Advice about what Linux to choose

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#1

Hey guys!
I’ve been thinking alot about moving on to linux (from Vista) these past few days and I’ve been looking around a bit. Now, I have never used linux in my entire life except for the “run from disc” test of ubuntu 8.04, so which linux would you guys recommend? The one I’m looking at atm is openSUSE 11.0. Is it ok to start with? I learn fast, love challenges and am not afraid to actually have to use a few commands instead of doing it windows style (clicking nearest icon then getting bluescreen :p).

Oh, and one other thing. I wasn’t able to find that many good screens of openSUSE, but how would you rate its gfx overall? Ugly? Good looking? I mean, Vista is beautiful imo, and I would love a linux that isnt like windows 95 or those old apple OS :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the help :slight_smile:

#2

since you’re asking it on a SUSE forum, most of us will recommend to go with SUSE. I’d recommend that you try out a few other distros as well and make up your mind which suits you best. There are a lot of noobs starting with SUSE and think it’s a good distro to start with, but in the end only you can tell if you like it.

As for the looks, you can make SUSE look just the way you like it, you can even make it look like Windows Vista if you want. Linux is very versitile and flexible in this. If you want to see how SUSE looks, then check out the June and July screenshots threads in the Screenshots subforum - Screenshots - openSUSE Forums

#3

Hi back at ya :wink:

Well, both choices you mention (Ubuntu or openSUSE) are both fine. You will find good support for both and though they do differ (mainly package management) they will both bring similar features.
I personally like openSUSE more out of these two, but that’s because I love YaST (configuration tool)!

To have a first glimps at what openSUSE 11 offers, have a look here : openSUSE News » Announcing openSUSE 11.0 GM

I’m also hearing Linux Mint is a nice distro for beginers. My feeling is that if you are a quick learner openSUSE will eventually bring you more power. :slight_smile:

First rule : whatever you choose, enjoy!

Good luck,
Wj

P.s. Don’t get to excited about KDE 4 just yet… it’s still under heavy development and I would wait to start using it as your main desktop until at least 4.1 is released (end of this month) and preferably suggest to wait for 4.2.
Just my 2cents added…

#4

Thanks alot for your answers!
After seeing the screenshot section (which shows very promising flexibility) I’ve decided to install openSUSE 11.0 later today. The download just finished :slight_smile:

A quick question about Gnome, KDE etc etc… What is the difference between em? Should I care what I choose in the beginning? And how come not to use KDE 4.0? Still a bit buggy?

Thanks for your quick answers guys :slight_smile:

Edit: nvm about KDE 4.0… It is stated in his response :stuck_out_tongue: Selective reading I guess :smiley:

#5

both GNOME and KDE are desktop envirnoments and both have their pros anc cons. GNOME aims for simplicity and hides options from the user, KDE on the other hand gives full control to the user and allows him/her to do anything. Which one you choose, depends on your personal preference. Some like it clean and simple and some like it to be in full control of their desktop. It has been said that KDE is more suited for people who transition from Windows to Linux as it is more easy in that regard and does things very similar… I suggest you install them both and try them out. In the end, pick the one you like the most. Lots of people on this forum go for KDE though and SUSE has been known to prefer KDE over GNOME

#6

I was actually reading a bit about it between my post and your answer and I decided to go with KDE :slight_smile: So should i use 3.5? For the best stability? And, an (un)important question, do I have to change my hdd’s partitions from NTFS? I use 2 harddrives, one 74 gb raptor disc (system disc) and one 500 gb samsung disc for storage. I really dont mind repartioting my system disc, but the storage drive might be a problem since i got ~400gb of stuff I want to keep and no other storage options :stuck_out_tongue:

#7

yes, you will need to make space for Linux. It is best to resize your NTFS partition so you can have space to install SUSE. The SUSE installer can resize it for you, however I don’t know how good it is at resizeing NTFS partitions. You can use your storage drive with Linux too, no need to repartition it or change its file system.

As for the desktop environment, I’d go with KDE 3.5.9

#8

KDE 3.5.9 it is then :slight_smile:
I’ll just boot the install DVD and see where it takes me I guess. Thanks alot for the answers :slight_smile: Always glad to know that there is people wanting to help out :slight_smile: Wish me luck! ^^

#9

From other post, replies appreciated :slight_smile:

#10

There is custom partitioning available in the installer where you can select which disk to resize/install on and where to mount the others. I’d suggest that you make three partitions on the disk you want to install SUSE…

/
/home
swap

you can give swap a 1 GB space, / will be good with 10-15 GB and /home should be large since that’ll be where you’ll keep your files. As for your second disk, you can set its mount point to /media/data

#11

Ok, here’s an update, I succesfully installed it without tampering with the 500gb disc!
Now I have 3 problems.

The most important one is that I can’t connect to the internet. I use a cable modem and a router. No authentication is required as long as you are plugged in with a cable. How do I get internet up and working? Would be great so I can write in the forums/search around on my own computer and not this crap one with unvalidated win XP ^^

Second one is that that I cannot access my 500gb hdd. Or, it doesn’t exist in the explorer window. Where can I make it show? Find it/install it or whatever is needed?

Third and last problem is that I never made a /home partition so when i open up my raptor disc I have a lot of system folders there which I don’t want. Is there a way to partition in a /home partition afterwards? =)

Thanks for baring with me guys :slight_smile:

#12

Good going :slight_smile:

The most important one is that I can’t connect to the internet. I use a cable modem and a router. No authentication is required as long as you are plugged in with a cable. How do I get internet up and working? Would be great so I can write in the forums/search around on my own computer and not this crap one with unvalidated win XP ^^

Do you mean you want to hook up with WIFI?

