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BillLeeLee
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There have been an abundance of threads concerning what the best Linux distro for newbies is, as well as general concerns like gaming and Linux read/write capability with Windows partitions. With that in mind, I wrote this up to address the questions that most new Linux users and potential users have.
If you don't care about some minor introductory stuff, skip straight ahead to the second part, Picking a Distribution
Linux Basics
What is Linux?
Linux is an operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds, and has been worked on by many volunteers since its initial release. It is an open source alternative to operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Today, what we commonly call Linux is comprised of the Linux kernel, GNU userland tools such as GCC, and various other additions such as the X Windowing System, KDE, Gnome, etc., many of which have their own volunteer contributors.
In short, Linux is a giant open source project that has had many upon many volunteers work on it since its conception.
Thanks to Whatisname for correcting.
Why would I want to run Linux?
I would think people who want to join the Linux community would already have their own reasons to use Linux. From personal experience, I've noticed that people who really don't have a personal reason to use Linux give up on it relatively fast.
Many people use Linux for many different reasons. Perhaps it's for a learning experience. Maybe they like the control that Linux affords them.
Okay, so I want to start off learning Linux. What's the best distribution for me?
As many other Linux users will say, on this forum and others, there really is no clear cut choice that fits everyone. There are too many distributions out there, so everyone will always have opinions on what they think is the best distro for beginners or otherwise. Many will recommend Gentoo, or Ubuntu, or SuSE, or Fedora, or so on and so forth. What is essential is to determine how much you want to dive into the Linux world or if you just want to have a usable Linux install relatively quickly.
What if I really want to learn Linux inside out? I want something HARD
If this is how you you feel, then take a look at Linux From Scratch. Basically, you build your own custom Linux from source. It even has a book!
Okay, not that hard!
Then read on...
Picking a Distribution
So how do you go around picking a distribution to start with or use? Some criteria to base your decision on are package management and the community around a distribution.
One of the first places to stop by these days on the quest for a distro should be Distrowatch. It's basically a one-stop shop that gathers information about many different Linux distributions together. You can find the homepages of distros, find links to reviews of the distros, what forums support it, and where to download.
Distrowatch also tracks what it calls The Major Distributions, which is a list of the top ten distributions to help beginners choose a distribution. They're called major based on the number of people who use them.
The Top Ten Distributions (goes to Distrowatch)
The guide is pretty good, I would say. It does detail pros and cons of the current top 10 most widely used Linux distributions (plus FreeBSD, the most popular of the *BSDs).
Now, let's discuss some other factors about selecting a distribution.
Package Management
What is package management you say? A package manager handles the installation of software packages. When you install software in Linux, you usually want to let the package manager handle it. This allows you to avoid having to deal with dependency problems because a decent package manager will install packages as well as their dependencies for you. Software and security updates are typically handled by package manager or similar.
Most of the major distributions linked to above have decent to excellent package management. For example, Debian, one of the oldest distributions, uses apt (advanced package tool), which is a powerful package manager. Other distributions such as Ubuntu and Knoppix are based on Debian, so you get the same package management capabilities.
Of course, not every distribution uses the same style of package management, and this is one of the key areas where distributions differ.
Ease of Install
Some people really like a challenge when installing Linux, some people just want to install a Linux fast and relatively painlessly and get a working environment.
At one end of the spectrum is Linux From Scratch, which I have already mentioned. It is probably the most difficult Linux to install due to the fact you basically build your own distribution. Expect to spend not hours, but perhaps days installing it.
At the other end of the spectrum you have distributions such as Xandros, which is supposedly incredibly easy to install and set up. However, it is a commercial distribution and costs money, though there is a personal use edition that is free to download and use.
Where do you fit in?
If you read some of the threads in this forum, you will see people asking about wanting to actively engage in the installation process. If this is what you want, most people do recommend Gentoo. Gentoo is a source distribution Linux - basically all your software is built from source. While there are precompiled binaries of programs available for installation, the main focus of Gentoo is one building basically everything from scratch.
Now what does the Gentoo installation bring to the table? Well, for one, it does give you the option of manually configuring and compiling your own kernel, something that not every Linux user knows how to do. It also exposes you to the command line during install, unlike other installs. It also exposes you to the Gentoo package manager, so that you know how to install things the moment your install is complete and working.
However, the install does take a long time depending on what stage you start at, and the speed of your machine. Building from stage 1 could take over a day. A stage 3 install is significantly faster. While you do learn, some of the commands you use are very Gentoo-specific, and you basically do mirror the instructions in their handbook the entire time.
