Linux newbe.

[rew]

I, very interested in Linux. I looked at cheap bytes. I wonder if I wound'nt be better
off to buy the Cadera 2.2 or Red Hat.
Is linux a bummer to get started on, I can remember my first DOS.
what I'm trying to is cut down on FRUSTRATION if possible.
Thanks

[usual]

well caldera is probably the easiest to install because its all graphical..i don't know what kind of expereince you have so i can't say if you need it or not. But ...if you have some basic computer knowledge about partitions and your hardware then any distribution is fine.....I find debian to be the best but you might like redhat or caldera suse is also nice. they are all basicly the same. make sure all your hardware is compatible or you will be sorry.
I saw redhat in the compUSA flyer yesterday for 79.99....i couldn't ****ing believe it. 80 bucks..for a free OS. i personally hate redhat and am not too fond of caldera...suse is ok. but this is mostly my opinion though. if you have any questions about distibutions..i have installed and used slackware,debian,suse and redhat. if you need specific opinions on any of these i can answer questions for you

[CMonster]

Personally I think Caldera 2.2 is great. I used their old version 1.3 and also RedHat5.1 and I liked the Caldera much better. Generally Caldera comes with more features and is somewhat more user friendly, especially for newbies.

I had considerable frustration starting out, partly because I was a newbie, and mostly because the OS was not nearly as user friendly as Windows in terms of hardware support. Yes, the 'good'ol' DOS days do come to mind, but perhaps with Linux the learning curve is even a bit steeper. However, the latest versions of Linux are much more polished and the graphical user interface is excelent. People are particular to certain distributions and you can hear debates similar to the AMD/Intel arguments, but just like the CPUs, each has it's proponents. I have never used "debian" Linux, so I have no opinion there, but I have used Slackware and RedHat, and I do use Caldera and think it's just fantastic.

[kwai]

costco had a special version of redhat 5.2 for $30. nice price and it also included a good thick installation guide with some electronic guides on cd. good way to get started. if your sys can boot from cd rom, even better.

you can always upgrade to 6.0 later if you feel you need it.

[CMonster]

Unless you are really wanting to wrestle with the OS a bit I would recommend you stay away from the RH5.2; if you decide on using RedHat then 6.0 is the way to go, you will get a lot more applications, more recent hardware support, and ease of installation and configuration.

Caldera 2.2 is selling at FRY's electronics (So. Calif.) for $39 and there is a $10 rebate from Caldera.

[stodge]

Linux Mandrake?

www.linux-mandrake.com

You can buy it from www.cheapbytes.com for a couple of US $.

[Gentle Giant]

Very new to Linux - (3weeks).
Have only tryied Redhat 6.0 and most of that time was taken setting up video, modem, sound. My video and modem are not supported but once I found out what needed to be done
I could do a complete install in a very short time.
The best way to cut down on frustration I'm afraid is to be patient.

[Zacko10000]

If you want linux cheap goto www.linuxmall.com, you can get the distributions for $1.89! Also if you are looking for more even try ebay, just search for Linux, I've found some good deals there. I'm somewhat new to Linux but after about 2 weeks of hell I began to understand it, and can now easily use it. Once you get the Windows X system up its easy (I either run KDE or GNOME, I don't like the Windows X look), things make a lot more sense, and you get the hang of it. If you ever have questions just goto www.linux.com and click on the chat room, when I run into problems thats where I go and always get a quick and helpful response. I've tried SuSE so far, and it's good, except for the fact that every once in a while something might pop up in german (even though the language is set to English). I bought a copy of Red Hat on EBay with Powertools and a few other things, should get that soon... To cut down on frustration just take frequent breaks, do not stress over installation, it is a pain no matter what. After the initial shock you start thinking in Linux and before you know it its just as easy as Windows 95

Oh I forgot, if its an older machine and everything is ISA, make sure to know your graphics card. Just know model, vendor, and amount of memory, clocks arn't too inportant. If you don't know what it is try the standard SVGA server, if this doesn't work resort to VGA. Some come with graphical Win X config programs (SAX in SuSE) and they can't auto detect these cards.

[This message has been edited by Zacko10000 (edited 06-19-99).]

[miko]

Redhat is fine but debian has best tools that i ve seen like Alien that convert packges of slackware to debian and redhat to slackware. And the bash of debian is higher than other linux distru

[CMonster]

To install Caldera's OL2.2 offering is not a pain in any way unless you have very old hardware - First it includes a limited version of Partition Magic that you can use to resize your Windows partition and create the Linux partitions.

Once the graphical install begins almost all of your hardware will be auto detected. Perhaps the most important part is your video adapter - it is 99% likely that your chipset will be autodetected, then use the autoprobing tool option and enter the correct amount of VRAM for your card. Next choose a monitor - It may only be necessary to choose a monitor that matches the specs of your own - the brand isn't important, finally, you select a set of screen resolutions and then it allows you to test these video modes right then during installation - this takes a few minutes so do not panic. If the graphics are not set up correctly then you can go back and do it over.

At some point you enter any network information that is relative...

next, you play tetris until the install is complete,

Finally it boots you to the login screen and after logging in you are ploped down into the middle of KDE windows-like desktop.

A couple of things you will need to set up after install are the modem and sound card. For the modem I recommned you use "Lisa," (LInux System Administration) just type "lisa" in a terminal window and you will be well on the way to configuring your system. For the sound card (if your card is supported by Linux) you will have to load the related kernel modules.

In the older version (Caldera OL 1.3), lisa did just about everything but in OL2.2 lisa is more limited because there are more refined tools on the system as well.



[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-19-99).]

[Zacko10000]

Wow, Caldera sonuds good, maybe I should get that distribution...also anyone else hear about corel's effort to make a more user friendly distribution of linux? I think you can visit linux.corel.com for more info on that one.

[usual]

Just get debian now
Corel is just debian with KDE
and a GUI install