What distribution of linux should I use?

[bals28mjk]

I was really interested in ubuntu when I started this, it sound appealing to me. However, their site has no copies of reliable disks etc. Sorry for complaining, but I wasted about 12 hours of my time trying to get a reliable copy of ubuntu I downloaded 4 versions and they kept giving me corrupted files and some of their cds wouldn't even burn.

Anyway, what type of distribution should I try? Preferably one that it is possible to install.

[oz]

What distribution of linux should I use?

Hello

Any of the top 5 or 6 distros listed in the page hits ranking chart at DistroWatch.com is usually a good place to start. Which ever distribution best suits your personal tastes and works best with your computer hardware is probably the one you should use.

[bals28mjk]

Hey thanks for the reply.

Well, basically I'm a web programmer/developer as far as programming is concerned. As far as my needs go just something that is a good desktop. I'm a total newb when it comes to linux, I've heard a lot about it. It's pretty cool that they distributions are designed in a specific way to suit the users needs. But it's similar to playing a morpg and picking a character. That sounds nerdish, but the way I look at it. I personally don't know any of the "characters" or distibutions because I haven't even stuck my toe in linux yet. My needs are basically

Free
Easy to use
Easy to install
Better than windows
Popular

Pretty much it. It's for personal use I'm not doing web hosting or using it for business or anything.

[oz]

You can check the link in my user signature for some distro quizzes that might help you to decide which distro(s) to try. Otherwise, the top distros listed by DistroWatch is where most new users start.

[bals28mjk]

Yeah that could help, I'll do the quiz later, thanks for the help. The highest precedence is "easy to install" too. That trumps all.

[oz]

I find a bigger difference in the ability to configure and tweak different distributions than I do with their installation routines. Most of the more popular distros these days have automated installers that make it a fairly simple process to follow the installation menu during the installation. Once that's done, any special configurations or tweaks can take place, which can vary in complexity with different distributions.

Of course there are some distros that are still fairly hard for new users to install with Gentoo, Crux, and Slackware possibly being a few of them.

Best of luck to you with whatever distro you choose.

[MASONTX]

Ubuntu is usually easy to download and install, but it is not like windows. You need to download the ubuntu .ISO file, then burn (not copy) it to a cd, set your computer bios to boot from the cd first, then restart your computer with the ubuntu CD in the tray. You can either run as a live cd to try it out, or install it. From there it is pretty automated, asking you about time zones, keyboard, languag, etc.

[MASONTX]

While previous versions of ubuntu (think 9.10 or earlier) could run on less than 1 GB of ram, the current versions do best on 1 GB or more ram and 1 Ghz or better cpu. If your specs are below that, try Lubuntu, AntiX, or one of the distro's that distrowatch.com lists for older computers.

[bals28mjk]

Haha, how ironic. They selected ubuntu as my first choice. Here:

Ubuntu
Linux Mint
Mandriva
OpenSuSE
Kubuntu

Ubuntu is impossible to install. I tried like 20-30 different things to get it going and wasted so many blank cd's. Their alternate cd doesn't even burn, and they kept giving me corrupted files. Easy to install, ha!

[oz]

As was indicated in your Ubuntu thread, I feel pretty certain there is a computer hardware problem on your end. If there is, and until it is fixed, it's highly likely that no ISO file will download and burn to disk properly. The easiest way to know for sure would probably be to download the ISO file for another distro, do the md5sum check on it and see if it's a match. If it's not, I'd recommend taking a closer look at the memory thing mentioned in the other thread. If it turns out not to be bad memory, look at other possible hardware issues.