Wanna try linux ? try gentoo, its best for linux newbies!
“Hi, i know that you are using linux for a long time and i would like to ask you .. which distribution should i use when i am beginner into linux and i want to try something new”. I have asked this question several times. The only answer ive received was the ‘UBUNTU‘. Ok, i have tried that. I have Downloaded CD, installed it and i had new operating system. Cool, now i am using linux. But wait, why this linux thing is trying to look as my good old windows ? If i want to eat something that taste like apple i would eat apple not pear so … why is anyone using linux, which looks like and tryes to act like windows ? The real answer is, Ubuntu is not classic linux. Ubuntu is linux for people who want to look leet because they are using linux but they doesnt have even slightiest idea what does ‘emerge’ stands for.
I love my windows, it is the best operating system ever. It have bigger uptime than most of linux boxes and still it is fast. Without updates and ms crap ( dmz ftw ) but this article is not about windows.
One of my friends ( girl, actually pretty sexy girl ) asked me which linux to try. We have discussed it and we have choosen Gentoo - she liked logo, i loved what i have heard.
So, you are new at linux. You have never done anything in linux. Ok, this is exactly for you. You need to learn something, not click like in windows. Best distribution for you would be gentoo. Maybe not for using, but for learning. Gentoo have nice manual. Both me and my friend have completed the ‘install gentoo‘ task with this manual without big problems. It took us about day to get everything working ( 2 separate systems, she has her own and i have my own ). In that day, we have learned much more than my friend who is using ubuntu linux for half year.
If you want to learn to swim, you have to jump into the middle of swimming pool and try. Try to save your own life .. and then you will learn how to swim in few dozens of seconds.
Linux isnt hard. In fact, its easy, if you are computer savvy, it should be no problem for you. But be sure to have second computer where you have internet - or do it on virtual machine.
You are saying very silly things, period. I’m not into argues, but there’s no such thing as “classic Linux” (maybe Slackware, but I utterly refuse that Gentoo, the child of BSD zealot is one) and most people (living in the middle of a desert) don’t want to learn to swim. They have much better things to do, so if they gotta cross the ocean, they take the boat trip - but the analogy is somewhat flawed.
deadcabbit said this on August 30th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Well I’ll take the bait.
This all depends on what you want to be spending your time doing. You got two systems up in a day. In the same time (say 8 hours), I could have installed Ubuntu 30 times. Or just once, and got on with some work.
Installing and configuring is fun, don’t get me wrong, but USING the desktop and its applications on a day to day basis is what pays my bills.
Ubuntu is linux for people who don’t want to spend an unnecessarily large amount of time faffing around with text-mode installers and configuring all their own settings. Ubuntu is linux for people who just want to use their computer.
Oli said this on August 30th, 2008 at 10:53 am
deadcabbit, Oli > yes, i know that its better and much easyer to just install ubuntu or windows and have a computer ready to roll.
but that brings me to the question, when i want computer for work, why i should install linux ? at 99% i have computer with windows ( preinstalled ofc - there is no chance that you will have custom computer at office - they are taking thousands of hp predinstalled computers so they can roll 30seconds after they plug in the electic cable)
The title of article is ‘Wanna try linux ?’. Yes i want to try it. So i have 2 options. I can install ubuntu and have everything working in 30 minutes and when i will ignore different icons, there is high chance that i wont even notice its not windows -> and thats it. When i want to try linux, why should i be trying system which tries to look like windows. I mean .. when i want to try linux, i really want to look at that emerging proceses and configure everything. Because linux is about that. Linux is server based operating system and windows is desktop based operating system ( when linux is trying to be desktop system it fails same as when windows trying to be server system ).
when you want to be using it just because you dont want to use windows, go for ubuntu. But if you just want to learn something new, ubuntu cant give you not even 30% of knowledge which i have gained from gentoo. (and yes i know gentoo sux since 2005-2006 but still, its best for begginers who want to learn something and are not using linux just to post in forums something like ‘i am using linux i am leeter than you!!!11′.
admin said this on August 30th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Hi!
