Ultimate Linux/Unix n00b....help?

[Lvl21nerd]

ok im not in a jam yet, but i have basically no experience with anything other than Windows98, XP, and Vista

i only have access to Windows 98 and Vista now, neither of wich are useful to me, and i would really like to get back to my preferred Windows XP, but since that will take a while i want to mess around with a few different Distros of Linux and see if i cant learn something along the way

i have burned all of these to CD and would appreciate guidance on which would best be worth my time:

Fedora 9
Ubuntu 8.04 and xUbuntu 8.04 as well
PCLinuxOS 2007
Mandriva (2008.1 i think is the version)
OpenSuSE 11.0
Linux Mint 4.0

yep think thats all of em, at least for now

i really want to get a varied taste of whats out there in linux-land, so any insight would be greatly appreciated

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Everyone is mostly going to recommend Ubuntu. Its the most used Linux distribution, it has a huge community, it has one of the largest software repositories, and its easy to use.

My second recommendation would be OpenSuSE 11. I actually prefer OpenSuSE personally, but it doesn't have as big of a software repository as Ubuntu and isn't used as much as Ubuntu. But OpenSuSE has so many cool features over Ubuntu and has the backing of Novell with a bunch of professionally paid programmers making those cool features.

 

[Lvl21nerd]

Very good, so i have a starting point

i mistakenly downloaded the 64bit version of OpenSuSE 11.0 so i must now download the i386 version (better compatibility yes?) but i will try it out and report back

thanks for the quick response too =D

 

[SleepWalkerX]

I'd recommend the 64 bit version actually. At this point, there are really only two programs that people need 32 bit compatibility for, the java browser plugin and the flash plugin. And both of those are fully compatible with the 64 bit versions of the operating systems (at first you just had to run 32 bit firefox to run the 32 bit plugins, but now you can run 64 bit firefox with nswrapperplugin which will take care of the 32 bit browser libraries).

So yeah, go ahead and run the 64 bit version if you have a capable processor.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
Everyone is mostly going to recommend Ubuntu. Its the most used Linux distribution, it has a huge community, it has one of the largest software repositories, and its easy to use.

My second recommendation would be OpenSuSE 11. I actually prefer OpenSuSE personally, but it doesn't have as big of a software repository as Ubuntu and isn't used as much as Ubuntu. But OpenSuSE has so many cool features over Ubuntu and has the backing of Novell with a bunch of professionally paid programmers making those cool features.

Actually, if you go to their repository page (or they used to have one at the time of 10.3, i'm sure they have one now) they have one click links to add repositories that are officially supported as much as the Ubuntu repos are (Ubuntu only officially supports the core repos, the Universe and Multiverse are unsupported repos).

When i get home, sometime in the future, i'll install 11.0.

 

[Lvl21nerd]

this is pretty neat

im using the OpenSuSE 11.0 i386 Live CD right now as i type this

everything seems pretty user friendly

one question i have is, what codecs are, or should i say are not supported by the media player on OpenSuSE

i like to watch a lot of videos on my computer and they vary widely in their respective formats

also, im wondering if there is a way to just get VLC player to install for Linux

 

[Lvl21nerd]

yet another question

forgive me because i am new to Live CD's but why can i not install the Flash Plug-In for Firefox?

 

[Nothinman]

also, im wondering if there is a way to just get VLC player to install for Linux

Sure and it works fine, I know there's packages for Debian in the main repository, in Ubuntu it's probably in universe or multiverse. Sorry but I have no idea if it's packaged for SuSE or not.

forgive me because i am new to Live CD's but why can i not install the Flash Plug-In for Firefox?

It depends on how the LiveCD is setup, since the OS is running from read-only media there has to be some magic to let you make config changes. Ubuntu uses a copy-on-write ramdisk so that you can install, configure, edit, etc things on the disc while it's running but I have no idea if SuSE does the same thing.

