Re: What linux distro is recommended

[A. Danial]

On Saturday 25 October 2003 12:21 pm, Niels L. Ellegaard wrote:
> Quentin Spencer <address@hidden> writes:
> > Obed Sands wrote:
> > I believe there
> > are several users on this list who would recommend Debian. The
> > advantage of Debian is you can use apt-get to install the latest
> > version without compiling anything yourself.
>
> I don't think it is right to advice a Linux novice to start out using
> Debian. I did this myself, and I learned a lot, but it also took a lot
> of because Debian does not work out of the box for novice users.

I disagree.  By far the easiest Linux install I've ever witnessed 
is Debian-based.  This distribution I'm referring to is Knoppix,
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-old-en.html

Download the .iso, burn a cdrom (has to be the larger 80 minute size),
then boot your computer off this cdrom.  As Knoppix runs right off 
the cdrom you can try it out without any modifications to your computer.
If you don't like it, reboot, take the cdrom out, and you are back
to your untouched Windows/Linux/FreeBSD/whatever-was-there-before 
system.  If you do like it (and I haven't met anyone who hasn't),
you can install to the hard drive with a single command,
http://www.freenet.org.nz/misc/knoppix-install.html

After the install finishes you have a Debian system running KDE.  
Unless you have unusual hardware, sound, graphics, and networking 
will all be autodetected and autoconfigured.

> Novices should start out with one of the following: Mandrake, Redhat
> or SUSE. 

Knoppix has a big advantage over Mandrake, RedHat, and SUSE:  there
is no risk with Knoppix.  If you don't like what you see running
off the cdrom then you can just reboot and have your original 
computer system back.  With the other three, your options
are much more limited:  commit to a hard drive install, or see it
running on someone else's machine.  

Debian, via Knoppix as the installation vehicle, is the way to go 
for novices (and everyone else too really).   -- Al



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