Newbe that really could use the help

[LiquidFlame]

ok so i've read a lot about linux and so far from what i have read it seems that both redhat and mandrake are really good for people who are just starting out but its just a preference for which one is better. is this true?

the other question that i had was what is a really good book and easy to understand to read to learn linux.

any help would be appreciated thanks.

[andutt]

Thats true. I think redhat and Mandrake are more easier to start with...docs about linux are best to read on the net. It exists very documentation and whitepapers, check at

http://www.redhat.com

Under the documentation chooise..

Regards

[Dolda2000]

I've never actually read about Linux in that way, but from what I hear from these forums, many people have gained much from the Red Hat for Dummies book. You also get a free CD in it, from what I hear. I think the linux.org recommends some good books from time to time as well. Like I said, I haven't read about Linux to learn it, so I don't know what books or recommendations are good, but you might just give it a shot. I'm sure that you have a local public library where you can lend the book as well, right?

And as for your first question, I would have to say yes: Mandrake and RedHat are better for newcomers. There are a lot of distros that offer a lot more for Linux die-hards or for server admins (such as gentoo, debian, Linux From Scratch, slackware, etc.), but RH and Mdk are (from what I've hear; I've only used RH, not Mdk) very easy to install and to use once you get them installed. From the experience that I've gathered here, Mdk seems to be able to autodetect much more hardware that RH, but RH seems much more stable than Mdk.