Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:32 am Post subject: Which Linux box to choose as a starter...
Hi there! I'm new to Linux and to this site. I'm currently figuring out which Linux box to use as a starter. I'm looking for something which will give me easier learning curve from the Windows environment. I have Ubuntu 7.10 and SUSE Enterprise Desktop 10 to choose from. Your suggestions and advise will be highly appreciated. THANKS..!
Joined: Jul 7, 2003 Posts: 1270 Location: Boise, ID, USA
Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:24 pm Post subject:
Greetings, kadyuli. Welcome to the Linux Tutorial. It's really a matter of opinion. I prefer Ubuntu which I use for all my desktop computing, but then, it's based on Debian and I'm very familiar with this distro. Is your other option really SLED 10? That's Novell's commercial desktop release based on SUSE as opposed to the free OpenSUSE 10 distro. I've tried (and tried and tried) various versions of SUSE but I've never found the software package management to be particularly friendly. That said, there are those who "swear" by SUSE and would never use another distro. I believe the LT site owner "jimmo' is a big SUSE user.
I know you can try out Ubuntu as a live CD so you don't have to commit to installing it on a PC while you're evaluating it. I doubt that SLED 10 will give you that option. You'll probably have to install it to try it out. My recommendation would be for you to use both of them for awhile and see which one best suits your needs. They are both supposed to be "optimized" for the desktop user experience.
How did you end up having to choose between these two particular distributions of Linux? The vast majority of them are as easy to get as a download and CD/DVD burn. Let us know how you're getting on.
If I were to choose between the two I'd choose Ubuntu too. Like Trip, I've had less than good experiences with SuSe's software management tools.
I did a fresh install of OpenSuSe 10.2 and wound up with dependency problem that wouldn't allow me to install updates or anything else until it was resolved. I finally got it resolved, but it took me a few hours of work. To be honest it probably wouldn't have taken someone with quite a bit of SuSe experience as long to fix the problem as it took me, but I was less than impressed with a distro that left me that severe of a problem right out of the box.
I run Debian on all my machines and I'd never seen anything close to that kind of problem before. The Apt system just has Yum and rpm beaten hands down for polish and reliability.
hi every one out there i m new to linux and new to this site . i desire to become linux administrator. so where should i start from and where do i get all infromation and solution to the prolblems.
You'll need to learn "the basics" before going on and learning the specifics of Linux system administration. As far as getting the "solution to the problems", it depends on what sort of problems you're trying to solve.
Start with the tutorials and when you have questions, post them on the forums. You can start your own threads rather than "piggyback" on a non-related thread. Cheers.
If you've got a spare system, download any linux distro that sounds interesting and play with it. Figure out what works best for you. I use Red Hat at work, and have tried Fedora Core and Debian at home. I think Debian is better for a novice user, honestly.
For the piggybacker -
The tutorials on this site, and the forums here, are a great way to get your feet wet with Linux. Get comfortable with it as a user before you go tearing off into system administration. Linux doesn't have training wheels - it's easy to screw up. Back up anything important before you go making changes.
Here's a tidbit for any newbies using Debian, and might also work for people using Ubuntu. Run, as root, "apt-get install doc-linux-html" from a terminal(bash prompt), and then navigate to /usr/share/doc/doc-linux-html in the file system and you will find enough tutorials and HOWTo's to study to keep you busy learning for quite a while, and they will all be stored right on your hard drive.
I'm new to Linux and it's my first post on this forum.
I was about to create a new topic with the exactly same subject and then, i found this one.
I'm a Windows guy (with lots of experience in Windows Server 2000/2003) but now, i have to learn linux to do some basic stuff on a new server our company is about to get. This server will come with linux pre-installed and the vendor is asking which version we want:
CentOS Enterprise
Red Hat Enterprise
FreeBSD 6.2
Since i have no idea which one to pick, i'd like to hear some sugestions.
Thanks in advance.
I'm new to Linux and it's my first post on this forum.
I was about to create a new topic with the exactly same subject and then, i found this one.