 

[Lvl21nerd]

is there a viable alternative to GRUB?

i have decided that i want to dual boot Vista and either OpenSuSE or Ubuntu using 2 SATA hard drives

from what i have read about GRUB, which i will admit isnt too very much, it seems to be a complicated process to set up, and im looking for something simple

if GRUB is simple, then thats great....otherwise could someone point me toward a program that is?

i want to learn about Linux very much, but im afraid i may not have the patience with it that i should and i dont want to get angry and quit before i have begun

 

[Smitty308]

I have found an easy way to play with Linux and still have my Windows OS intact. I have 2 removable bays in my tower. I have my Windows HD in one of them. In the other, is a HD on which I install 'nix. That HD has had 6 or more flavors of 'nix at one time or another. If I want to play with Linux tonight, I just shut down my Windows, remove or turn off that HD and insert the 'nix HD or turn it on. I then reboot to that HD and it has taken only 3 or 4 minutes and I know I don't have to mess with dual booting.

My 2 cents worth!!
Smitty

 

[Lvl21nerd]

well that is simple

i might actually have to resort to that because someone on another forum site told me that Vista doesnt play nice with other operating systems, dual booting and whatnot

 

[iooiioio]

Also, whichever distribution you settle on is going to have a wiki page or help forum. GRUB is usually simple, normally 4 lines of code in one file, to boot windows along with linux. One version I have had success with is Arch Linux, it is relatively new but is very effective. The major channels of support do still follow ubuntu though.

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: Lvl21nerd
well that is simple

i might actually have to resort to that because someone on another forum site told me that Vista doesnt play nice with other operating systems, dual booting and whatnot

As long as vista is installed first you should have no problem. Ubuntu's GRUB is a very simple interface and can be easily edited to switch your default OS.

 

[Lvl21nerd]

i keep getting people telling me to not worry, GRUB will take care of everything.....except they keep thinking that im installing both OS's on the same hard disk....which is not the case
(not saying that misunderstanding is here.....talking about on many other forums)

i have yet to get a straight answer as to how to manage booting options ON 2 DIFFERENT HARD DRIVES

not being rude i hope....just a little frustrated at the moment

 

[Nothinman]

As long as the BIOS enumerates the drives in the same order that Linux sees them GRUB will be simple no matter how many drives there are. The problems come when you've got to tell grub which drive is BIOS drive 0 and such. Mostly it's no problem and GRUB will just have an entry to boot Windows from hd0 and one to boot Linux from hd1, that's it.

 

[Lvl21nerd]

k thx thats the first helpful piece of info i have gotten in the last couple hours

will be back later with more questions im sure so here's hoping this topic doesnt get deleted

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
Everyone is mostly going to recommend Ubuntu. Its the most used Linux distribution, it has a huge community, it has one of the largest software repositories, and its easy to use.

My second recommendation would be OpenSuSE 11. I actually prefer OpenSuSE personally, but it doesn't have as big of a software repository as Ubuntu and isn't used as much as Ubuntu. But OpenSuSE has so many cool features over Ubuntu and has the backing of Novell with a bunch of professionally paid programmers making those cool features.

Actually, if you go to their repository page (or they used to have one at the time of 10.3, i'm sure they have one now) they have one click links to add repositories that are officially supported as much as the Ubuntu repos are (Ubuntu only officially supports the core repos, the Universe and Multiverse are unsupported repos).

When i get home, sometime in the future, i'll install 11.0.

Its definitely gotten a LOT better as far as third party support goes, but packman still doesn't package as much as Ubuntu yet imho.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: Lvl21nerd
this is pretty neat

im using the OpenSuSE 11.0 i386 Live CD right now as i type this

everything seems pretty user friendly

one question i have is, what codecs are, or should i say are not supported by the media player on OpenSuSE

i like to watch a lot of videos on my computer and they vary widely in their respective formats

also, im wondering if there is a way to just get VLC player to install for Linux

Open up YaST and go to the Software Sources module. You should see a repository for VLC. Go ahead and enable it, then update it, and then you can install vlc.

edit: Oh, and pretty much any codec you would use in Windows is available in Linux. Check out this link for a ymp link to the restricted formats package.

http://opensuse-community.org/Multimedia

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: Lvl21nerd
yet another question

forgive me because i am new to Live CD's but why can i not install the Flash Plug-In for Firefox?

