Linux Distro Recommendations needed, please!

I have several spare computers I want to sell cheap and will probably be bought by beginners/leaners. What would be a good distro in these circumstances.
Each System has a 2gig celeron processor, 20GB hard disk and 512MB of RAM.
Thanks for any advice. BTW I am ignoring Windows because I want these computers to be legal!

 

Any of the biggies should run on those specs - ubuntu, suse, mandriva. However, you could give something like Dreamlinux a go. Debian based, looks beautiful, runs light, multimedia support out the box. The looks of Dream might help them sell?

 

I wouldn't recommend Dreamlinux, its default configuration involves sudo with no password (which is necessary for some of the config utilities).

Personally I would recommend Mandriva or OpenSuSE. Although much is often made of OpenSuSE's sluggishness, it is in fact reasonably fast with the right settings (i.e. noatime); and both of them make it easy to install multimedia codecs.

I would recommend avoiding Ubuntu; it is exceptionally buggy in my experience, even the LTS release.

 

Try Linux Mint (Gnome) or Mandriva (KDE)...

 

I can't confirm this. Evidence?

 

The top distros for new Windows converts, or linux beginners....because they are so easy to use and come bundled with most things that a Windows user will want to have....

Ubuntu
Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu, but has a few more features built in)..hasn't been around as long but it's catching up fast
PCLinuxOS
OpenSUSE

http://distrowatch.com/

I love OpenSUSE myself, it's a little more picky with hardware, newer ATI cards in laptops often require a bit of work to get hardware acceleration working properly.

I would recommend Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS for your purpose.

 

YeOldeStonecat's post pretty much sums it up

 

At the moment the most user friendly distro is PCLinuxOS.

I gave a custom made live cd to my relatives and friends and all of them loved it. (none had ever used linux before)

The 'make livecd' will make your life easier since you can make one updated distribution cd for all the pcs.

With addlocale is easy to localize it to the language you need.

ps. Since you will sell it to first time linux users maybe you should add the 'kdeadmin-kpackage' to make their life easier if they want to install applications not included in the repositories.

Panagiotis

 

Most of the response you have gotten are based on the ease of setup rather than the ease of maintenance. IOW, you, not the end user will be setting the systems up, so the end user won't have to be worried about whether the codecs come preloaded or the drivers have to be setup, etc.

So, I'd choose a distro that is the easiest for a newbie to maintain, the latest LTS version of Ubuntu, rather than the one that is the easiest for a newbie to install.

 

That's where I believe Linux Mint takes the lead....unless the very latest Ubuntu moved quite a bit forward.(I haven't played with the very latest Ubuntu)..but the whole purpose of Linux Mint was to bundle even more into the distro for even easier usage by super newbies.

 

I think Ubuntu would be the best choice. It's the most popular and probably has the best support overall. You'll be installing and setting them up, which is quite easy, but that won't be the end user's problem. If they have any questions as users, the Ubuntu forums are great. It's also the best out of the box distro that i can think of.

 

Again, Mint is easier for a newbie to setup. It is not as easy as the LTS Ubuntu to maintain.

 

The latest Ubuntu LTS is 8.04 Hardy, Linux Mint 5 Elyssa LTS is the same and just as easy to maintain.

 

I would recommend Ubuntu, due to its size, popularity and knowledge-base availablilty, followed by openSUSE. While Mint or Dream or PCLinuxOS offer similar and even more functionality out of the box, they are smaller, so you can't bet on their support in the long run.

If you're installing it for them and configuring, then it does not matter which one you choose

Mrk

 

Opinions differ. I think Mint looses its advantage when someone who knows what they are doing sets up Ubuntu for the newbie. Thereafter, while Elyssa is LTS, it doesn't have as many forum participants as Ubuntu. Of course, because Mint is based on Ubuntu, a lot of answer for it can be found in the Ubuntu forums. But is a newbie going to think to look there?

 

Mrk;
I think you'd have to add "maintain it for them" before it truly wouldn't matter.

 

I agree PCLOS is my pick too. But I'd leave out the 'kdeadmin-kpackage'. For 2 reasons. One, out of repo apps can screw up an install, either immediately or down the road when dependencies get messed up. Two because I would direct them to the PCLOS user forums for great & friendly support issues. But the forum does not support out of repo app problems.

 

Thats the reason I use it now and spread it, even though there are other distros which are faster out of the box with latest stuff, Ubuntu plays it safe and conservative and manages to strike a good balance between stability and cutting edge and with timely updates.

 

I'm a nix-noob, the easiest distros I use or have used

• Dreamlinux
• PCLos
• Mint
• Hardy Heron
• Mandriva Spring

Ya can't get much simpler than Puppy..

These were all easy to learn and keep updated, etc.

A good point for these, a newbie can pretty much 'maintain' them on their own.
That's important, unless you don't mind these people calling you all the time to
'fix' something.


Gonna have to try that Elyssaa LTS, I guess.

 

I agree. While small distros might offer some advantages over the big ones and it's fun to try them out, you can never be sure that they will survive in the next couple of years. So if you want to switch to Linux as a long-term decision it's certainly better to chose one of the big distros.

 

Some "smaller" distros suggested here also have very good support, because we can use the support from their based distro...

So recommending just the "big" distros is not the only option here...

 

Linux is perpetual beta, it's always on the update. What if you use PCLOS/Mint/Mepis for years and decide to use another Distro ? hmmm, If "PCLOS/Mint/Mepis" go down the drain you do the same...."use another Distro"

or

By your logic some of us should have never started using PCLOS 5 years ago ?

I agree

I use Arch, PCLOS, Ubuntu LTS and have never suffered from the smaller distro's.

 

The OP wasn't asking what distro he should use. He asked what distro he should install to sell computers to newbies. IOW, what will give him the fewest complaints from those who purchase his computers. IMO, that means an LTS distro with a large support base.

That is not a knock on smaller distros that suit the different needs of different users. It is just common sense.

 

surely a fully setup debian lenny would be best?

 

Isn't that the definition of Ubuntu?