Second one is that that I cannot access my 500gb hdd. Or, it doesn’t exist in the explorer window. Where can I make it show? Find it/install it or whatever is needed?

You need to get back into the YaST > Partitioner :slight_smile: to create a mount point for your disk/partitions.
Just fire it up and you will see you current disks and mount points.
Double click the partition on the second disk you want to have access to. You will get the drive properties page where you can add a mount point (right bottom). Enter the mount you would like (e.g. /data) and make it effective by Ok’ing twice.
** Make sure you don’t select to format (not selected by default)!

Third and last problem is that I never made a /home partition so when i open up my raptor disc I have a lot of system folders there which I don’t want. Is there a way to partition in a /home partition afterwards? =)

See this thread: /home Partition - openSUSE Forums

Thanks for baring with me guys :slight_smile:

It’s a pleasure having you aboard MilkDrop :wink:

#13

Gnome hides options, but they are there (gconf-editor ;))

I recommend that you install gnome (after you resolve these issues first), just click on the gnome pattern and install the whole thing :slight_smile:

#14

distrowatch.com find all sorts of info and screenies.

#15

No, I don’t use WiFi, I love tripping over my cables! Hehe.
The problem is that I can’t get internet up and running at all. I’ve tried with the router, without the router… This Win XP comp has internet access, so router and all that is up and running. I just can’t seem to get it up and running on linux. I’m really at the breaking point atm. I’m considering removing linux and installing windows again but… I want to learn linux. And I actually like it alot. So let’s not do that and let’s get the internet up and running :smiley:

I made a topic about it in the right section if you have any thoughts about it - Can’t connect (Cable modem+router) - openSUSE Forums

I searched the web and found that out and successfully managed to get access to my files :slight_smile: Thank you for the much easier answer tho. Had to work a bit to get it right from the other post I read on the topic. Hopefully someone will get this when googling.

Will do, thanks alot mate!

Why thank you! :slight_smile: I’m proud to be a member of SUSE users!

And some-guy, thanks for the advice but I think I will stick with KDE 3.5.9. It seems to satisfy alot of my needs.

#16

On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:06:03 GMT
MilkDrop <MilkDrop@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>I was actually reading a bit about it between my post and your answer
>and I decided to go with KDE :slight_smile: So should i use 3.5? For the best
>stability?

Yes, start with that. Later, after you are comfortable with it, you can
install KDE4.x and see how you like it. You can also install GNOME and
try it out. I’m not currently in 11 (it’s on a different partition) so
I can’t look up (easily) which other desktops are available, but in the
last six or so versions of openSUSE (and it’s other names), I have
regularly run three different desktops at the same time on different
virtual consoles:

KDE, to help with questions in the various newsgroups I am in

icewm, my favorite for getting work done (small and fast)

wm2/wmx, for most of my ‘root’ work

These are the current desktops/window managers I have installed and
available, in openSUSE 10.3:

kde windowmaker blackbox openbox fluxbox fvwm2 icewm twm

>And, an (un)important question, do I have to change my hdd’s
>partitions from NTFS?

That’s a very important question! And the answer is yes. NTFS can be
read, but not written (they’re working on it, but I don’t know how far
it’s gotten). Whatever else you do, first backup everything
important! You have been warned! :slight_smile:

>I use 2 harddrives, one 74 gb raptor disc (system
>disc) and one 500 gb samsung disc for storage. I really dont mind
>repartioting my system disc,

If you are going to forego Windows, just have the openSUSE install wipe
it and start over. If you will dual boot, the installer should be able
to shrink existing partitions and use the free space.

>but the storage drive might be a problem
>since i got ~400gb of stuff I want to keep and no other storage options

That’s a lot to backup. If it’s important to you, get another drive for
data and use it for openSUSE. You should be able to read the NTFS
partitions but not (reliably) write to them. Find some way to back it
all up, though, because humans have been known to hose their systems
when they least expect it – not that that has ever happened to
me! :open_mouth:

–
Kevin Nathan (Arizona, USA)
Linux is not a destination, it’s a journey – enjoy the trip!

Linux 2.6.22.18-0.2-default
9:18pm up 2 days 23:55, 21 users, load average: 0.69, 0.49, 0.48

#17

Hi Kevin,

NTFS these days has excellent read/write support through the efforts of the ntfs-3g project.
Most (if not all) newer distribution releases include it as default. So no issue there.
For those dual booting a shared NTFS data disk is they way to go & conversion is NOT necessary.

Cheers,
Wj

#18

On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:36:05 GMT
Magic31 <Magic31@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>NTFS these days has excellent read/write support through the efforts of
>the ntfs-3g project.
>Most (if not all) newer distribution releases include it as default.
>So no issue there.

Well, that is good news then! However, I still stand behind the ‘backup
everything that is important to you’ philosophy! :slight_smile:

–
Kevin Nathan (Arizona, USA)
Linux is not a destination, it’s a journey – enjoy the trip!

Linux 2.6.22.18-0.2-default
4:28am up 0:06, 21 users, load average: 2.65, 2.81, 1.33

#19

And I’m standing along side next to you on that! :wink:
Conversion from NTFS to a Linux fs format is not always necessary was what I meant by it as you can mount and use NTFS on Linux. Wouldn’t go to full production, but for a dual boot setup it should be fine. :smiley:

#20

Both Ubuntu and Suse are excellent options. I prefer deb/synaptic by a small margin (Ubuntu) but Yast is pretty close in that sense. Suse is superior in configuration (Yast) but a little dry when it comes to feedback, suggestions and community-minded sites. Overall, its hard to go wrong with either.