Which xNIX for a newbie ?

[Dogbert]

I'm not considering other options and I know there are many different distrobutors for each.

So which way would be better: FreeBSD or Redhat/Mandrake/Suse ?

[VJ]

It depends... If you want to setup a good firewall, netbsd is the most recommended (by default, every port is closed, making it even hard for your own first logon ).

What applications would you like to run ? It will be far easier to install if you can use the .rpm packages, but I think RedHat and Mandrake can use the same ones, Suse has its own package-system (RedHat/Mandrake/Suse are linux-versions, freebsd is actually a true unix-version; so the compatibility of the applications will differ).

We have noticed here at work that Mandrake is usually fastest with the updates (security, ...), but they can be somewhat buggy at times; RedHat is just a thad slower, but there updates seem to be tested better. Cannot comment on Suse...


Jörg

[Dogbert]

I'm not goint to set up a firewall (for this I'd go with NetBST or FreeBDS for sure).

The idea is to learn to use a non M$ OS again (BeOS died so I'll have to learn another one) so once I truely decide to jump off the M$ train, I'll have somewhere to land

So, for a starer which is looking for net browsing, word processing, some multimedia capability and a bit of (alternative os) gaming, which would be less cunfusing ?

I understood that Linux is more at the front of technology 'n stuff but it's less stable while BSD is less bugged and much more stable.

So, should I go with the little red daemon (OpenBSD) or with the fluffy penguin (Redhat/Mandrake/Suse) ?

[Wombat]

For someone just starting, and looking for a desktop setup, I think Mandrake is likely the best choice.

[VJ]

Yep, that or RedHat, they are both easy to install... The applications you are looking for, can all be found in the standard installations (Netscape, K-office, staroffice, I hear Openoffice is also quite good). Suse most likely is also very good, but I think it has a less user-friendly installation (+ perhaps a bit harder to find applications in suse-packages).

Jörg

[Gurm]

Actually, the best OS for a newbie is MacOS X. It pretends to be Unix, but in reality it's a neutered piece of crap like every other MacOS. Then you can move on to other useless Unix OS'es with no software, and finally proceed to VMS or something utterly pointless if you really feel like inflicting pain on yourself.

(And before y'all accuse me of blind bashing - I was a Unix admin for years, ok?)

- Gurm

[Dogbert]

Originally posted by Gurm
Actually, the best OS for a newbie is MacOS X. It pretends to be Unix, but in reality it's a neutered piece of crap like every other MacOS. Then you can move on to other useless Unix OS'es with no software, and finally proceed to VMS or something utterly pointless if you really feel like inflicting pain on yourself.

(And before y'all accuse me of blind bashing - I was a Unix admin for years, ok?)

- Gurm

I will accuse you for blind bashing for "Thou shalt not take the name of VMS in vain."
I was a VMS admin and it was one of the finest OS I ever worked on ! It was so good I recently found and downloaded DCL light for W2k so I could use lexicals and write some usable scripts I needed.
If M$ command line was even close to DCL our lives would ahve been much much easier.

Also, to your knowledge, VMS is (maybe now was) far more stable and secure than Unix, not to mention any M$ shit.

[dmason]

For complete newbies I would recommend redhat, I used to say mandrake, but redhat 7.3 has gotten to the point where it is actually very easy to setup and configure, then with kde 3.0 integrated into it, it is a damn nice distro. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty a little, might I suggest using gentoo, link here it is a little bit more work, and quite a bit more time depending on how much you want to compile, but after it is set up, portage is really cool. That, and they do have really good documentation that will guide you through the entire process of setting up the system. Although that is just if you have some experience in *nix. I have also tried SuSE, yast is also a good tool, and would probably work as long as you don't have to deal with nvidia crap in your box, I do for the moment, so I couldn't really get it to work properly. If you need any kind of tutorials in *nix, or at least linux, linux.org has a pretty good introduction to the commands, and if you go with mandrake, mandrakecampus.com has a lot of tutorials that will get you up and running, and when in doubt, the man pages are also a great resource. I hope that this helps you in your quest to break free of m$.

[bsdgeek]

FreeBSD is very well documented. If you will do some reading, FreeBSD will work quite well. If you don't want to research at all (which doesn't appear to be the case) just use Mandrake.

[Dogbert]

dmason,

I think I'll be converted rather quickly with gentoo. Seems they have a built in Hebrew support (from one of their screenshots).

I'll need to learn quite a lot of things such as how to recompile my kernel, how to install / uninstall software, how to locat emy software once I installed it etc. Linux can be quite obscure sometimes, but if (and since) I succeeded VAX/VMS, I guess I'll find my way here as well. Thanks for all the info