Slackware and Debian are two other very popular distributions that are recommended for people who want a more advanced installation process. Slackware configuration is based a lot on manually editing text files and it does limited hardware detection. Debian proper, while I would say no where near as difficult as a Gentoo install, is still not as simple as other distributions.
On the easy end you have many distributions, such as Ubuntu, SuSE, Mandriva, Fedora Core, Mepis. These distributions are all relatively painless to install, most using GUI installers with a lot of handholding, and have decent to very good hardware detection capabilities. Many, such as SuSE and Fedora, also provide the option of installing many packages that are included with the distributions (For example, SuSE Linux 10 has a DVD version that contains a large amount of software packages).
So what would be a good choice for just desktop use? I don't want a complicated install.
Well, any of the easy installable distributions I have mentioned in the last paragraph would make good desktop distributions from personal use, if you just want to browse the internet, word process, and do general computing tasks.
My top desktop Linux recommendations would probably be SuSE or Ubuntu. SuSE is very easy to install, and has very easy configuration thanks to YaST. Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu is kind of the "Linux flavor of the month" now, with good reason. It combines the power of Debian and apt with ease of installation and pretty good hardware detection. It can even configure Intel wireless cards, though only with WEP during the install. If you want WPA you'll need to do this manually for now.
What would be a good choice for servers?
This is an area where I'm not the greatest expert to talk about for recommending things to beginners. I have worked with Linux-based servers, but for my own I have used Ubuntu with a server install (no GUI and other excess stuff), as well as Gentoo for a time. Of course, none of my servers are mission critical, they were merely for testing and ran a lot of experimental software.
Both Debian and Slackware are generally recommended for servers. Debian's stable branch contains software that is basically tested through the roof until it is actually called 'stable.' This makes Debian-stable very suitable for servers. Slackware is also regarded as a very stable distribution.
Of course, I have also worked with many servers that use Red Hat, the most successful of the commercial Linuxes.
Miscellaneous Linux Questions
In this section I will address some other basic concerns new users to Linux have, or just general Linux questions.
How well do Linux and NTFS partitions mix?
Definitely one of the main concerns is NTFS and Linux. Well, as of the 2.6.x Linux kernel, the kernel NTFS driver can read NTFS partitions safely, but can not safely write to them.
How do you work around this? If you want a partition that can be written to in both Linux and Windows without need for additional software, create a FAT32 partition. Linux can write safely to FAT32 partitions.
There are, of course, software packages that allow Linux to write to NTFS, or for Windows to read and write to ext2fs/ext3 partitions.
For Linux: CaptiveNTFS is supposed to write safely to NTFS partitions by using the native Windows ntfs.sys driver.
For Windows: I have no experience with software that writes to ext2/ext3 file systems, but I mainly use Explore2fs to read data on my Linux partitions from inside Windows XP.
How is Linux and gaming?
All Linux users will admit this: while gaming in Linux is getting better, Windows is still the place to be, especially if you use an ATi video card.
nVidia card owners, however, do get pretty mature drivers that are on par with Windows drivers in terms of performance, but there are still some bugs to work out with hardware suspending/standby.
One of the problems with video games and Linux is that many games are developed for Windows with the DirectX API, which is pretty much a Windows specific API. A group, called Transgaming creates Cedega which allows you to play many, but not all, Windows games in Linux.
Some companies, such as iD, make native Linux versions of their games. All of iD's games run in Linux (the Doom series, Quake series, Castle Wolfenstein).
I use ATi. Can I game in Linux?
Can you? Sure you can. Should you? That's an entirely different matter.
Why is this? The answer is simple: ATi's drivers for Linux are bad. Let's say nVidia's Linux video drivers are a modern car. ATi's drivers right now would be in the Ford Edsel era.
Okay, maybe not that drastic, but you get the point: ATi's Linux drivers stink. They are gradually improving, but if you want any sort of real performance from your card, run nVidia for Linux. Anecdotally, while a 9800 Pro in Windows would best a GeForce Ti4200, in Linux the Ti4200 would blow the 9800 Pro away with the newest drivers from both companies installed.
However, if you really don't have any other choice, and still want a hardware accelerated Radeon, check out these links:
http://rage3d.com/articles/
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page
Gnome? KDE? What are these?
