linux noobiness

Asking this question on a forum will give you about 5-10 different answers. Browse distrowatch and be prepared to try a few of them. Be sure to try KDE, Gnome and XFCE desktops to see which one you like best. KDE and Gnome are quite heavy so if you have under 256MB of RAM then you should consider something lighter.

I can only give one specific recommendation: stay away from kubuntu (the KDE version of ubuntu)! Its current version is probably the buggiest KDE desktop ever shipped. Ubuntu (with gnome) is much better I hear and ubuntu also has an XFCE edition, which I haven't tried yet. Because XFCE is quite simple and lightweight and shares a lot of apps with Gnome, I doubt it has too many problems. Also note that the ubuntu editions differ only by their default package selections. You can install any of the three dekstop environments on any of the three editions using the package tool.

I personaly like gentoo, but if you have a slow computer, all the compiling would drive you nuts, I guess. So I would recommend some flavor of debian. Ubuntu in example is debian based and very good for noobs!

I second Ubuntu as a good option. It certainly is a very easy and trouble-free distro with regards to installation, setup and maintenance.

About Gentoo: This sounds appealing to me because you essentially build Linux and all apps from scratch, only that you have a wonderful package management system at your disposal that manages dependencies for you. HOWEVER: Only try this if you have tons of free time for the setup! This is the reason I haven't tried it yet...

[EDIT: Now to answer the OP's question: Although Ubuntu installs quite a lot of stuff by default, its package management system (which is based on Debian's apt) lets you tweak your setup quite easily. Another advantage is that this distro seems to be on top for auto-detecting hardware, so might be good for you if you want a trouble-free install. Although there's no 100% guarantee that everything will work...]

thanks for the advice
right now im downloading Ubuntu 5.10

I was wondering what people think of Gentoo versuses Ubuntu,

I asked because a friend who has 'linux_rocks' as his email address uses Gentoo, but my other friend one of the few people out of school with a job uses Ubuntu at his work.

just one last thing,
how compatible are application between linux versions and gui's like kde, gnome, redhat, debian and such

EDIT:
ok, two more things,
my computer has two drives, i wasnt really sure what i was doing during the disk partitining phase so im wondering if theres any way to find out what happend to my other drive, some way to display physical drives

one word

KNOPPIx

Quote:

Original post by Kaze just one last thing, how compatible are application between linux versions and gui's like kde, gnome, redhat, debian and such

As long as you have the correct libs installed you can run the apps. You can run kde apps under gnome, for example, as long as you actually have the kde libs installed.

Ubuntu (and debian in general) use the apt packaging system, so it will make sure that you have the libs you need. For example, if you go into synaptic and check kdevelop (or go to command line and type "sudo apt-get install kdevelop") it will tell you you need all of the kde libs and the kdevelop-docs package, and a ton of others and it will get them for you. It's really nice.

As far as different "linux versions"... they use a variety of packaging systems. Redhat/Fedora use RPMs for packages. Ubuntu and other Debian packages use .deb packages. In all distros you can download tarballs (*.tar.gz) and install from source, and some distros require that. But, generally speaking, the applications can be installed on just about any distro... its just the packaging that varies. If you can't find a native package, build from source.

I should like to make a point that there is an alternate distro of Ubuntu, called Kubuntu. The main difference between the two is that Ubuntu's window manager (WM) (e.g. 'Explorer' shell, to Windows users) is Gnome, while Kubuntu's WM is KDE.

Some prefer Gnome, others prefer KDE. Just making you aware of options, should you decide that one is preferential to the other.

On a side note, it is possible to install Ubuntu on your machine (with Gnome as default WM), then later install KDE via commandline (e.g. 'apt-get install kde'). Kubuntu is built for convenience.

If you don't pick a specific distro, wel - even if you do, pick your own window manager.
Heres a list of some window managers applicable to all 'versions', aka Distributions of Linux which run an xorg/xfree86(please no):

KDE: Pretty, simple to use, Much like Windows, not as bloated, but for a Linux system, very bloated.

Gnome: Less bloated than KDE, very stable, comes with a great set of useful tools such as the file-rollers. Still a bit over the top for a small install.

Openbox: Excellent as a window manager, but very very lightweight. It lacks a bit of functionality, combine with a program such as rox-filer to get a desktop running.

Fluxbox: Like Openbox, but with a taskbar, tabbing windows together (love it!). My personal choice, but I still run rox-filer in the background to get an active desktop.

XFCE4: Excellent. Lightweight, packed with functionality, comes with a great set of tools, although the file manager is a bit poor. Run with the rox-filer as the file manager and you have a top notch desktop environment.

Rox: This is apparently pretty much like XFCE4, never tried it, but if its as good as its filer, then it is sure to be brilliant!

Enlightenment: Difficult to configure, but is very good looking, responsive, and lightweight. Comes with no helpful tools, you must configure through its scripts.

There are many more out there to play with though.

::quote::
ok, two more things,
my computer has two drives, i wasnt really sure what i was doing during the disk partitining phase so im wondering if theres any way to find out what happend to my other drive, some way to display physical drives
::quote::

The disks should be present under the /dev directory.
The drives connected to the primary ATA cable will probably be called
/dev/hda (master)
/dev/hdb (slave)

Those connected to the secondary ATA cable would be
/dev/hdc (master)
/dev/hdd (slave)

You can check out the partitions by using the fdisk program.
From a console, type
# fdisk /dev/hda
If there is no disk connected to the primary master, fdisk will tell you so and quit.
If there is a disk there, you will get a simple menu based interface.
Type 'm' to get an overview of the possible commands, or 'p' to print the current partitions.
Dont play around with the fdisk program if you are not familiar with it, and quit it by typing 'q' NOT 'w' (unless you actually want to save your changes)

The floppy is usually named /dev/fd0

If it is a scuzzy disk at the primary master it would typically be named /dev/sda rather than /dev/hda.

The first partition on the primary master (dev/hda) is called /dev/hda1, as you can see from the partition list in fdisk.
The second is /dev/hda2 etc...

The cool thing about the /dev directory is that pretty much every device on your system is represented there, as a so-called node (special file)

Quote:

Original post by johnnyBravo I was wondering what people think of Gentoo versuses Ubuntu

As someone who wants to spend his time using his computer to get things accomplished, rather than someone who wants to spend his time doing things to his computer, I infinitely prefer Ubuntu.