Which is the most easiest linux?

hello to all


This question keep me wondering which is the most easiest linux for new bee's which have more gui and less tweak to do from live cd/dvds complete package out of box for who dont know anything about linux.


till date i found

mint linux (besed on ubuntu)
pclinux (based on mandriva)
Vixta linux (based on fedora)

please give your reviews as distros name as well which you feel the easiest one ..

 

That's me
Sounds like you're willing to learn
You've actually got the 'easiest' there already
Makes a change from "wot is best?"
If you want GUI as first exposure: Ubuntu,Mint, Pclos and Mandriva.
PCLOS is a gem, no doubt about it, with added benefit if being a 'rolling release: ie: can update as required easily from within system: no new install

Look for support options and forum help as part of choice.

Vixta seems ok but you may have some issues with Fedora based package management and software repositories ? ( ....ducks for cover ... )
Little real support there.

Package management is another issue:For 'newbies' distros with the Synaptic package managers are the easiest GUI options to use.
There are others
http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google Search&q=package management
DistroWatch has a Very good primer for all the options:
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=package-management

For another 'flavour'; you could look at Vector 6 (- Slackware based; Slackware widely regarded as one of the greatest Linux releases-) : nice walk throughs here @ Dw info page : check reviews for V6
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=vector
Uses a GUI based tool for package management.

I like SuSe too. Easy end user interface and big support network.

Dream Linux is gaining traction as a user friendly system:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=dreamlinux
em, used to have some tricky installation/partitioning interface that occasionally caused confusion.

Get a Knoppix live CD and get used to using it: great tool.
Get a Parted magic CD and have a look.

Some times great things come in small packages: when you're ready check the Puppy pages

For Mint check this: mint4win: will install Mint to your System drive with no fancy partitioning.
http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google Search&q=mint4win

"wubi" does the same for Ubuntu.
Both work really well.

Read the stickies at the top of this forum.
Get Virtual Box: http://www.virtualbox.org/ or read here:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1527222&postcount=11
Go here: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computer_software.html#linux
Good Luck
Keep in touch.

 

the 1st linux i ever used is redhat 9 then fedora......>>


i just open a debate for newbie's point of view even i wonder someone ask me which the most easiest if you have worked with gentoo fedora .mandriva..derbian opensuse novel......etc......most of all main distros they all seem so easy ......it difficult to find a distro which top in the list of easiest one

 

Ahh then...maybe some one else will benefit from my vast experience

No it's not: I;m proof.

 

hahaha you are funny mr/miss Longboard so how you rate them

1 pcoslinux
2 mintlinux
3.
4.

 

Agreed.

I too am proof There's shedloads of info available all over the place making picking a distro for the first time a breeze - especially if you are 100% newbie.

For me, of course it was Ubu which I will stick with before venturing onto something different in a few months time. Got a few more e-books to read before I do this though

 

IMHO:

1. Mint and Ubuntu
2. PCLinuxOS
3. Suse

All are good and complete desktops, but PCLinuxOS and more so Suse seem to me to be a bit less newbie friendly, more complex UI/features (which do offer more power/configuration than Ubuntu/Mint but also confusion to the new user). Both Mint and Ubuntu have less of a learning curve than PCLinuxOS and Suse.

 

Hi, IMHO, coLinux and Cygwin are also good options for Linux beginner like me. =)

 

what type of user are we talking about?
most users wouldnt know how to install windows and set it up.
if we are talking about an advanced windows user but they are a newbie to linux then the distro doesnt mater tbh.

for a complete beginner (someone who hasnt installed an OS before) mandriva one live cd would be a very good option.
the live cd installer is soo easy and takes around 7 clicks.
flash is installed out of the box.
there is some very good tutorials at howtoforge to help setup the stuff most users would want.
I wouldnt reccomend suse tbh. I find yast a complete mess. it has to many options imo.

I like the mandriva control centre. all the main stuff in one place.

once setup pretty much any distro will be fine for newbies.

I havent tryed linux mint,pclinux or Vixta linux so i cannot commant on those.

tbh I dont know why ubuntu is so popular. mandriva has been out far longer and has the same goal. mandriva one live cd has flash player installed as default,it has the proper graphics drivers as default as well. so there is less to setup. the central control console helps to setup everything a user will need to.

 

There's no such thing as the easiest Linux. It all depends on the users attitude and willingness to learn.

However, I assume you're wanting to discuss what's easier for an ignorant ex MS user who has no willingness to learn and expects the OS to do absolutely everything for them including software selection?

The answer is there isn't one. There will be a learning curve with any distro, even the so called easy distros. If a user is going to try another system then they should be open minded enough to think outside the box and realise there's other ways of doing things and they'll have to put at least some effort in.

