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Easiest FREE Linux?

post #1 of 28
9/13/05 at 12:49pm
Thread Starter 
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? )

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?
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post #2 of 28
9/13/05 at 12:58pm
Ubuntu is pretty good, and theyl ship you cds.
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post #3 of 28
9/13/05 at 4:33pm
yeah.....UBUNTU is your best bet. although it doesn't look anything like windows. kubuntu is more wind0wz-l00king
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post #4 of 28
9/13/05 at 6:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 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? )

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.
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post #5 of 28
9/14/05 at 1:53pm
Ubuntu, as long as you don't need to type cedillas :P (just joking, it's because I still can't get "รง" support on it).
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post #6 of 28
9/18/05 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 
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
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post #7 of 28
9/21/05 at 8:06am
Mandrake is also pretty easy. I was using 10.1 Official
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post #8 of 28
9/22/05 at 2:56am
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....
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post #9 of 28
9/22/05 at 4:22am
there is no sucht hing as easy linux

they are all free

just get the SUSE PRO 9.3 the best linux distro
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post #10 of 28
9/22/05 at 4:28am
If you want a disto that has a "windows" feels to it, try Xandros.
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post #11 of 28
9/22/05 at 6:07am
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.
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post #12 of 28
9/22/05 at 9:24am
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)
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post #13 of 28
9/22/05 at 10:39pm
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!
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post #14 of 28
9/23/05 at 12:09am
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...
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post #15 of 28
9/23/05 at 12:38am
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.
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post #16 of 28
9/23/05 at 2:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
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...)
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post #17 of 28
9/23/05 at 2:36am
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
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post #18 of 28
9/23/05 at 3:13am
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.
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post #19 of 28
9/23/05 at 9:30am
i would suggest BSD for server use....

maybe its just me but i think of ubuntu as a desktop os
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post #20 of 28
9/23/05 at 10:41am
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
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