Go to the link I gave you and you it'll have a link that will automatically install the latest flash plugin along with other restricted formats.

If you have already installed OpenSuSE then install this extra flash related package. Its a modified version of libflashsupport (before installing make sure to remove the previous one). Its a supplement to the flash plugin which will allow you to run audio coming from flash alongwith audio from other applications at the same time by running flash audio through pulseaudio. Windows normally allows this, but flash is a buggy pos in linux.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: Lvl21nerd
is there a viable alternative to GRUB?

i have decided that i want to dual boot Vista and either OpenSuSE or Ubuntu using 2 SATA hard drives

from what i have read about GRUB, which i will admit isnt too very much, it seems to be a complicated process to set up, and im looking for something simple

if GRUB is simple, then thats great....otherwise could someone point me toward a program that is?

i want to learn about Linux very much, but im afraid i may not have the patience with it that i should and i dont want to get angry and quit before i have begun

OpenSuSE will take care of installing grub for you and adding entries automatically. The only thing you have to worry about is partitioning OpenSuSE and just make sure to install grub to the hard drive that boots first in your BIOS.

You should learn this slowly. Last thing you want happening is hosing your WinXP install by improperly partitioning. Just read up how partitioning works or we can fill you in if you have any questions.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: Lvl21nerd
i keep getting people telling me to not worry, GRUB will take care of everything.....except they keep thinking that im installing both OS's on the same hard disk....which is not the case
(not saying that misunderstanding is here.....talking about on many other forums)

i have yet to get a straight answer as to how to manage booting options ON 2 DIFFERENT HARD DRIVES

not being rude i hope....just a little frustrated at the moment

Its actually easier than it sounds. Here's what happens if you go that route:

Windows is already installed and working on one hard drive. Windows installs its own boot loader and correctly boots itself if that hard drive is put to first priority.

If you install OpenSuSE on the other hard drive then it installs all the necessary files it needs to function on that hard drive. During installation it will grab information from any other hard drives and partitions it sees. When installing grub it will add entries for your Windows partition even if its on another hard drive. So now when you set this hard drive to first priority it will load the grub boot loader which will give you the option to boot either OpenSuSE or Windows.

Its really no different than if you install more operating systems on the same hard drive. You just have to go into your BIOS for one more step.

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: Lvl21nerd
i keep getting people telling me to not worry, GRUB will take care of everything.....except they keep thinking that im installing both OS's on the same hard disk....which is not the case
(not saying that misunderstanding is here.....talking about on many other forums)

i have yet to get a straight answer as to how to manage booting options ON 2 DIFFERENT HARD DRIVES

not being rude i hope....just a little frustrated at the moment

My bad, in that case you need the linux HD boot first in your BIOS, at that point GRUB will I believe allow you to choose between windows and linux. Im not positive but I think thats how it worked for my brother.

I know for sure when the HD windows was in the boot first category it didnt give you a choice to boot linux.

 

[Nothinman]

Whether Linux or Windows is on the first hard disk is irrelevant, you can install GRUB into the MBR of any disk.

 

[Lvl21nerd]

while on the topic of partitioning...

whats up with the swap partition i keep hearing/reading about?

is it necessary? what exactly does it swap? is 512mb always enough for a swap partition or is more space sometimes needed?

Edit: i didnt notice this thread had a second page....this post was in response to SleepWalkerX's post regarding partitioning of OpenSUSE

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: Lvl21nerd
while on the topic of partitioning...

whats up with the swap partition i keep hearing/reading about?

is it necessary? what exactly does it swap? is 512mb always enough for a swap partition or is more space sometimes needed?

Edit: i didnt notice this thread had a second page....this post was in response to SleepWalkerX's post regarding partitioning of OpenSUSE

Check out this article:

http://www.linux.com/feature/121916

When programs require more memory than physically available then they turn to the swap on the hard drive as another source of memory. If there is no swap then programs can crash by running out of available space on the ram. The kernel can manage memory by placing idle tasks in the swap to make more physical memory available for other applications. You can also use features like hibernate.

The rule of thumb that goes around says to use a swap file/partition size equal to double that of your ram.