Easiest FREE Linux?

[Cheerfulnut]

I'm looking to install an os for a friend on their desktop, and was thinking of getting something free (who can spend $160+ on MS Home? :mad: )

Anyway, I figured Linux would be good to try out, and was wondering what the easiest distro to use would be. By easiest to use, I refer to:


Closest in appearance/usage to Windows
Easy.. (I guess that goes along with first point)
and FREE!

I know that there are probably many differing opinions, but surely there must be some distros that are generally acknowledged to meet the above criteria? :)

[snafle]

Ubuntu is pretty good, and theyl ship you cds.

[abf]

yeah.....UBUNTU is your best bet. although it doesn't look anything like windows. kubuntu is more wind0wz-l00king

[unfalliblekrutc]

I'm looking to install an os for a friend on their desktop, and was thinking of getting something free (who can spend $160+ on MS Home? :mad: )

Anyway, I figured Linux would be good to try out, and was wondering what the easiest distro to use would be. By easiest to use, I refer to:


Closest in appearance/usage to Windows
Easy.. (I guess that goes along with first point)
and FREE!

I know that there are probably many differing opinions, but surely there must be some distros that are generally acknowledged to meet the above criteria? :)

I've seen OEM winXP pros going for 79.99, so no, it's not $150. However, 80 dollars is still alot, so for linux, i'd go with suse. Another choice would be to get a knoppix live cd or two and try them, choose one of those you like and install it to HD.

[DDDa]

Ubuntu, as long as you don't need to type cedillas :P (just joking, it's because I still can't get "ç" support on it).

[Cheerfulnut]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Sorry I was late in responding - the internet has been down for the last 2 days at my place :(

Will try out ubuntu/kubuntu! Will also give suse a try if I get the time :bouncy:

[crnchyfrog]

Mandrake is also pretty easy. I was using 10.1 Official

[joncisco]

Damn Small Linux is pretty good too....it may not look alot like Windows but it is fairly straight forward to use....
and plus you could always rename icons if they aren't sure what to click on to get internet or email etc....

[SirBA]

there is no sucht hing as easy linux

they are all free

just get the SUSE PRO 9.3 the best linux distro

[Trekkminster]

If you want a disto that has a "windows" feels to it, try Xandros.

[maxrule]

All the new "leenuts" releases are close to windows for the most part. I have a freebsd machine that has an uptime now of 1287 days without rebooting or crashes. Unless you are doing something like game playing (windows), just email and web browsing linux is great. Freebsd for netbots, ircops, mail server etc :)

For linux distros i prefer mandrake or suse.

[abf]

bsd is awesome to be honest.... that is as long as you have an nvidia card, not ati. my favorite bsd is PC-BSD (freebsd based)

[peruytu]

I would have to go with the yet unreleased Suse 10. Novell, the company that owns Suse, is making this latest version of Suse to be the "Windows killer" to normal everyday users of desktops. Novell, from what I hear, is going to distribute this very aggresively, aiming at both, power users and newbies. Its due to come out next month in October so keep an eye on it.
In the mean time I would go with either Ubuntu or Xandros.. but I think Xandros still charges a small fee. Either way, both distros are great with Ubuntu probably being the best supported distro by the open source community at the moment. Ubuntu will even ship the CD's to you at no charge!

[drizek]

kubuntu today, opensuse 10.0 in two weeks.

ive tried both, and while kubuntu is nice and easy to use, suse just blows it out of the water.

i should try out pc-bsd sometime though...

[abf]

from my suse experience (9.1 9.2 and 9.3) it was not very good at all. i am hoping it all changes for 10, but to download 5 ISOs, waste 5 CD-Rs and ending up with a shittier install than ubuntu is just not worth my time.

[bigtrouble77]

from my suse experience (9.1 9.2 and 9.3) it was not very good at all. i am hoping it all changes for 10, but to download 5 ISOs, waste 5 CD-Rs and ending up with a shittier install than ubuntu is just not worth my time.
Amen. I still can't get the friggin' AMD64 version of SuSe 9.3. I've gone through 2 torrents so far (a total of about 8 gigs) and both are 32bit. The only 64bit iso I can find is an 8gig iso!! That's insane, and completely useless because it also contains the 32bit binaries.

I'm not gonna run out to compusa and buy a $14 dual layer dvd and hope this distro works out for my dual processor opteron server. I planned to use Fedora, but that crap keeps giving kernel panics during the install. Anyway, sorry for the rant. Go with Ubuntu. (maybe I should just try ubuntu for the server...)