I agree … kinda
I have been using [K,X,Myth]Ubuntu for 2 years now, completely windows free! before that I played with Mandrake/redhad/fedora on and off but Ubuntu was my first full time OS and it’s great!
About 4 of my friends are full time gnu/linux users too now, all starting with an Ubuntu cd’s I gave out.
Last week I took some time off work and one of the tasks I set myself was to try Arch Linux. Similar if you will with Gentoo in that you are started out with minimal core packages, and you build the system from scratch and configure the conf files by hand, but you don’t have to compile everything. And even though I have a Mythbox, file/print and a web based torrent server etc. I can tell you that I learnt more just installing Arch then the two years using Ubuntu.
I guess I’m trying to make 2 points.
1) Ubuntu is great for first time Linux users
2) Arch Linux will give you as much of the ‘classic Linux’ you can ask for, but with out waiting forever just to compile vim
BTW, Ubuntu is certainly ***not*** trying to be Windows. Window managers like KDE (4.1 is awesome btw) Gnome and Xfce are just trying to give it’s users the most user friendly, smart, effective, and visually pleasing interface they can. If some of it looks like Windows, then I guess MS has gotten a few things write.
Thanks for listening!
GKR
GKR said this on August 30th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
“I learnt more just installing Arch then the two years using Ubuntu” - and this is what i am saying.
Maybe i was wrong with gentoo. But it was perfect for me. I have been testing it on virtual machine. I have multicore system and i have been doing it as side project. So, i didnt cared if emerge kde took 10minutes or 4 hours.
i think, you are right, GKR, archlinux would be better for this
but for beginner … its just great feeling to write something and then spend minutes and minutes by looking how like matrix is that 
and to that windows-ubuntu … sorry, but i know lot of people using ubuntu and every one of them is saying me that i should test ubuntu because its just like windows but better …
but still .. windows xp rox
admin said this on August 30th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I say users should start with Ubuntu. Exactly because it provides a quick install and excellent GUI, that lets users that are used to Windows do some work instead of fiddling with a text based installer where they don’t know much about what they are doing. I suggest users install Ubuntu, and then get used to Linux from there. Such as using the commandline to install software, or change your boot configuration, or perhaps better yet, dualboot with another distro. Ubuntu provides the user with a nice test bed that they don’t have to worry about getting setup, they can just hack away at their own pace.
That was my case, I jumped on board the linux locomotive with Ubuntu, and learned quite a lot in the few years I’ve been using it. I had the curiosity and ambition to learn more about how it works, now my Ubuntu desktop doesn’t look a thing like the original installation, as I’ve added many scripts and even coded a few programs myself to help me out. I’m pretty confident in my abilities with most intermediate linux tasks, and I didn’t have to go through a day pulling teeth (usually more) to get there.
That said, i’ve screwed up my system so many times, it is quite the learning experience. And now that i have learned a bit about linux, I’m comfortable trying other distros which may not be initially as newbie-friendly.
Radical said this on December 16th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I’ve compiled my 50th gentoo yesterday, And still it has so many hidden aspects for me. Every single time I’ve compiled that I’ve learn twice as last time I compiled it (I compiled it for my friends and students, I want to give them a chance to enjoy what I enjoyed for nearly 4 months). Gentoo/Portage/Emerge and the idea behind it is great. I love the way it works. Your system always up to date with this simple commands:
emerge –sync
emerge –update –deep –newuse world
emerge –depclean
revdep-rebuild
I do that evey time I lived my system for couple of ours, and at 99% of times it works perfectly.
When Ubuntu 9.04 comes out you must reformat 8.10 for installing new system. But gentoo has no version, It’s your own os you’ve built and you can’t find any os in the world like yours.
LFS has much harder learning curve than gentoo, but I’d like Gentoo because of portage. Arch is co0l also. Ubuntu!!! I don’t give a shit about that (that’s just the way I enjoyed, I like hard things).
Just enjoy the way you enjory: openSUSE, Debian or Ubuntu, etc.
Sorry for bad english
M.S. Babaei said this on July 7th, 2009 at 10:40 am