Inherently, Linux is nothing much besides the kernel and some userland tools. It's just a command line at heart. Of course, most people want a GUI of some sort. That's where X server comes in. The X server draws windows and handles user input and events.
On top of the X server you can have desktop environments and window managers.
The two most popular desktop environments are KDE and Gnome. A desktop environment provides more than just a GUI, they also have their own applications and widgets and bring capabilities such as icons and drag and drop and such to the table. In effect, with KDE or Gnome, you get the same desktop capabilities as you would find in Windows.
There are also window managers, which basically tell the x server how windows should be handled and drawn. They're typically not all-in-one GUIs like KDE is, and as such are comparatively light on resource usage. Popular window managers include Fluxbox, Openbox, Sawfish, FVWM, and enlightenment.
Okay, so I've installed a distribution. What are some software packages equivalent to what I can find in Windows?
Well, to make a list would really be impossible for me.
For starters take a look at the Post your Linux Programs thread to find out what other people are running.
For starters, here is a basic list for some of the more frequently used applications:
Internet browser - Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla, Opera
Instant Messenging Client - Gaim is the most popular. KDE has kopete. Both support multiple protocols.
Text editor - tons out there. vim, scite, emacs, jEdit, nano, pico.
Image manipulation - GIMP 2.0. I don't think it's at the level of Photoshop, but it's still very powerful.
Music Player - xmms is closest to winamp 2.x. Rhythmbox is like an iTunes clone with lower resource usage.
Email Client - silpheed, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Ximian.
Office app - Openoffice 2.0 - getting better and closer to Microsoft Office every release
Of course, there are way more programs than I can list here.
Hey, you didn't really RECOMMEND anything!
I meant for this guide to direct you towards finding a right distribution for yourself. Everyone has their own tastes, and for me to just say "Use distribution X" is really shortsighting you.
As Tweakin puts it:
Now if you really just want me to tell you what to use - Slackware.
Where do I learn more about Linux?
Thought you'd never ask!
There are many resources on the internet to learn and ask about Linux.
http://linuxquestions.org - one of the largest Linux forums on the net
http://www.tldp.org - The Linux Documentation Project
http://www.distrowatch.org - if you've been paying attention, I've already mentioned this
http://www.linux.org - contains information and links to other Linux resources
This is in addition to the forum of your distribution!
Well, I guess that's enough for a first.
Hope this helps people. I will add more to it when the need arises.
If you don't care about some minor introductory stuff, skip straight ahead to the second part, Picking a Distribution
Linux Basics
What is Linux?
Linux is an operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds, and has been worked on by many volunteers since its initial release. It is an open source alternative to operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Today, what we commonly call Linux is comprised of the Linux kernel, GNU userland tools such as GCC, and various other additions such as the X Windowing System, KDE, Gnome, etc., many of which have their own volunteer contributors.
In short, Linux is a giant open source project that has had many upon many volunteers work on it since its conception.
Thanks to Whatisname for correcting.
Why would I want to run Linux?
I would think people who want to join the Linux community would already have their own reasons to use Linux. From personal experience, I've noticed that people who really don't have a personal reason to use Linux give up on it relatively fast.
Many people use Linux for many different reasons. Perhaps it's for a learning experience. Maybe they like the control that Linux affords them.
Okay, so I want to start off learning Linux. What's the best distribution for me?
As many other Linux users will say, on this forum and others, there really is no clear cut choice that fits everyone. There are too many distributions out there, so everyone will always have opinions on what they think is the best distro for beginners or otherwise. Many will recommend Gentoo, or Ubuntu, or SuSE, or Fedora, or so on and so forth. What is essential is to determine how much you want to dive into the Linux world or if you just want to have a usable Linux install relatively quickly.
What if I really want to learn Linux inside out? I want something HARD
If this is how you you feel, then take a look at Linux From Scratch. Basically, you build your own custom Linux from source. It even has a book!
Okay, not that hard!
Then read on...
Picking a Distribution
So how do you go around picking a distribution to start with or use? Some criteria to base your decision on are package management and the community around a distribution.
One of the first places to stop by these days on the quest for a distro should be Distrowatch. It's basically a one-stop shop that gathers information about many different Linux distributions together. You can find the homepages of distros, find links to reviews of the distros, what forums support it, and where to download.
Distrowatch also tracks what it calls The Major Distributions, which is a list of the top ten distributions to help beginners choose a distribution. They're called major based on the number of people who use them.
