unix/linux noob

Distros that I have used and liked are SuSE and Mepis. Others that I hear are good, but hard for n00bs to set up are Debian and Gentoo. And if I am correct, Linuc is based off of Unix.

i would most recommend SUSE (LinuxCD.org), pm for queries.

Thanks for the info. Though I would really prefer a free, downloadable OS.

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Original post by Tera_Dragon Thanks for the info. Though I would really prefer a free, downloadable OS.

I have the SuSE 9.1 personal CD that I got from LinuxCD.org PM me with your adress and I can send it to you. I dont need it anymore.

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Original post by Tera_Dragon Thanks for the info. Though I would really prefer a free, downloadable OS.

SuSe is only about 20 quid (35 dollars?).

I've used Red Hat, but I'm going to switch to Gentoo as soon as I've gained enough confidence with Linux ... which will probably be in about 20 years.

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Original post by Tera_Dragon I don't even know the difference between unix and linux :/

UNIX started off as a commercial operating system—was the first UNIX developed at AT&T?—later forked and developed by several companies (hence Sun's Solaris, BSD Unix, AIX, and so forth). These days, any company may offer a Unix system provided they meet certain criteria and pay for a licence. Most notably, there is a standard known as POSIX defining a core set of functions that any Unix system must provide.

There are also several Unix look-a-likes, which provide similar functionality and (typically) export the standard POSIX interfaces, but do not bear the UNIX label, usually since they don't want to pay for it. Linux is such a kernel.

Unix is an operating system developed at Bell Labs, when it became public domain it branched into two major branches. AT&T System V Unix (developed at AT&T Bell Labs) and BSD Unix (developed at University of California at Berkeley). The current available Unix operating systems include 4.4BSD, Irix, DEC Unix (not sure if that's still around), HP-UX and Solaris (and a few others). Most of this software is copyrighted and requires expensive licenses to operate.

The next class of Unix-like operating systems are the BSDs, mainly FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. These are personal computer version of BSD Unix and are all free to download. BSD software uses the BSD license which basically says "You can do whatever you want with our code so long as you include this license with your software" (see here).

The final class of Unix-like operating systems are Linux operating systems based off of Minix. These include Red Hat's Fedora, SuSe, Gentoo and Slackware. These operating systems are distributed under the GNU Public License which is kind of confusing so I won't explain it (see here)

Ok, so which one to choose? I think to get you started in the right direction this link might prove somewhat helpful. As for my personal opinion I like BSDs better than Linux and OpenBSD is my personal choice of the BSDs. However, you may think differently and the only thing I can think of to tell you (tho' this takes a long time, this is what I did) is to buy a CD/RW and try out a few different Linux distribs along with the BSDs and see which one you like best.

I recommend Mandrake for beginners.

Get Slackware !
Seriously, Ive tried several Linux versions (debian, mandrake, suse, redhat, knoppix, gnoppix, damn small linux, ubuntu, mephis, gentoo and fedora) and BSD variants (freebsd, freesbie, openbsd), and I have to say slackware rocks. IMHO at least...

Man, this "I'm new to Linux, where do I start" topic really needs to be a sticky. It shows up at least once every week or two.

Mage2k

Gah, sorry. I forgot to check first :/

I decided to try freeBSD but am having some trouble installing it.
I've set it to boot from the CDROM, but when I start the computer it just boots into the OS laready installed (fedora core 2). I thuoght there might be something wrong with the disk so I burned another, but I get the same thing happening.
Do you have any idea as to what might be going on here?

Really the hardest thing about Linux is the installation prcedure. After all of your drivers and settings are in check, it might as well be Windows 7.0. If you have experience with installing advanced OS's that don't do everything automatically (Windows 3.0, NT, Server2003), and have experience editing system files (something a little more advanced than AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS), any popular distro of Linux should be second nature to you.

In fact, my dad (who only uses his PC for AOL) recently set up a box with Linux. Not sure which version... probably RedHat. Then again, he's a Ham Radio junkie and he's using it as a repeater or something. He probably knows a shitload more about electronics than he lets on.

Just my opinion.

It's not that I don't know how to install it(and btw it's a unix not linux as far as I know), from what I have read it is quite simple to install. The trouble that I am having is getting it to boot from the CD.

Did you burn the disc as a bootable disc with the ISO or did you just create a disc with the ISO image on it?

I didn't burn it as a bootable disk :/
Just done it now with the first disk, but do I also need to make the second disk a bootable disk?

Ubuntu is apparently popular around here, but I don't really know what's special about it. :/

2nd disc needs to be bootable as well. (At least I think so anyways)

Ubuntu is popular because it takes the power and easy of use of Debian and makes it even easier by coupling the Gnome GUI with it and promoting both a strong community and regular releases.

This is driving me mad. I mad it a bootable disk and still it doesn't boot from it. I'm using nero and creating a "Bootable CD". Are there any options that I need? Or what else (free please ;))can I use to make a bootable disk?