I've reached a level of curiosity where I want to play around with Linux again, which distribution should I use? Suse? The last one I played with was Redhat 9-something, so it's been a few years.
Yeah, what he said. Like I've mentioned before, unless you feel like tinkering with stuff that comes broken outta the box, don't go with the latest released version of SUSE. It's nice, but probably not as smooth as K/Ubuntu.
The default desktop environment: ubuntu uses Gnome, kubuntu uses KDE. They both offer fairly similar functionality but use their own set of GUI libraries, so Gnome apps don't use the same widgets as KDE apps etc.
I don't know for sure but I don't think so. You should be able to install KDE on ubuntu and Gnome on kubuntu if you really want to, it's just to give new users an easy choice between the two. In terms of hardware support etc they should be identical if they're both updated at the same rate.
I'm running the live CD version of Ubuntu on a spare PC on my bench right now and they have come a LONG way in terms of ease of use. I'm going to try it on my main rig at home later tonight. Hell, it's even got an AIM compatible messenger built in! My daughter could use this as a Windows replacement right now, she would lose nothing. =D>
yep it's amazing how polished Ubuntu/Kubuntu are. And they haven't been around very long compared to other distros. I can't wait to see what the future holds for them.
Ubuntu/Kubuntu deffinately took over Slackware's spot as far as newbies are concerned. It has everything you would need for starting out, and since it doesn't have 9 different office suites, you don't need 17 DvD's like redhat(fedora core) and Suse. The simple setup procedure and easy updates make it a good choice to get a feel for using linux on a desktop level.
Now I just need to figure out how to load it on a USB flash drive. I wonder how much space the OS takes up? Not much I'm guessing. EDIT: Nevermind! Given the contents of this thread I think I'll save myself the hassle and install it on a USB hard drive. Hell, I might even through another drive in my PC. I've got four in their now, but they are all on a PCI RAID card.
Slackware a noob distro? Hardly. There aren't any friendly wizards to speak of, I ended up rewriting most of my Xorg.conf file myself, not exactly a pleasant task for a first-timer. I used to use KDE, but near the end I was using Fluxbox because it was better on resources. Slack did a shitty job at detecting hardware, but slackget was pretty efficient at updating. I'd switch back to Linux in an instant, I just need a new video card. My radeon 9600se is a pretty shitty card in linux as it's not supported by the ATI drivers (unless something's changed). As a first time user, I used Red Hat 9, but currently the best user-friendly distro would have to be Ubuntu/Kubuntu. I installed it once for the hell of it and was amazed to see how smoothly it detected and configured all my hardware, and it has a good updating system too. MSP, if you're thinking of installing Ubuntu on disc, you should partition your drives out so you can dual boot. Then, just use GRUB or LILO to choose between Windows or Linux at boot time.
It should be supported, unless it's got a nonstandard PCI ID that the driver doesn't recognise. Even if it does, you can usually overwrite one of the IDs in the binary part of the driver with the ID for your card so that it'll be recognised.
I started with Ubuntu, but I just don't like two-bar gnome look. Kubuntu gave me a rocky start at first, but settled right down after I installed the updates. My only problem is that the {UT_DATA_PATH} part of the UT script doesn't work, and I can't get Unreali to install correctly because of this... I wanted to play Unreal again, and I don't have enough room on my Windows HDD for it. I haven't even looked at Xubuntu, which is supposed to be a more lightweight version for older slower smaller computers.
I don't consider slackware a noob distro. it's not as difficult as a Gentoo installation but it shouldn't be categorized as the same level as distros like Suse, Fedora Core, Red Hat 9, or Ubuntu.