The Top Ten Distributions (goes to Distrowatch)
The guide is pretty good, I would say. It does detail pros and cons of the current top 10 most widely used Linux distributions (plus FreeBSD, the most popular of the *BSDs).
Now, let's discuss some other factors about selecting a distribution.
Package Management
What is package management you say? A package manager handles the installation of software packages. When you install software in Linux, you usually want to let the package manager handle it. This allows you to avoid having to deal with dependency problems because a decent package manager will install packages as well as their dependencies for you. Software and security updates are typically handled by package manager or similar.
Most of the major distributions linked to above have decent to excellent package management. For example, Debian, one of the oldest distributions, uses apt (advanced package tool), which is a powerful package manager. Other distributions such as Ubuntu and Knoppix are based on Debian, so you get the same package management capabilities.
Of course, not every distribution uses the same style of package management, and this is one of the key areas where distributions differ.
Ease of Install
Some people really like a challenge when installing Linux, some people just want to install a Linux fast and relatively painlessly and get a working environment.
At one end of the spectrum is Linux From Scratch, which I have already mentioned. It is probably the most difficult Linux to install due to the fact you basically build your own distribution. Expect to spend not hours, but perhaps days installing it.
At the other end of the spectrum you have distributions such as Xandros, which is supposedly incredibly easy to install and set up. However, it is a commercial distribution and costs money, though there is a personal use edition that is free to download and use.
Where do you fit in?
If you read some of the threads in this forum, you will see people asking about wanting to actively engage in the installation process. If this is what you want, most people do recommend Gentoo. Gentoo is a source distribution Linux - basically all your software is built from source. While there are precompiled binaries of programs available for installation, the main focus of Gentoo is one building basically everything from scratch.
Now what does the Gentoo installation bring to the table? Well, for one, it does give you the option of manually configuring and compiling your own kernel, something that not every Linux user knows how to do. It also exposes you to the command line during install, unlike other installs. It also exposes you to the Gentoo package manager, so that you know how to install things the moment your install is complete and working.
However, the install does take a long time depending on what stage you start at, and the speed of your machine. Building from stage 1 could take over a day. A stage 3 install is significantly faster. While you do learn, some of the commands you use are very Gentoo-specific, and you basically do mirror the instructions in their handbook the entire time.
Slackware and Debian are two other very popular distributions that are recommended for people who want a more advanced installation process. Slackware configuration is based a lot on manually editing text files and it does limited hardware detection. Debian proper, while I would say no where near as difficult as a Gentoo install, is still not as simple as other distributions.
On the easy end you have many distributions, such as Ubuntu, SuSE, Mandriva, Fedora Core, Mepis. These distributions are all relatively painless to install, most using GUI installers with a lot of handholding, and have decent to very good hardware detection capabilities. Many, such as SuSE and Fedora, also provide the option of installing many packages that are included with the distributions (For example, SuSE Linux 10 has a DVD version that contains a large amount of software packages).
So what would be a good choice for just desktop use? I don't want a complicated install.
Well, any of the easy installable distributions I have mentioned in the last paragraph would make good desktop distributions from personal use, if you just want to browse the internet, word process, and do general computing tasks.
My top desktop Linux recommendations would probably be SuSE or Ubuntu. SuSE is very easy to install, and has very easy configuration thanks to YaST. Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu is kind of the "Linux flavor of the month" now, with good reason. It combines the power of Debian and apt with ease of installation and pretty good hardware detection. It can even configure Intel wireless cards, though only with WEP during the install. If you want WPA you'll need to do this manually for now.
What would be a good choice for servers?
This is an area where I'm not the greatest expert to talk about for recommending things to beginners. I have worked with Linux-based servers, but for my own I have used Ubuntu with a server install (no GUI and other excess stuff), as well as Gentoo for a time. Of course, none of my servers are mission critical, they were merely for testing and ran a lot of experimental software.
Both Debian and Slackware are generally recommended for servers. Debian's stable branch contains software that is basically tested through the roof until it is actually called 'stable.' This makes Debian-stable very suitable for servers. Slackware is also regarded as a very stable distribution.
Of course, I have also worked with many servers that use Red Hat, the most successful of the commercial Linuxes.
Miscellaneous Linux Questions
In this section I will address some other basic concerns new users to Linux have, or just general Linux questions.
How well do Linux and NTFS partitions mix?
Definitely one of the main concerns is NTFS and Linux. Well, as of the 2.6.x Linux kernel, the kernel NTFS driver can read NTFS partitions safely, but can not safely write to them.
