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Ask Slashdot: Easiest Linux Distro For a Newbie
anymooseposter writes "My mom is taking a computer class at the local Community College. she asks: 'I need to download a Linux OS and try it out for class. The assignment is to use an OS different from what you normally use. Well, since I use Windows and OS X, the assignment suggests Linux. But, my question is, what is the easiest version based on Linux for me to put on CD and try? I saw several on the web. Any thoughts off the top of your head?' What Linux Disto would be easiest to set up without having to resort to dual booting and/or driver issues?"
I assume this is going to be 99% of the suggestions. If your computer is old or slow, I suggest Xubuntu which I've switched my old P4 to after the regular Ubuntu got a little too GUI intensive. Here's the link to VMWare.
My work here is dung.
Ubuntu. Current version (11.04). Use "Classic" desktop instead of Unity.
Also see http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutorials/linux-distributions/linux-distributions4-ubuntu/1540-top-things-to-do-after-installing-ubuntu-1104-natty-narwhal .
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
By FAR the easiest and most comparable distro out of the box to Windows is Linux Mint. All of the good parts of Ubuntu with none of the broken stuff. It also comes with all the restricted multimedia drivers that make things easy to use in Microsoft land.
Ubuntu using Wubi is pretty brain dead easy to install. No partitioning required, it lives inside your Windows filesystem and handles adding itself to your boot menu.
Performance is slightly degraded, and bugs can come up with regards to hard reboots, but really it's the best option I know of if you're not running off a USB stick or DVD.
Just go with Ubuntu. Its designed to be friendlier for beginners and there is pretty good documentation on typical end user wants and needs. Some other distros can have more of a by-nerds-for-nerds orientation and the community response to beginner questions is "go read the man pages", or the distros can be more puritanical in nature, no binary drivers etc. There's nothing wrong with these perspectives, unless you are a beginner just trying out Linux rather than someone who has decided to dedicate themselves to Linux and is willing to invest the extra time. Fedora may not be bad for beginners either.
... :-)
Now let the flaming begin
Whatever distribution you choose, start with a LiveCD and boot from that. You won't have to make any changes to the computer at all. If you can install to a USB pendrive, it will be reasonably quick, too.
If the computer is reasonably hefty, with a modern processor and at least 1 GB of memory, I'd try Kubuntu 10.10 because I think the KDE desktop looks more like what someone used to Windows would expect. Otherwise, try Ubuntu 10.04LTS for the GNOME experience and avoid Ubuntu 11.04. It has an entirely different desktop environment (Unity) and is probably too buggy for someone whose never touched Linux before.
I haven't used Fedora in quite a while so I'm not competent to discuss its current incarnations. I've never taken to OpenSuSE, but I'm sure others here will tell you why to use that. Mandriva is likely to get some endorsements as well.
You might have her try out Edubuntu. It is pretty different than just another OS, but I think it does a good job of showing how Linux can fit a specific niche in a really interesting way.
They also have a "Weblive" version where you can play with it for 2 hours online before even downloading. That's here
Custom, hands-free Linux installs. Instalinux
Linux Mint is easily the most Linux-newbie-friendly distribution I've ever used. It also scales well to an experienced user. It uses an Ubuntu base (unless you use Linux Mint Debian Edition but I strongly advise against that for a newbie).
Depending on hardware capabilities there are heavyweight (Gnome, KDE) and lightweight (Xfce, LXDE) versions.
You can install it using mintinstall (wubi) from inside Windows (you need to use the CD version for this, but it's then very simple to upgrade to the DVD version once you're inside Linux Mint). Doing this means you can dual-boot without repartitioning - for your mum this sounds like the best option.
Use LFS, that will teach you!
On a serious note, the Linux distribution choosers/selectors out there can answer your and similar questions.
NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
Gentoo - By far the easiest!
* no need for a mouse to install it!
* don't have to boot a live cd
* don't have to dual boot (just have it take over)
* no hard to understand buttons - if you can read, you can install it!
if not for the crazy people who put linux ontop of a FAT filesystem (dont ask) i probably wouldnt be the successfull IT profes.. i mean .. homeless nutjob i am today.
As opposed to a LiveCD I would recommend installing it on a flash drive instead. The flash drive can be written to, so it can behave more like a real OS (allow you to persist files and settings after a reboot) and its just quicker than CD/DVD.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick
$diff terrorists hippies
$
$rm -rf *terrorists *hippies
If so you could go for FreeBSD or Solaris. Or get really crazy and try to find a copy of BeOS or OS/2.
After all, the summary just said "an OS other than what you usually use", it didn't say it had to be Linux. And most of the people there will likely go with Linux anyways, so why not be different?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Are you sure it's a good idea to tell a linux-newb to start using all sorts of hard drive diagnostic and recovery tools from a LiveCD? Most of those tools have disclaimers: "If you don't know what you're doing, don't use this. Any damage you do is your own fault" (paraphrased). So yes, he wouldn't be installing another operating system, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be causing damage to his disk...
