Open Source OS

securespark · 23 Aug 2010

Hi folks,

I have revamped our collection of PC's.

My old PC has been liberated as I now have a new setup. I have assembled a Frankenstein PC from bits of my old one, the kid's old one (whose PSU burnt-out) and a friend's old one minus the HDD. I have now nuked the HDD on Frankie and loaded XP.

This is now serving the kids.

I now want to have a bit of fun with the remains, from which I have now created Frankie II (mad, evil laugh...). It is another ancient PC with Win ME loaded onto the HDD.

I'd like to experiment with the likes of Linux or Ubuntu.

Can anyone who has used these give me any guidance?

Thanks, guys.

Synapse · 24 Aug 2010

Always nice to see someone willing to change to Linux.

I use Debian as my main operating system and have done for many years for personal and business use, I would say you should start out with a distribution that is quite user friendly; Ubuntu for example.

There are aspects of Linux that are easier to configure than Windows then there are other aspects that are more complex. Frankly the best thing to do is dive in at the deep end install it and mess around, if you mess it up you can always format and start again, frankly I think this is the best way to learn.

With Ubuntu you have a choice of Desktop environments which govern the overall look and feel. Personally I use GNOME I find it much more intuitive and cleaner than KDE while giving more functionality than the likes of XFCE and the other lightweight desktop environments. Ubunutu comes with Gnome by default so if you decide to go for Gnome too then just download the default distribution. You can always change part way through!

So my main advice at this point is download a distribution, install it and see how you get on. If you have any problems I'd be happy to help you out. The Ubuntu forums can on occasion be helpful, if you're willing to wade through a lot of unhelpful posts.

securespark · 24 Aug 2010

Cheers! I'll do that.

I just have to copy some files from the HDD to CD, then I can wipe it & start again!

Monkeh · 24 Aug 2010

I wouldn't start with Ubuntu. Far from diving in at the deep end, it's starting off easy and teaches you little about the system.

Synapse · 25 Aug 2010

I'd say it wholly depends on the users initial skill level, which is hard to determine from the original post. Frankly I think a good starting place is to learn about the basics before learning about the underlying system, for some people it can be daunting getting used to the UI alone, though I'm sure that's not true of securespark.

I'd say it's a safe bet going with Ubuntu given the large range of hardware that is supported out of the box.

ajrobb · 25 Aug 2010

securespark said:
I'd like to experiment with the likes of Linux or Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is an easy to use distribution based on Debian Linux. Get the live CD and boot from that to check it works with your hardware. An amazing amount of hardware is supported, including stuff not supported by various versions of Windows (I had a Windows ME system with 100% Microsoft drivers but only half the hardware worked at all with XP even the the compatibility check was fine, not the EIDE, SCSI, TV receiver nor parallel port MP3 player).

The thing with Ubuntu is that it just works. You can easily select more Ubuntu packages to get software that suits you. If this is not enough, you also have access to all the Debian packages to give a mind-blowing choice.

0000 · 2 Sep 2010

I recommend Linux Mint. It is basically Ubuntu with an intuitive interface.

Monkeh · 2 Sep 2010

Linux Mint is Ubuntu dumbed down even further..

securespark · 2 Sep 2010

Thanks for the comments, guys!

I'll stick a pin in the list and start with that one. The great beauty of this is that if I don't like it, I can nuke the HDD and install something else.

Which site is best to obtain this kind of software?

Monkeh · 3 Sep 2010

The website of the distro.

securespark · 4 Sep 2010

Thanks, monkeh.

You seem to dislike Mint.

What software would you recommend?

Monkeh · 4 Sep 2010

securespark said:
Thanks, monkeh.

You seem to dislike Mint.

What software would you recommend?

Personally I use Gentoo, but it really is diving in the deep end.

OwainDIYer · 4 Sep 2010

securespark said:
Which site is best to obtain this kind of software?

If you don't want whopping big downloads, most of the Linux mags in Smiths have one or more distributions 'distros' on the cover disc.

If you have a wired ethernet internet connection for Frankie 2 that will help as setting up wireless networking on linux can be a bit of a faff unless you have, erm, an internet connection to look up/download stuff.

Synapse · 4 Sep 2010

Most modern distros come with network-manager which makes things quite easy, providing your hardware is supported out of the box.

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