How do you work around this? If you want a partition that can be written to in both Linux and Windows without need for additional software, create a FAT32 partition. Linux can write safely to FAT32 partitions.
There are, of course, software packages that allow Linux to write to NTFS, or for Windows to read and write to ext2fs/ext3 partitions.
For Linux: CaptiveNTFS is supposed to write safely to NTFS partitions by using the native Windows ntfs.sys driver.
For Windows: I have no experience with software that writes to ext2/ext3 file systems, but I mainly use Explore2fs to read data on my Linux partitions from inside Windows XP.
How is Linux and gaming?
All Linux users will admit this: while gaming in Linux is getting better, Windows is still the place to be, especially if you use an ATi video card.
nVidia card owners, however, do get pretty mature drivers that are on par with Windows drivers in terms of performance, but there are still some bugs to work out with hardware suspending/standby.
One of the problems with video games and Linux is that many games are developed for Windows with the DirectX API, which is pretty much a Windows specific API. A group, called Transgaming creates Cedega which allows you to play many, but not all, Windows games in Linux.
Some companies, such as iD, make native Linux versions of their games. All of iD's games run in Linux (the Doom series, Quake series, Castle Wolfenstein).
I use ATi. Can I game in Linux?
Can you? Sure you can. Should you? That's an entirely different matter.
Why is this? The answer is simple: ATi's drivers for Linux are bad. Let's say nVidia's Linux video drivers are a modern car. ATi's drivers right now would be in the Ford Edsel era.
Okay, maybe not that drastic, but you get the point: ATi's Linux drivers stink. They are gradually improving, but if you want any sort of real performance from your card, run nVidia for Linux. Anecdotally, while a 9800 Pro in Windows would best a GeForce Ti4200, in Linux the Ti4200 would blow the 9800 Pro away with the newest drivers from both companies installed.
However, if you really don't have any other choice, and still want a hardware accelerated Radeon, check out these links:
http://rage3d.com/articles/
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page
Gnome? KDE? What are these?
Inherently, Linux is nothing much besides the kernel and some userland tools. It's just a command line at heart. Of course, most people want a GUI of some sort. That's where X server comes in. The X server draws windows and handles user input and events.
On top of the X server you can have desktop environments and window managers.
The two most popular desktop environments are KDE and Gnome. A desktop environment provides more than just a GUI, they also have their own applications and widgets and bring capabilities such as icons and drag and drop and such to the table. In effect, with KDE or Gnome, you get the same desktop capabilities as you would find in Windows.
There are also window managers, which basically tell the x server how windows should be handled and drawn. They're typically not all-in-one GUIs like KDE is, and as such are comparatively light on resource usage. Popular window managers include Fluxbox, Openbox, Sawfish, FVWM, and enlightenment.
Okay, so I've installed a distribution. What are some software packages equivalent to what I can find in Windows?
Well, to make a list would really be impossible for me.
For starters take a look at the Post your Linux Programs thread to find out what other people are running.
For starters, here is a basic list for some of the more frequently used applications:
Internet browser - Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla, Opera
Instant Messenging Client - Gaim is the most popular. KDE has kopete. Both support multiple protocols.
Text editor - tons out there. vim, scite, emacs, jEdit, nano, pico.
Image manipulation - GIMP 2.0. I don't think it's at the level of Photoshop, but it's still very powerful.
Music Player - xmms is closest to winamp 2.x. Rhythmbox is like an iTunes clone with lower resource usage.
Email Client - silpheed, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Ximian.
Office app - Openoffice 2.0 - getting better and closer to Microsoft Office every release
Of course, there are way more programs than I can list here.
Hey, you didn't really RECOMMEND anything!
I meant for this guide to direct you towards finding a right distribution for yourself. Everyone has their own tastes, and for me to just say "Use distribution X" is really shortsighting you.
As Tweakin puts it:
Tweakin said:
Now if you really just want me to tell you what to use - Slackware.
Where do I learn more about Linux?
Thought you'd never ask!
There are many resources on the internet to learn and ask about Linux.
http://linuxquestions.org - one of the largest Linux forums on the net
http://www.tldp.org - The Linux Documentation Project
http://www.distrowatch.org - if you've been paying attention, I've already mentioned this
http://www.linux.org - contains information and links to other Linux resources
This is in addition to the forum of your distribution!
Well, I guess that's enough for a first.
Hope this helps people. I will add more to it when the need arises.