[TriLUG] Linux Newbie Resources

[linux r]

Hi Gene,

I am biased, but I prefer Redhat based distro's.   My reasoning:

1) a little more user friendly than some really advanced distros that
are more scary-looking etc.  Red Hat has had the default GNOME desktop
for awhile, which to me is easier to migrate from Windows to, than the
KDE environment.

2) other distros such as mandrake (french), white box linux, etc,  are
based upon redhat.  The package manager, for example, which is what
you use to install software.  So in the beginning I would rather just
use one distro and get good with that until I knew a little bit about
what was going on, and felt comfortable to try other distributions.

3)  It is easier sometimes to find more support for things
redhat-related than some other god-knows-what distro, unless you
really know what you are doing in terms of searching, compiling
software, etc.  With redhat, if you can get, say, FC3 on your machine,
then you can easily find rpm packages to download and install on your
machine.  That is not always the case with other distro's, although it
is definitely better these days than in the past.

4) Red Hat (the company) is definitely a leader in the linux space. 
More name recognition and support= better hardware support= more
software packages out there= fewer headaches.  Personally I like that.

This was just my reasoning.  You could jump right into Debian or
TurboLinux and do fine, it is totally up to the individual!  The
beauty of open source software keeps multiplying...:)
SuSE has a nice interface, I actually like it better than RH9 or FC1. 
  A beginner could learn SuSE pretty easily as well.

Also go to http://www.linuxmigration.com/  and check out the 'linux
quick reference' link.  Tim has done an excellent job with a lot of
hard topics, including some fun stuff like cd burning etc.  The
'learning curve' on linux can be like a cliff, so good luck!


HTH

linuxr




On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 14:21:38 -0400, Gene Dupree <gene.dupree at duke.edu> wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> Since I am new to Linux, I wanted to know if anyone knows of any really
> good resources (books, websites, etc.) to learn Linux from the ground up.
> I have a pretty good background in Windows/DOS but want to learn and
> explore the Linux universe.  Any suggestions would be helpful.
> 
> Also, are there any recommendations on which distro to start out with?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any info!
> 
> Gene
> 
> There are only 10 kinds of people in this world.
> Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
> 
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