Posted on 02/25/2021 3:53:29 AM PST by ShadowAce
Are you tired of Windows problems?
Have you heard about this magic place called Linux and you want to try it out?
Here are the 5 best distros for beginners.
They are all Debian-based distros, so they all use the apt package manager by default. This kind of distro is easy to learn and to install.
Tech Ping
SOC Pi user, please add me to your ping list.
May God give you His Blessings
I like everything about Linux mint except that ferkakte startup chime.
Like nails on chalkboard.
I personally like the Raspberry PI running Debian I have my one machine running ADS-B software with FlightAware tracking airplanes as they fly over North Florida.
The interesting thing is Raspberry Pi has a utility running on my Windows laptop that allows you to create boot disks for a number of different Linux versions so I a Ubuntu disk setup and ready to go
Linux piece 2021
You’ve been added. Welcome!
BBT. to return when Im awake and learn something.(maybe) thanks ShadowACe
It's a very nice media server.
I went Ubuntu Mint Cinnamon two years ago. Solid as a rock, easy to use, all you need.
Thanks but mistake #1 in such helps is assuming a novice even knows what you are referring to. In this case what in the world "terminal" means or where it is or how to quickly shortcut-key access it (Ctrl+Alt+T in Ubuntu). Most Windows users do not even know what the Run or terminal command is or where to or how to quickly shortcut-key access it.
I could be wrong. I've been doing this for so long now, I literally cannot remember ever not knowing these things (Started in 1976).
I installed it on my Fedora laptop as an AppImage, so I can run it, but I don't use it in my day-to-day work.
My mother does not know those things, and she’s used Windows in some form since 3.1. She used a DOS 2.0 transportable Compaq, before that.
Unbelievably, she’s a “computer expert” to relatives in assisted living.
She gets them to buy Dell and get Dell’s onsite and other support.
She didn’t know what a “URL” was until a couple years ago, because she just always came to Bing and clicked on search results.
Finding and understanding File Explorer is beyond her, but she knows how to find her photos. She only knows that her Word files are available by first double-clicking on Word, then choosing “Open.”
She has thousands of files in the default folder for Word and did not know how to attach any file to an email without using the creating program’s “Send” option. I found this latter thing out two months ago.
It does not matter how patient you are with your time to teach her, because she has a complete mental block and you can’t tell her anything because she’s her own “expert.”
I have Zorin. Every Windows I had slowed down over time. I did the usual but over time it slo - o- - o ed down. Zorin is fast and stays fast. My only problem is watching video, it freezes up all the time. I have to right click it constantly to keep the video going. The sound keeps going but the picture stops. Other than that I love it.
Linux Mint Cinnamon and Windows 7 for only 2 software packages that don’t run outside of Windows on separate dual boot 250gb SSD’s. For over a year has been bulletproof without a hiccup. Fast isn’t even a term I use to describe it.
For later, other than that, I love it
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
Nothing about Puppy Linux?
Puppy is my favorite way to introduce newcomers to Linux, or Knoppix, but I haven’t looked into Knoppix in several years.
The idea is a “live cd”. You pop it in, reboot and you’re looking at Linux. Shut down, pull the cd, and you’re back into windows, untouched. Now you can also use it on a USB drive, I’m not going to try it until I get another issue figured out. How to install a few favorite games...
I have a recent version I use on my win 7 laptop now and then, and on a used eMacines with a botched win 7 install. It looks like someone rebooted during a windows 10 “upgrade” and now win 7 is there but only the core OS. No system utilities work at all. Can’t run msconfig, regedit, any system tools.
So I keep a Puppy CD in it. Just downloaded Mint a few days ago, haven’t taken time to burn it to cd yet, too much else going on trying to recover from the ice storm. I think I have an extra hard drive I can use as a test platform, it’s not hard to swap it out. If not, I know where to find them.
Only thing about Puppy I’m not pleased with is it only has a couple of games, and I haven’t figured out how to install a few favorite arcade games and make them keep working so I can burn the result to cd.
That’s another nice feature, you can customize Linux all day long, then burn the results to a CD and you have your own custom install, tailored to your likes. I’ve seen custom builds tailored to education, science and astronomy. The astronomy one was good but I don’t think it’s being developed any more. Everything you could possibly want for an astronomy related OS, including software to attach a telescope to a laptop and take pictures through it. Want to know when the space station will be overhead in your area? It’s there...CLICK...want to see Jupiter’s red spot? Yep, software was included to tell you what night and time, just set your time zone.
Strange though, I built and repaired computers for a living for 15 years, never figured out much about Linux except to boot it up and use it. Didn’t want to though, I wanted to see if it was “ready for prime time”, so I approached it as a complete computer illiterate, can I use it with no knowledge of anything but point and click?
Yes, but Linux in general had a steep learning curve 15 years ago when Puppy was still a 120MB file that would fit on a mini cd. (Puppy and Knoppix were easy, but a full install of Mandrake, Debian or Red Hat was an eye opener)
Just using it and getting online was no big problem, getting dial up working was fairly painless. (no broadband when I first checked out Puppy). Ran like a scalded dog, Puppy would run on a 386 that would choke on windows 95. On a 233MMX, it just screamed. Ran circles around win98 on tbe exact same machine and left no changes whatsoever, except for a small swap file windows would ignore. On identical, brand new 1GHz computers I built myself, XP ran like a dog, while Mandrake 9, released not long after XP, would still run on a 233. XP required a 500 PIII to just stumble along. Kinda reminds me of biden compared to Trump...biden would be XP on a pentium 500, Trump would be Mandrake on the 233mmx, and still running circles around windows, on a machine half as fast with half the RAM. No, I’m not kidding. Mandrake 9 on a 233mmx with 256 mb ram outran XP on a 1GHz PIII with 512 ram.
I also had Mandrake 9 installed on a 1GHZ PIII machine. Identical to my XP machine, with minor hardware differences, Mandrake ran circles around XP and never slowed down a bit while I had to reinstall XP after 2 years because it was so sluggish. That’s because Linux has always had much better memory management. I still don’t know of a reliable way to kill Windows processes once the application that requires them is shut down. Linux does it automatically.
And there were also some other options, like Feather Linux, Damn Small Linux, and a couple of others, all very small, would fit on a mini cd except for Knoppix, and just worked great as a bootable cd. Puppy and Knoppix turned out to be my favorites. Damn Small was quite good too. Feather worked great, light and fast.
I can’t remember which others I tried. Didn’t like Ubuntu much. It ran good, just wasn’t the OS for me. Mandrake, later Mandriva, was my favorite full install. I used it up to Mandrake 10, very good.
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