debian?

M

munkle

[H]F Junkie
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Jan 16, 2005
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im pretty much a noob, and i got a new comp so im going to put linux on my old comp, just wondering if this is a good dirstrobution for noobs?
 
as much as Slackware & Gentoo are.
Not saying it isnt possible, but if you are not familiar with the command line you will struggle.
 
If you've never touched linux before i'd probably say you should use ubuntu. It's reasonably popular and a lot of new linux users are going to it. Plus its based on debian so its a good way to get your feet wet.

Peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure.

:p
 
i tried ubuntu live, i liked it, it was pretty easy to navigate, any others that are noob friendly?
 
i would say give it a try, read all the install shit thoroughly (especially parts like disk partitioning if you have stuff you don't want to loose) and you shouldn't have too much trouble with the install. when it comes to package selection choose a window manager + x if you are inexperienced with the command line, other wise you will have to apt-get install x-window-system and everything else you need.

if something like your graphics card isn't supported 'out of the box' then you are probably fucked :D if so then move onto ubuntu...
 
since ubuntu and debian use more or less the same installer. they have the same level of difficulty for install. the more important question, what hardware are you installing on? ubuntu will have better support for newer hardware but debian will be rock solid on older hardware.

fedora probably has the most user(noob) friendly installer. but the gui part of it can be a problem on some LCD screens.

i recomend trying some live cd's to get a better idea which base system and which gui you like before installing. knoppix(debian based, kde) ubuntu(debian based, gnome) suise(rpm based, choice of gui's) would be good places to start.

if you want a system that needs the lowest amount of configuration. try xandros or linspire both are debian based but have just about everything already set up. you have to pay for the full versions with all the goodies, but the community(free) versions will give you an idea if the full version is worth the price.
 
The only reason I would say abt swaying away from Debian is it is not the most up-to-date distro out there.

However, it is the most stable and bug-free.

Debian makes for very good, reliable, secure servers.
For desktops... they tend to be behind when it comes to packages since they (as far the the DEB devs are concerned) too bug-ridden for critical applications


So depending on what you want:

Server, then yup Debian is worth the effors
Desktop: Ubuntu or Fedora

or if you want a chanllange and really want to learn abt linux and you have a weekend free try Gentoo
 
Fedora Core 4 is nice. I consider myself an intermediate Linux user and I'm running Ubuntu Hoary on my laptop, and as soon as I can get my server running again, it'll be on my server too.
 
im using an old dell 1.6 p4 512mb sdram, geforce 2 mx400 64mb, one unlocked xbox hard drive (8gb western digital, windows is on this one), and a 16 gb maxtor for linux and some really old crappy crt monitor. i havent had any hardware problems yet except with fedora. fedora would only install when i choose desktop, if i try and add packages it gives me errors.


thanks for all the replys :)
 
i consider myself intermediate as well, Ii use Fedora and have since core 2, the installer is very easy and I used to recomend it to newbies all the time but since it is kinda testbed somethings are broken, you have to update often and alot of key things like mp3, and video support are not included by default.

Granted they arnt hard to get via yum, but to setup yum you to sort of understand how to get to become root, get to config files and enter mirrors. There are some really good premade yum.config and repo files that you can just copy and paste but even then for a new user it can be hard, they are trying to get a handle on the GUI let alone have to edit files and run commands just to be able to play Mp3 files and watch movies, Fedora is good for a new user with a friend to help but suse, mandrivia or Ubuntu would be better for someone starting off on their own.
 
I would say if you're wanting Debian and a noob, try Ubuntu Linux. Very user friendly and is Debian based.
 
yeah i wouldn't try debian if you're new to linux. I doubt you'll complete the install, give ubuntu a try.
 
lol this thread is still going? i am useing fedora core 4 because suse 9.3 and ubuntu wouldnt recognize my sound card. I might try mandrake but im likeing fedora, all i really do is get on the internet with it and play music, i converted all my music to ogg, so i could play them on fedora.

the one thing i hate about linux is that there are so many distros, im the kind of person that likes to try everything so far im sticking with suse 9.3 or fedora core 4, i like ubuntu but it doesnt come with much, but it would suit my needs but meh i like all the bells and whistles. :p

I like messing around with linux cause its fun, makes me feel like a rebel :p
 
Fedora 4 is the best distro I have seen you mention & you can simply use YUM to download and install MP3 support so there is no need to convert any of your music files.

You should have a very nice system once you configure YUM. Enjoy Linux and learn as much as you can. My only issue with Linux is its multimedia support. I have always found not having a standard open source media player makes everything so messy. I have tried Xine, Mplayer, Todem, etc etc etc...they all feel sloppy and don't do ot for me. Someone needs to port a decent media player to linux like WinAMP or something simular but that is just me.

Enjoy!
 
learn to use mplayer to it's full functionality and it's a great medi aplayer.

Pain in the ass to learn but very powerful.

I love it, plays a large majority of codecs.
 
I guess it just takes a learning curve to customize it.

I will give it another shot.
 
Not to Hi-jack this thread but the dead said he was done so which Mplayer would I install using Debian on a AMD XP proc.

Code: 
debian:~# apt-cache search mplayer
mga-vid-source - Kernel driver for the back-end scaler on Matrox cards (source)
xmms-xmmplayer - XMMS plugin that uses MPlayer to play video files
tea - small text editor with syntax highlighting & UTF support
mozilla-mplayer - MPlayer-Plugin for Mozilla
kmenc15 - An advanced Qt/KDE MEncoder frontend
mplayer-686 - transitional dummy package which can be safely removed
mplayer-k7 - transitional dummy package which can be safely removed
w32codecs - win32 binary codecs
acidrip - ripping and encoding DVD tool using mplayer and mencoder
kmplayer - Video player plugin for Konqueror
kplayer - A KDE media player based on MPlayer
mencoder-586 - MPlayer's Movie Encoder
mencoder-k6 - MPlayer's Movie Encoder
mplayer-386 - The Ultimate Movie Player For Linux
mplayer-586 - The Ultimate Movie Player For Linux
mplayer-doc - Documentation for mplayer
mplayer-k6 - The Ultimate Movie Player For Linux
mplayer-nogui - The Ultimate Movie Player For Linux
 
choose either of these, I prefer the commandline version but it is harder to use. I also compile mine from source to get better encodinng performance but these should work fine for normal playback.

mplayer-586 - The Ultimate Movie Player For Linux
or
mplayer-nogui

and

w32codecs - win32 binary codecs

w32codecs are great for playing back wmv stuff
 
As for playing mp3 files, you might also want to try xmms. It's a winamp 2 - style audio player. (It even supports winamp classic skins).
 
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