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| Linux Forum Index » General Linux Discussion » Which Linux distros would be best for me? |
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| Walterius |
 Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:38 am |
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Guest
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When I ask which distros would be best, I mean ease of learning, community
support and newsgroups, and availability of good, simple books.
I am retired from 20 years of aerospace software development. I live on a
small fixed income. I have used Windows since 3.11 and Office since O97 and
a myriad of other OS's ad computers before that. I like to learn from
newsgroups and books. This is, however, my first post to any Linux ng.
I want to add one or more Linux systems to my multi-boot Windows
2000/Windows ME systems.
My goal is to Linux and OpenOffice and not need Windows or Microsoft Office.
As a retiree, I can no longer afford to keep chasing after Windows (DOS
4.01, DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE, WME, W2K) and Office (97, 2000,
XP). I also have a suspicion that Vista and O2007 would overload my Athlon
2000+, its 512 MB RAM, and 120 GB HDDs.
I have read that Linux can run on as little as a 286, and can prolong the
life of many an elderly computer?
I have been downloading and testing open source software for a few years
now, and it appears the open source community is close to producing the
tools I need, specifically an OS, office suite, tons of graphics tools, and
some good books.
I use BellSouth DSL. I don't know if they support Linux, but I don't think
so. A search of their Help site turned up no reference to Linux. I sent them
email asking for clarification. If they don't support it, I will eventually
switch to another ISP.
My greatest fear is learning a bunch of semi-meaningless Linux commands a la
DOS or Unix. Best for me would be something that closely resembles
Plug-n-Pray.
I also have a non-standard mobo that uses a special drivers CD. I tremble at
the thought of not being able to use my various peripherals.
Thank you for your help and I apologize for the lengthy post. Future posts
will be shorter.  I wanted to give you as much helpful information as
possible.
Walter Donavan |
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| Bit Twister |
| Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:24 am |
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On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:38:02 -0500, Walterius wrote:
Quote: When I ask which distros would be best, I mean ease of learning, community
support and newsgroups, and availability of good, simple books.
Sounds like Mandriva will get you up and running pretty quick.
See if you understand the install screen shots here
http://doc.mandrivalinux.com/MandrakeLinux/101/en/Starter.html/drakx-intro.html
You can get the free 3 cd download or dvd from a mirror.
http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/en/downloads/mirrors/2006iso
Or get the 4 cd set with docs on cd from
http://shop.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/os2.html?var_distribution=Mandriva&id=9eeXqnmK
0070011255 Mandriva Linux 2006 "free" x86 CD Set $8.99 +Shipping
0070011256 Mandriva Linux 2006 "free" x86 DVD $8.99
Quote:
I use BellSouth DSL. I don't know if they support Linux, but I don't think
so. A search of their Help site turned up no reference to Linux. I sent them
email asking for clarification. If they don't support it, I will eventually
switch to another ISP.
You will find most of the ISP _do not support linux_.
It does not mean linux will not work. The helpdesk troubleshooting docs
only support a few window OS releses.
With 200+ linux distributions, they would never get it right.
Quote: My greatest fear is learning a bunch of semi-meaningless Linux commands a la
DOS or Unix. Best for me would be something that closely resembles
Plug-n-Pray.
Mandriva will get you there.
Quote: I also have a non-standard mobo that uses a special drivers CD. I tremble at
the thought of not being able to use my various peripherals.
Other people's Free advice:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
and do bookmark this very large, Frequently Asked Questions (faq) search engine
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
key words(s) in the first box
*linux* in Newsgroup box. You need to use the two
asterisks around linux, pick English |
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| Beowulf |
| Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:43 pm |
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On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:24:33 -0600, Bit Twister inscribed to the world:
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Quote: Mandriva will get you there.
...
I concur with Mandriva, been using it for several years now with great
success. alt.os.linux.mandriva newsgroup is incredibly helpful with any
problems, a very active group. I have also tried other distros that just
had too many issues and problems (Suse, Zenwalk, Gentoo, Fedora,
Slackware)-- for me-- they likely work great for others, but I have found
Mandriva just plain works well, for me. |
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