Remember, we all had to learn Windows at some point. People also forget Windows out the box still needs drivers, flash, codecs, burners etc installed before it's a fully working system for everyday use.

 

Thats sort of the crux of it isnt it.
There are competent home end users who can tinker, install, configure,read forums, have an interest, but are realistically 'mouse driven' and have little or no experience with command line options.
I suspect they are a bit anxious when CLI advice pops-up, the file extensions look unfamiliar and the file/directory layout is a maze.
Agree with the basic suggestions here:mandriva, PCLOS, MINT, Ubuntu even Suse: all very user friendly: then the learning curve isnt steep from there for a while: then a big step up again.

For mine, pushing VMs, wubi, mint4win has been useful for me with friends who have an interest, to generate further interest.

 

Can you give an example ?

or

Is this a KDE vs Gnome thing ?

if so

PCLinuxOS and SuSe both come in the KDE-Gnome flavor.

Been using Ubuntu as the main OS since 8.04 LTS, I have no clue about the "less of a learning curve" you speak of....

Wise words, so true

 

Turkish government science agencie's(TUBITAK) distro Pardus is also good for beginners.
Review : http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2009/07/23/pardus-linux-2009/
http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/

 

Those have everything preconfigured with little additional installation required by newbies. I run PCLOS Linux on my HP laptop and netbook. Great distro.

On my Dell laptop and netbook I run Ubuntu - its very user friendly but additional setup of the repositories is required.

 

I still think emulators like Cygwin and coLinux are great starting point. IMHO, what stands in between the user and Linux are the commands lines and script configuration not the GUI interface. I can learn the difficult part under Cygwin and lookup information easily using browsers or seek help on IRC.

Most importantly the online installer is smaller (less than 1Mb) and easier to operate than installing a system. Cygwin is quicker and lighter than VM on old machines. It comes with nearly all man page.With it, I can learn commands whenever I want without booting up the computer. After I have learnt a couple of common commands, it is still helpful. Commands like grep are extreme useful. It can also be used to compile Linux tools without much effort.

 

My vote would go something like:

1) Ubuntu or Mint
2) PCLinuxOS
3) Debian

IMO, it's hard to go wrong with Ubuntu, it always seems to stand out on top as perhaps the easiest out of the box experience for anyone.

 

fedora and mandriva are definatly easier than debian.

 

I have not tried Mandriva (I almost can't believe it). Fedora I have tried. It's not too bad, but I think requires more tweaking than Debian. The latest Debian for me was super easy. It's come a long way towards a nice out of the box experience. Only thing I had trouble with in Debian was mounting ntfs partitions. Couldn't get it working, even after editing /etc/fstab and messing with it for quite a while.

 

To get graphics card drivers working in debian lenny you have to edit text Xorg.conf and run quite alot of commands.
I couldnt get ntfs partitions to work on debian eiether. its a nice distro but definatly not for newbies.
I find fedora ultra easy definatly easier than debian. add rpmfusion repo and then when you play a file it will ask to install the codecs for you. you dont get that kind of prompt in debian. in debian you can add the multimedia repo but you need to install the codecs via synaptec yourself.
for me or you it isnt an issue but for new users fedora is easier in that respect. to install graphics drivers in fedora is one line command.
I do wish fedora would hurry up and add virtualbox ose to the repos thou.

I find debian quite a bit faster than ubuntu.

the bottom line is if you read the documentation then its quite easy to do what you want with any distro.

My fav distros are fedora,mandriva and debian atm.

since im not dualbooting atm i may dualboot debian testing to see if i can mount ntfs partitions. if so i may stick with it.

you should try mandriva and tell me what you think.

 

Yep, ok, I will give Mandriva a shot soon. Maybe you're right, now that I think about it Fedora was becoming easier to use, more of an Ubuntu-like experience for codecs and that sort of thing. I didn't have any trouble with video in Debian though, my ATI worked 1920x1200 out of the box. I do like the speed of Debian, but maybe you're right, there might be others easier for someone new to Linux.

 

I think one important aspect for a newbie is the fact that there is no root account in Ubuntu (unlike other distros). Under Windows most users were used to be exclusively logged on as admin. Thus, many of them might be tempted to port this bad habit to Linux and log on as root. But this is not possible under Ubuntu: There is NO root account, and there is only ONE password for log-on and doing administrative tasks. A big advantage security-wise for newbies, IMHO.

 

yea agree but in ubuntu and mint you can open root user with simple going to users and group unlock it with your user password and give password to root you can also rename your root ....

and then going to login window and in 5th tab security

check it

allow local system administrator login

but it hardly needed its good that by default it is closed

 

Yes, I know - but a newbie normally won't do that.

 

By definition, anyone who knows how to allow a GUI root login in Mint and Ubuntu, isn't a noob.