntu (or am Ubuntu derivative).

I would say that coming from a Windows background, that I agree with what everyone here says. It depends on what your wants and needs are. Just pick out a distro, download a copy, burn it, and play with it. One piece of advice I can give you from experience is to buy a BUNCH of CD/DVD media. You will need them if your trying out several different flavors of Linux. I know I still download a new distro at least once a month to try it out in a VM.

And also, save yourself some trouble in the process by getting an extra hard drive for your media (music, videos, documents, etc). That way you always know where that stuff is kept, and if you have to drop back and punt (reinstall the OS) you can do it with very little pain.

[penguin2]

Actually, that is the plan, techguy!

I do like Fedora, sort of a love/hate relationship with it...

The crazy experimenter in me likes the bleeding edge, up-to-date status of it and Red Hat contributes a lot to Linux and knowing a bit of Red Hat stuff helps in terms of Linux knowledge, doesn't it. I know it's (i.e. Fedora) not exactly Red Hat but has enough relevance to it for a Linux user, right?

Anyway, I do speculate that Fedora does a few things differently. In most discussions and reviews on Fedora, someone is already saying that. The most consistent comment is that Fedora should consider more work on making the desktop a bit more user friendly. The hard-core Fedora users probably don't want to hear that, though. Not sure. But, my Fedora DE is KDE and it seems less expansive (?) than in other distros. What other word or description could I use? I wouldn't really use 'less user friendly' but it seems harder when you're used to other KDE distros or KDE versions in other distros. I'm not sure how the Gnome version is since I wasn't using it.

I plan on less distro hopping anyway but I will have three partitions on 1 disk. One, Ubuntu with Virtual Box. Another with Fedora (this will be my 'experimental partition') and one with...uh... Windows.

The Linux partitions will be at least 120GB each. I plan on this since I want a SSD in the future and they don't have large capacities yet.

I just couldn't figure out why it was so hard to have a GUI file manager in Fedora show my entire disk structure. I could only access or 'see' my 'Home.'

I eventually 'solved' my problem via CLI. I suppose that's a good thing. Anytime you use CLI, it can only help.

[techieMoe]

The Linux partitions will be at least 120GB each. I plan on this since I want a SSD in the future and they don't have large capacities yet.

Any particular reason? Plan on making your own 3D movies in Blender? I'm just curious, since you can do most anything with a Linux distribution on about 20GB, 40-60 if you like a lot of media. No need to wait on capacity, unless you just want that much space.

I just couldn't figure out why it was so hard to have a GUI file manager in Fedora show my entire disk structure. I could only access or 'see' my 'Home.'

That's actually quite odd. You should in theory be able to see anything from root on down, just not change anything without root privileges. But then, I haven't used Fedora in a while.

[previso]

Like Penguin2, I like to keep messing with the OS. Kernel upgrades have been a consistent source of full reinstalls.
By no-hassle distro continues to be Knoppix, period. With a little practice? Kubuntu. My take-it-like-a-man distro? Suse. I guess I'm a KDE guy.