I'm a Windows guy (with lots of experience in Windows Server 2000/2003) but now, i have to learn linux to do some basic stuff on a new server our company is about to get. This server will come with linux pre-installed and the vendor is asking which version we want:
CentOS Enterprise
Red Hat Enterprise
FreeBSD 6.2
Since i have no idea which one to pick, i'd like to hear some sugestions.
Thanks in advance.
Here's a short breakdown of the OS's listed.
CentOS and RedHat Enterprise are identical in terms of technology. CentOS is built directly from released RedHat code. But, if you want RedHat support you'll need the official RedHat OS. That's the only difference that I'm aware of, unless RedHat includes some proprietary stuff in their official Enterprise releases, and I have never heard that they do. It's just a theoretical possibility for a difference.
The BSD's, of which FreeBSD is one, are direct descendants of Unix. They basically are Unix. They are very stable and very secure. Their file structure is a little different than what you'll find on a Linux machine, but not a lot. I've used FreeBSD a little and I liked it. I'd probably move to it if I ever quit using Debian as they are getting to have a pretty good desktop, and as a server OS the BSD's are about as good as it gets. I don't know that the BSD's have as good of hardware support as Linux does, but if you're just looking for server usage for your business then it's probably fairly easy to find hardware that is supported by BSD.
To pick between the three? It's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Only one has direct vendor commercial support, so if that's a requirement for you, then RedHat is your only real choice. If that's not a big deal, and there are tons of places online to find community support for all of them, then it's six of one, half dozen of the other for all three in my book.
Joined: Jul 7, 2003 Posts: 1270 Location: Boise, ID, USA
Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:52 pm Post subject:
I agree with ffreeloader that in terms of overall performance and usability, you won't find much of a difference between these selections. If you were drawing from a particular experience base in terms of your choices, there might be a difference but since you are "starting from scratch", so to speak, it shouldn't matter which one you begin with.
That said, I also agree with ffreeloader in terms of selecting a support model. You seem to have two choices here: support or no support. Choose Red Hat if you need a formal support contract. This might be your best choice if you have no experience administering and supporting Linux yourself since it provides you with a safety net.
Regardless of your choice, it wouldn't hurt to get your hands on a book or two in addition to working your way through the tutorials on our site to study up on Linux and/or BSD. While "Linux is Linux", each distro has its little differences so in addition to learning "generic" Linux, it helps to know your distro.
For Red Hat and CentOS, the following two books will be helpful. I've reviewed both of them for this site and they're quite good:
I actually have a copy but haven't gotten around to reviewing it yet. I do have a lot of faith in No Starch publications in general and the reviews on Amazon are stellar, so I don't think you could go wrong with the book if you decide in favor of the BSD server.
Also, welcome to the Linux Tutorial site. I hope you find what you're looking for here. Please feel free to ask more questions and let us know how you get on in this situation. Cheers.
I agree with ffreeloader that in terms of overall performance and usability, you won't find much of a difference between these selections. If you were drawing from a particular experience base in terms of your choices, there might be a difference but since you are "starting from scratch", so to speak, it shouldn't matter which one you begin with.
That said, I also agree with ffreeloader in terms of selecting a support model. You seem to have two choices here: support or no support. Choose Red Hat if you need a formal support contract. This might be your best choice if you have no experience administering and supporting Linux yourself since it provides you with a safety net.
Regardless of your choice, it wouldn't hurt to get your hands on a book or two in addition to working your way through the tutorials on our site to study up on Linux and/or BSD. While "Linux is Linux", each distro has its little differences so in addition to learning "generic" Linux, it helps to know your distro.
For Red Hat and CentOS, the following two books will be helpful. I've reviewed both of them for this site and they're quite good:
I actually have a copy but haven't gotten around to reviewing it yet. I do have a lot of faith in No Starch publications in general and the reviews on Amazon are stellar, so I don't think you could go wrong with the book if you decide in favor of the BSD server.
Also, welcome to the Linux Tutorial site. I hope you find what you're looking for here. Please feel free to ask more questions and let us know how you get on in this situation. Cheers.
