Noob looking 4 recommendation

When XP is no longer supported I'm going to keep this PC around for gaming/multimedia, disconnected from the net. So the new box I buy will be used almost exclusively for browsing. The only other thing I'll probably be doing is writing with the OpenOffice Writer.

So I'm going to go in another direction and ditch Windows. I'm looking for recommendations on what OS to use. Security is of course a key criteria, but at the same time I don't want it to be a PITA to use. I don't need or want any bells & whistles, as I stated I'll still have this PC around for play. I want it to be simple & secure.

I'm thinking of going dual-boot in the meantime to get the hang of it so my transition is smooth when it's time to make the change. So... what should I go with?

Also, what type of desktop should I buy to put it on? I know very little about MAC's. I don't mind spending some $. Since I haven't spent any on my computer in a long time, I'm going to treat myself this time around.

And without getting too specific, what type of security is built into said OS? And what isn't covered that I may want to add (i.e. Sandboxie)? HIPS?

I read about OpenBSD being a secure OS. But I saw it had IPsec built into it, and it made me wonder if that would cause conflicts with using OpenVPN (which is a must for me).

I greatly appreciate any help.

 

I think everyone has different preferences... and there are many distros to choose from. I think the best way to start is perhaps just go to Distrowatch.Com and start trying out some of the top 10 or 20 and see which one appeals to you most. Most have live cd's that you can try without disturbing your existing system. That would be my advice anyhow.

 

Yeah ditto. You could spend a couple of days trying out all the distro's out there. I think I've gone through about 6-7 of them in the last 2 days. I've got it narrowed down to 2. Zorn (probably because it looks like windows?) and Mint. Mint is just a pleasure to work with. It also comes with everything I need right out of the box.

 

the fanboy in me says i got to place a few good words for Bodhi Linux!

 

Im no linux geek, but ive seen Puppy Linux highly recommended more than once.
Its very light, and geared towards ease of use.
Also impressive for the number of features crammed into a small package.

 

Folks replying need to keep ^^^^ in mind.

I guess there's no point in suggesting something without knowing if that criterion ^^^ is met.

 

all linux distro pretty secure by default you want extra security you can add modules to them like selinux apparmor ...............etc


best linux distro for newbies are ubuntu/kubuntu Linux Mint, pclinux os, Mageia linux

if you have little linux experiance or you want to try and learn mature distro go for centos/Scientific linux they are rocksolid by default security and stability but require tweaking and learning but it worth beause of long term support

also another intersting mature distro is opensuse it got most of thing gui in yast but still in not newbe distro if you give little time its worth learning

 

Yep... my OpenVPN is a must. So I'm looking for a distro that preferably integrates this. Seems that all other security is either built-in, or unnecessary, but I want to keep my anonymity intact.

I haven't had time to really comb through the distros yet. The sticky posted is invaluable, and I'll be absorbing it shortly.

I don't do anything half azzd. If I'm going to go this route, I'm going to delve into it. And I'm a quick study. So I don't need to necessarily start with something noob-friendly. I want to start with what I plan on ending up with, and I'll go through the growing pains and learn my way around it.

I'm grateful for any help.

 

If you really intend to learn and aren't concerned whether it's a noob distro or not then, go with Slackware or FreeBSD.

Otherwise, save yourself the pain and go with Windows 7. It's the best for desktop / laptop. If you want stabilitly, hibernate / suspend, hardware support and software that generally works as intended do not go with linux or BSD, they will only disappoint in the long run. They are server OS. By all means use them as playthings on the desktop but for any serious work i'd avoid them like the plague.

 

i been using Linux for only a few days but everything works fine here.
i doubt i will ever go back to Windows 7.
or Windows 8. lol

 

Interesting but not my (limited) experience at all and we all know what happens in the long run.

 

open vpn is supported in allmost all common distros

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/VPN

 

I wasn't sure until your post

Now I remember seeing it in the Network Manager options every time I connect. It's just that I never paid any attention!

 

sorry yes vasa1 correct i was posting that at that time but delayed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUgSpKFhuqg

if you scroll PPTP you see other as well like openvpn.....etc

 

That's pretty clear! (I'm no longer bothered about privacy since the tax-man knows where I live )

 

Have you considered virtualizing? In my experience, Ubuntu 10.10 x64 with VirtualBox x64 is excellent host. Linux software RAID is fast. With Ubuntu alternate install CD, it's easy to set up RAID and encrypted LVM. Use four 1-2 TB WD RE4 SATA (RAID-rated low-end enterprise drives). Put separate boot partitions on outside edges, in RAID 10, and allow booting in degraded mode. Use rest of each drive as partition for RAID, encryption and LVM. RAID 10 is safer, but RAID 5 is somewhat faster. Get at least 12 GB fast memory, fast multicore processor(s), and good graphics card(s). Guests can use graphics capabilities of host. Memory is hard limit for guest number, and you don't want to start swapping to disk. But I've run eight guests on quad-core machines.

With such setups, you can establish your OpenVPN tunnels using pfSense guests. pfSense is FreeBSD distro specialized as firewall/router. IPsec, OpenVPN and PPTP are all fully integrated, and you can add Snort etc packages. With VirtualBox internal networking, it's easy to play with routing multiple VPN tunnels, Tor, i2p and whatever. I'm learning Tahoe-LAFS using eight guests (cloned from one build) on an old desktop, for example. You can simultaneously run several different Windows and Linux distros. And if you get new hardware, moving VirtualBox guests requires copying just virtual disk files.