It's derived from Linux Mint which is derived from Ubuntu, so is far removed from Ubuntu's quirks and adds many enhancements that make it easy to manage. It's set up more like how a power desktop user would tweak their Linux distro with all the most common nice GUI tools for getting things done. Although it would be more familiar for a OSX user with it's mac-like dock.
For me it just saves time having to tweak things and install lots of packages.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
i just sent my mom a dell mini w/ mint on it,
for many of these same reasons.
As opposed to a LiveCD I would recommend installing it on a flash drive instead. The flash drive can be written to, so it can behave more like a real OS (allow you to persist files and settings after a reboot) and its just quicker than CD/DVD.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick
Yup. And this should do the trick: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ runs on windows and Mac.
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Mint is going to be your easiest bet because it is relatively stable, and has many codecs built into it. Just install and use for the most part.
If you go with Ubuntu, log in using the classic (Gnome 2) desktop for stability. At that point, Flash won't work, DVD's won't play, etc. That is where a noob would need to download and run BleedingEdge. http://sourceforge.net/projects/bleedingedge/
Installing on a USB is the safest (and slowest) bet. It will be even safer if you disconnect the power to your hard drive first. The idea is not to erase your pictures, taxes, or homework. Personally, I keep Windows XP in a VirtualBox for the few software titles that require it. You could do the same with any Linux distro.
Good luck experimenting.
Sure... it's your mom's assignment. My grandpa is also taking Theory of Computation at his university and asking me why his carefully crafted Lisp code still doesn't solve the halting problem.
Linux Mint for overall easiness.
And the best way to start? By the hand that rocks the cradle! Qimo linux is geared towards young children, but is so simple even a Parent can use it!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I respect your ID (wow! 437) but I call "BS".
1. My Linux boxes in Virtual Box seem to work perfectly well. If your VM is fighting for resources with 20 widgets showing the weather in Antarctica, 15 instant messaging clients and 20 bittorrent downloads then the fact you are running Windows is not the reason that you get nothing done.
2. What superior functionality am I missing out on when I bridge my VM networking? Do you run a "bond0" on your laptops two Ethernet ports? A couple of examples of this "superior functionality" that don't work in a VM would be nice.
3. You may have a point with file systems, but ZFS snapshots still work inside my VM, and I can also do snapshot of the VM if I want.
4. I find Virtualbox in full screen mode is identical, as long as you don't push right-control+F. And using Putty to access a VM is identical to a physical box - you do code like a real man, using just as your editor "vi" .don't you?
5. This is completely false. The user may not learn everything (like what a pain Linux wireless and power management can be), but they can learn almost everything. They will not learn nothing.
a LiveCD, this means a CD which will boot you to a usable operating system. You can poke around without installing anything or messing up your computer. If you find it interesting give a bunch of them a try to see just how different the experience can be.
Not all life is cyber. Extra Income
Why doesn't anyone post the most obvious answer. Get Ubuntu and run it off the CD/DVD without installing it (LiveCD). She can play with it all she wants and every time the computer is turn off it resets everything and doesn't bother her Windows or OS X setup at all and it doesn't need to save stuff to just play around with it and do most normal things like web surfing and such.
That is so much simpler since she isn't probably going to keep it around after the class assignment is over.
I changed my mother from Ubuntu to Linux Mint around a year ago, and very quickly had to switch her back due to the endless cries of "it's doing something strange!". It was indeed doing something strange -- in around a 2 week period I came across at least two updates that insisted upon pushing Ubuntu branding to core parts of the system. What is the problem with this? Well, frankly -- some LM in-house programs broke, as they weren't expecting this change, but it was their own update system that allowed it to happen.
The main problems that I see with Linux Mint is that it has a very small development team, which appears to have led to significant oversights in the past, which have caused various issues requiring user intervention (for example, fsck on boot was completely broken in LM9, and would simply hang. This was on the tracker for a very long time, with the only message of hope being 'it will be fixed in LM10'.). This would be fine for someone who was more familiar with Unix problem solving, but frankly my mum and many others like her just want to sit down with the computer and have it work without need for troubleshooting. Sure, other distros (including Ubuntu) have messed things up in the past, but they have had a large enough vocal community to get a decent consensus on how to solve the problem. Linux Mint simply doesn't.
Linux Mint does a lot of things better than Ubuntu and in general seems to understand its demographic better (as it is, perhaps, a less diverse demographic). At the present time I would hesitate to recommend it for people who just want a works-out-of-the-box-and-stays-that-way experience, however, as the caveats are simply too numerous.
Another vote for Linux Mint 11, maybe try pinguey which is supposed to be even easier.
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