-Trip
I wouldn't quite call what's available from a lot community-based forums and mailing lists "no support". From my experience the support I have received over the years has been very good. That's not saying that all open source communities provide excellent support because some don't. But, by-and-large, open source communities support their products very well.
For example, there is a mailing list for both Exim4 and Debian's implementation of Exim4. On either list it's possible to get support directly from the developers involved, and it's usually done very quickly. (The same day, usually within an hour of putting out an email request.) That's something that beats all but the most expensive support options from commercial companies.
It's also possible to buy support from commercial entities related to the open source products. There are companies that proved paid-for support for Exim, Debian, *BSD, projects such as Zope and Plone, and many of the other large open source projects. Just because a commercial venture isn't directly behind an open source project doesn't mean that a person can't purchase commercial support from a 3rd party.
My comments on support were only in the context of RedHat being the only entity involved that actually sells a product by name and produces that product.
FreeBSD has very active support communities just as Debian, CentOS/RedHat all do.
Joined: Jul 7, 2003 Posts: 1270 Location: Boise, ID, USA
Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:59 pm Post subject:
Sorry. Poor choice of words on my part. I was thinking in terms of the sort of formal support model a business might be interested in...especially if they are used to a more "Microsoft-centric" infrastructure. I didn't mean to say that the level of support from the open-source community was poor. _________________
Sorry. Poor choice of words on my part. I was thinking in terms of the sort of formal support model a business might be interested in...especially if they are used to a more "Microsoft-centric" infrastructure. I didn't mean to say that the level of support from the open-source community was poor.
I got it tripwire45!
I will keep looking at the tutorials and also, will install a VM on my Windows PC.
I'm sure i'll have some fun
Sorry. Poor choice of words on my part. I was thinking in terms of the sort of formal support model a business might be interested in...especially if they are used to a more "Microsoft-centric" infrastructure. I didn't mean to say that the level of support from the open-source community was poor.
No biggie. I just wanted to make sure that "no support" wasn't misinterpreted as "not able to get help". I understood what you were saying, I just wanted to clarify things.
No biggie. I just wanted to make sure that "no support" wasn't misinterpreted as "not able to get help". I understood what you were saying, I just wanted to clarify things.
And you certainly did clarify some things for me.
As for the quality of the community support, i can see from this thread that it is very good as you all said
No biggie. I just wanted to make sure that "no support" wasn't misinterpreted as "not able to get help". I understood what you were saying, I just wanted to clarify things.
And you certainly did clarify some things for me.
As for the quality of the community support, i can see from this thread that it is very good as you all said
Glad we could help. I remember how big a leap it was for me when I first made the jump. I'm so stubborn I basically taught myself everything as I'd only ask for help when I was completely lost, so far over my head that I didn't even know how to ask the right questions, where to look, or what terminology to use, and I'd spent days looking.
Fortunately, that doesn't happen to me nearly as often as it used to....
Joined: Jul 7, 2003 Posts: 1270 Location: Boise, ID, USA
Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:36 pm Post subject:
VMware is an excellent way to "get your feet wet" so to speak. It allows you to go beyond the "live CD" experience and get first hand knowledge of working with a complete installation of one or more Linux distros. In fact, it would be a great way to experience both CentOS and BSD to compare them side-by-side.
Joined: Dec 19, 2009 Posts: 14 Location: Indonesia
Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 4:40 pm Post subject:
yeah agree VMware is a very best start for newbie like me, I used this ware too but I thing better try on live cd in every each distro _________________ inbox@purwasuka.web.id
Joined: Jul 7, 2003 Posts: 1270 Location: Boise, ID, USA
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 3:32 pm Post subject:
Got it Freddy. Thanks. I check every morning for these characters and delete their "wares". Just woke up. Taking the week off of work to write. _________________
Can Blogger be a good place to post a webcomic? I'm just having this crazy idea, I'm planning to post comic pages or strips on Blogger, since its generating revenue from Google Adsense, I might profit from this, hehe (me gloating like an alien Ferengi). Will this idea work?
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