New to linux!

[bassarama]

Hi,

I've been using PC's from back in the MSDOS days, however have decided to finally get onto Linux. I've done some research and have trimmed down to the follow 3 distro's:

Ubuntu
Debian
Opensuse

Can I please have some feedback on the above OS.

I purely want to learn how to use linux and down the track get onto networking.

Cheers
Bass

[GNU-Fan]

I purely want to learn how to use linux and down the track get onto networking.

All of the listed distros will do the job.
Ubuntu is Debian's little sister, with some emphases on newbee friendliness. Otherwise, it's quite the same.

OpenSuse, well, what can I say.
I don't like it, it's too green.

[bassarama]

Thanks for replying.

I was leaning towards Debian, the impression I get is that it may not be as "user-friendly" however it is Linux in it's purest form so to speak.

Any recommendations on minimal hardware requirements? I intend on running it off a laptop and don't particularly want to spend big dollars, and in the mean time I'm not too keen on partitioning the apple. *sigh*

[GNU-Fan]

I have installed Debian GNU/Linux on a Toshiba Portege R200 and a IBM Thinkpad T60.
Both run quite well.

(Nearly always, the problem is not weak hardware but poor driver support. So you are better off to get hardware which is 1yr. old or older.)

In general, it is always wise to google for "Linux support $HARDWARE" before you buy something. People often write down their experiences with Linux support for hardware, so you won't get any bad surprises.