[drizek]

havent you people ever heard of cdrw's?

maybe it just depends on your system, but on my desktop suse 10 kicks major ass. i will admit though that 9.1 was pretty bad.

also, there is a project for suse called SUPER which is a 1 cd install that is highly optimized and with all the eyecandy and usability enhancements of suse. it is still under heavy development right now, but it looks like it will be killer.

http://www.opensuse.org/SUPER

[seablade]

Heh BigTrouble I had decent luck with Ubuntu on my opteron audio machine, UNTIL it came to getting my audio card working, which is a trick under any distro, was just to much of a pain under Ubuntu. Now for anyone else keep in mind I do pro audio and my card is a bit different than your standard onboard or soundblaster, so this isnt typical. I just had some problems getting it set up correctly and found it easier to stick with Gentoo for my opteron based audio machine. For a server though Ubunutu I would think would work great.

Seablade

I have used Ubuntu for server machines before with good success.

[abf]

i would suggest BSD for server use....

maybe its just me but i think of ubuntu as a desktop os

[seablade]

No I doubt it is just you, it depends on what you are using the server for, for example I was using it as a file server and mini-web server for my house. Nothing to big, but worked fine for that. Now if I was going for a much more powerful server that was supporting many hits a day I would be using something different, or at least something a bit more tailored for me. No reason you cant tailor Ubuntu for that though I dont think, though I havent tried it.

Seablade

Who will be setting up a slightly different server in a few months, not decided what distro yet though, yes BSD is an option however I know linux and am familiar with it and know I can do a good job with it, without having to worry about downtime, I have run linux servers for pretty long periods of time(! dont think 1400 days) without them going down, of cdourse usually what brought them down was the power going out, or the latest one, the power supply going out and probably frying half the computer;)

[bigtrouble77]

I have no experience with any of the BSD flavors, and neither do any of the people I'm working with, unfortunately. The dual opteron (2ghz) machine I build has over 2tb of storage configured in raid 5 with a hotswap dirve. It's going to run Apache/Java/Tomcat/MySql. This is really going to be a mission critical server for my webapp I developed.

Now I have my webapp completely configured on my Ubuntu laptop so I know this environment pretty well. If I go to Unbuntu for the server at least it will be an identical environment to my laptop. It's just been a nightmare getting a stable kernel and drivers for my broadcom raid controller. Honestly, I thought Fedora and SuSe would pretty much be plug and play. Fedora's been a dud, so I'm gonna give SuSe a shot.

Does anyone have a link to a SuSe 9.3pro 64bit DVD torrent??? (the 4gb version)

[beaviskob1]

Easiest to use is so relative.System spec's etc. come into to play. Easy to use doen't mean easy to customize! When all is said and done I have found PCLinux Online to be the most plug and play distro I have used. It is Mandrake based but uses apt-get and is kde (my favorite). That being said it just works on MY [H]ardware. Kanotix is a sweet debian based distro (kde again). Hell the key is free Try them all !! :dude:




obtw, Petition Apple, OSX_86 is a kickass BSD out of the box as and alpha/development tool. If they would not make me buy an overpriced celeron system I WOULD be a convert from what I have seen so far.

[abf]

alright....i guess before i go flame suse 10 based on my experience with 9.1 9.2 and 9.3, i am gonna dive in head first in the shallow end, or step on the same rake for the 4th time in a row if you wanna call it that, and give suse 10 a spin (as soon as the stupid 3gb torrent is done...man i hate this sh*t)

[cubensis]

Ubuntu is good, and I have several extra CDs lying around, PM me if you want one. I can get them to you faster than they will send them to you.

[abf]

nvm on testing suse 10....i figured out 5 cds was a waste and also i need to fix my damn port problem so i can install gentoo (see "Community Project" thread)

[peruytu]

I wouldn't be giving Suse 10 "another try" either since its still in its Beta stages. I would just wait until the final release due on Oct. 6. Not that there will be a huge difference, but at least it would give you less reasons to trash it. ;)

As far as servers go, if you want to stick to linux then definately go with CentOS. Right now its probably the best linux distro that used widely by professionals and large corporations. BSD, of course, its still number one in terms of serving.. but only if you really are running something big and important, and I know that nobody here is running something "big" so instead of doing BSD (which would probably add more problems to your newbie experience) you should definately do CentOS.

[abf]

i tried CentOS back in the day....isn't it just another fedora rip?

[peruytu]

i tried CentOS back in the day....isn't it just another fedora rip?

Yes, its based on Fedora, but especifically for servers (speed, security, configuration,etc)... and it does the job right.