Just don't get it

gatewayseeker2000

I have quite a few Linux distributions, Red Hat 6, SuSe, and (ugh Corel) and I just don't get it. I can never get on the internet with it so I end up putting windows back on. Any thoughts on what to start with? It just seems like too much trouble and too geeky even for me.

jlambert

If your going for the certification then stop putting windows back on. You won't learn anything if you keep giving up. Same for if you want to learn it for personal reasons. Go get a book like, Running Linux and work through whatever problems you have. I also suggest you get Gentoo. I have learned more with Gentoo than I have with any other distro and the forums are excellent. good luck and have fun.

RussS

I suggest that you download a later version of Red Hat (vers 8 or 9 ) or Mandrake and you will find connectability much easier.

Or you could try Gentoo as jlambert suggested, or even my current flavour Yoper (based on Gentoo I believe).

Any one of the above should have you on-line in short time.

Lexxdymondz

I have been reading Linux for NT/2000 Administrators by Minasi ISBN: 0782127304 and its not that bad. Mind you i'm still learing and its not an all inclusive book, its teaching me how to do the things im used to doing on windows in the linux world. Right now I have Red Hat 9 and Mandrake 7.1 (which comes with the book). They both seem pretty easy to play around with, I think the Red Hat is more in dept and more difficult so I started with the Mandrake and have definately been having fun with it.

volrathxp

jlambert wrote:

If your going for the certification then stop putting windows back on. You won't learn anything if you keep giving up. Same for if you want to learn it for personal reasons. Go get a book like, Running Linux and work through whatever problems you have. I also suggest you get Gentoo. I have learned more with Gentoo than I have with any other distro and the forums are excellent. good luck and have fun.

Ditto... I've learned more about Linux from Gentoo than I ever have from Red Hat, SuSe, Mandrake, etc.

tremere

Guys, I seriously would not recommend Gentoo as a Linux platform to learn from. If this guy can't get on the Internet with Redhat and others, and there is absolutely NO shame in that, then what makes you think he is going to survive hours and hours of compiling Gentoo and even getting a basic installation going? I would have recommended Debian to him, the install process has improved a lot over the years and it is very easy to maintain. Not trying to discredit your opinions, I just think that though putting Windows back on is the LAST thing he should be doing, putting something like Gentoo on is going to make matters worse.

RussS

So true Gentoo can be a real pain.

After assisting several newbies to install different distros over the past weekend I think Xandros is possibly one of the mosy intuitive for someone to start with.

FR29

RH, no longer offers free downloads. They now have a version called Fedora. Just a thought here: He could also try Knoppix, it runs ENTIRELY off of cd's.

bellboy

there are book publishers who do linux books with distros included. true, they may cost a bit, but when you get your windows cd it doesn't come with a book three inches thick

rufusss

What king of internet connection do you have? cable/dsl or modem

RussS

I have just installed Xandros on one of my lab machines to take a look at, and I can tell you one thing right now ..... From my current use so far, I could run that easily as a desktop and forget about MS except for a gaming machine. Runs sweet as, and the layout is fine for my tastes.
Possibly not a good distro for those wanting to know the nuts and bolts, but as a corporate desktop it would work great.

rotnay6000

I must again recommend Fedora http://fedora.redhat.com
for a new user as Core 2 has just been released and it is an easy install.
Mandrake and SuSE are good also, I just happen to like the redhat stuff.