[RWBlue]

I am thinking of learning linux. Really buckling down, not just installing it and finding other things to do.

Which one?

I have tried Suse in the past. I liked it.
I have tried Red hat in the past. I liked it.

Which one has more business usage?
And I need to be able to get it for free.

 

[RWBlue]

While I am at it, what online resources should I use to help learn Linux?

 

[IndyGunFreak]

If you like Suse, its a pretty good distribution to use. OpenSuse is pretty popular, but its been a long time since I used Suse. Redhat is also pretty solid, Fedora is the free version of Redhat, and again, is usually a solid choice.

Personally, I always recommend Ubuntu to new users. Great hardware detection, lots of help out there via Google, IRC, Ubuntuforums, LQ.org... etc. If you're a bit more of an "advanced" user, I'd recommend Debian, thats what I use on two PC's, w/ Ubuntu on my laptop.. and those would be my two choices...

If you go with Ubuntu/Debian, the only thing I could recommend, is staying w/ the 32bit versions, even if your PC is 64bit capable. 64bit is still a pain in the rear right now, especially w/ Ubuntu.

http://www.ubuntu.com
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Hardy
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ubuntu-63/
http://www.ubuntuforums.org

IGF

 

[Luckysteve]

Man I just can't wrap my mind around linux. I mean it would be great for someone who didn't grow up on windows and know it backwards and forwards.

 

[Green_Manelishi]

Man I just can't wrap my mind around linux. I mean it would be great for someone who didn't grow up on windows and know it backwards and forwards.

If you know Windoze "backwards and forwards" you should not have much difficulty with "icks". Perhaps you are too GUI oriented?

 

[Green_Manelishi]

I am thinking of learning linux. Really buckling down, not just installing it and finding other things to do.

Which one?

I have tried Suse in the past. I liked it.
I have tried Red hat in the past. I liked it.

Which one has more business usage?
And I need to be able to get it for free.

Many are available for "free" as is online help through user groups, etc.

 

[RWBlue]

Downloading Fedora as I type.
It appears to be the best accepted by businesses, right?
If I or a business needs real support they can pay for redhat, right?

 

[Luckysteve]

If you know Windoze "backwards and forwards" you should not have much difficulty with "icks". Perhaps you are too GUI oriented?

Thats most of it right there. DOS was on the way out when I got into computers and the only command line stuff I really do is network related (ipconfig /release type stuff.)

Also the file system trips me out. I am used to My Computer and a C drive.

 

[Green_Manelishi]

Thats most of it right there. DOS was on the way out when I got into computers and the only command line stuff I really do is network related (ipconfig /release type stuff.)

Also the file system trips me out. I am used to My Computer and a C drive.

You do realize that your 'puter and the C drive use a file system, no? Windows just lays a bunch of crap over it. Even MAC OS X (Ten) is "icks".

If you can do the network comline stuff then you should be able to pick up the non-network comline stuff.

 

[noway]

Go for Debian or a Debian based release. Management and "apt" package handing is very user friendly and simple than most of the other. Plus you have a wide source for the distributions.


FWIW: You don't need a heavy mem/cpu machine and and learned who to compile your kernel a few times and them you could a master sysadmin.

 

[Washington D.C.]

Downloading Fedora as I type.
It appears to be the best accepted by businesses, right?
If I or a business needs real support they can pay for redhat, right?

The latest version of Fedora may have some issues. The software is bleeding edge new and not 100%. The previous version of Fedora , Fedora 8, is one of the better Fedora's.

For Red Hat since it's 100% open source CentOS is Red Hat for free. It's very stable. It doesn't support the newest hardware sometimes though. Adding non-open source software takes a bit of learning but not bad.

Suse is almost as simple as Mac. To use it you don't really need to learn Linux. You can but it doesn't force you to learn it. That can be good and bad.


Xubuntu has gotten really easy to use. The latest version has long term support.

CentOS is about as close to Red Hat as you can get. If you hardware is more than a year old it should run on it.

 

[IndyGunFreak]

Downloading Fedora as I type.
It appears to be the best accepted by businesses, right?
If I or a business needs real support they can pay for redhat, right?

Fedora is not a bad distribution... its probably not as newbie friendly as Ubuntu, and it package manager sucks compared to Ubuntu/Debian..(at least in my opinion..).. but believe me, you'll install or use 15 different live cd's, before you decide on what you want.

LQ.org has a pretty solid Fedora forum also, and there' a "fedorafaq" site somewhere, but the exact URL escapes me...

Im pretty sure Dan uses Fedora, and maybe HerrGlock.....

IGF

 

[RWBlue]

I don't think you meant LQ.org? It doesnt apear to be computer oriented.

 

[ley_lines]

using debian right now....its not working for me quite as good on my laptop as fedora did....gonna try sabayon pretty soon

 

[IndyGunFreak]

I don't think you meant LQ.org? It doesnt apear to be computer oriented.

I was paraphrasing... you'll notice in my first post, I had a link to linuxquestions.org.



IGF

 

[biblefreak]

I chose an in between distro and have been very happy with it. Normally I would agree that a debian based system with apt is the way to go over an rpm based system. PCLinuxOS is an RPM based system that has apt integrated in as a package manager complete with its own repos. You can still install RPM packages which is what I had to do to install Turbo Print (my Canon printer has no CUPS drivers), or you can update the entire system with Synaptic, a GUI interface for apt. Another nice thing is most everything is "clickable" i.e. little need for a command line. There are plenty of terminals if you want to use them, but again, for most tasks they just are not necessary.
If you are looking for bleeding edge, then you need to look elsewhere, the current release is PCLinuxOS 2007 and is using all stable stuff, no KDE 4.x yet. There is a very solid support base through the forums, and like alot of other current distros, comes as a live CD so you can try without a commitment.

www.pclinuxos.com

 

[RWBlue]

Currently running Fedora 8

 

[tous]

<--- currently running Fedora 9, 8, and 7
<--- virtualized Texan :cowboy:

 

[Trsnrtr]

I'm a big proponent of Mint in either Gnome version or KDE. I've been running the KDE version since it was in beta and find it to be one of the most stable Linux distros that i've ever used and I'm one of those "distro a month" guys.

 

[LinuxKnight]

I run Fedora 9 (64bit), and have run a variant of Fedora or RedHat since RH 5.0.

I agree apt-get on Ubuntu and other Debian based distros is the bees-knees. However, yum on Fedora has gotten quite good, it does pretty much the same thing (makes installing RPM packages easier, which is what apt-get does for DEB packages).

I also run Ubuntu (x86 and PPC), and Debian (x86), and have in the past tinkered with most all the other mainline distros- SuSE, Mandrake/Mandriva, Slackware, Gentoo... TurboLinux... Storm (another based on Debian)... Lindows/Linspire.... Knoppix live CD of course.... Corel.... even built "Linux From Scratch" once or twice... and then also FreeBSD and OpenBSD.

Good place for Fedora support:
www.fedoraforums.org

As mentioned before, if you want to stick as close as possible to RedHat Enterprise Linux (which is supported commercially in the big biz world), go with CentOS. It basically is RHEL, without the branding or paid support. It is built from the same sources as RHEL, and there is a good community support system.

If you are running a business and need the commercial support, you probably want to go with RHEL itself. Otherwise CentOS is literally the same thing under the hood.

At any rate, +1 on trying several with the Live CD versions, get a taste for them.