...wherefore art thou Linux?

[BlindMonk]

So I'm debating in the middle of these here distros. Having not spent even ten minutes with any of Linux's many faces I know something like Mandriva, OpenSUSE, or even Ubuntu would do better in easing me into the operation of the new OS. I can't ignore, however, the incredible allure/challenge of what I understand to be infinitely configurable offerings such as Arch, Gentoo, and Slackware. In your estimation could a severe Linux newblood even manage it? There's certainly enough documentation and community out there to get me through, I would think, but I suppose I always risk getting frustrated or overwhelmed.

My background is 90% Windows / 5% DOS / 5% OSX

Haven't decided whether this will be a dual-boot or separate rig install.

 

[Greg King]

Rob is certainly going to be the one to offer any help in this thread. He has recommended Sabyon to me many times and it might be something to think about.

Like you, I have virtually no experience with the OS at all. I have however, installed Red Hat 8 once, maybe twice but uninstalled it shortly after installation. No real reason. I just knew that I was never going to do anything with it. Now that I am interested again, i am going to give Sabyon a go.

 

[BlindMonk]

Ah ha!

Well, I guess I'll give it a go.

 

[Rob Williams]

That is the oldest Sabayon review around, there is a newer one:

http://techgage.com/article/sabayonlinux_33/

I do recommend Sabayon for newbies to Linux, simply because it takes care of almost everything for you, like video/audio/3d/internet/bluetooth/etc. As much as I love the distro, it's still far too bloated for me, but that's something that a lot of people enjoy. It also helps that Sabayon installs Beryl for you as well, which adds to the experience.

If you don't like SL, you can always move onto other distros, such as Fedora/openSUSE/PC LOS. As for Gentoo and other distros that require more user intervention, I don't recommend those to someone new to Linux at all, unless they really have the desire to sit down and learn. If you want to learn Linux well, I recommend downloading Gentoo, the non-Live CD version, which is all command prompt based. Once you successfully install it that way, you'll be on the road to better understanding of how Linux works.

 

[Matt Serrano]

If you want to learn Linux well, I recommend downloading Gentoo, the non-Live CD version, which is all command prompt based. Once you successfully install it that way, you'll be on the road to better understanding of how Linux works.

Agreed.

Gentoo was the first distribution I took seriously. It took a few days to install and customize (this was a while ago), but even reading over the documentation really gives you an idea of how Linux works. Before that distribution, I tried other 'newbie friendly' versions that either limited what you were able to do or only let you choose from certain ways of doing things. And compiling everything from source really made a difference in speed once everything was running.

Most offerings like Ubuntu and OpenSuse give you a lot of freedom, so you could use the GUIs that are given to you, or go straight to a command line.

One thing I think most new users need to understand is 'Linux isn't Windows'. You'll probably need to set things up manually. It's great for a weekend project (to start), but expect to get frustrated before things get rolling.