UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

the most popular ones on distrowatch seems to be PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, openSUSE and Fedora.

any tips, suggestions you can give this super newb about choosing something?

i'd like to do a dual boot. Unfortuately my laptop's only got a single hard drive and it's only got half a gig of ram. Will this be ok?

simple, just do this

Code:

for distros in PCLinuxOS Ubuntu openSUSE  Fedora
do
    play_with_it($distros)        
done

i agree, you'll never know which one you prefer till you have tried them.

my top recommendations for linux distros for former windows users are:

Mandrake
Fedora
Ubuntu
Xandros

in that order, though i swithered a bit about which way round to put ubuntu and fedora. all three have their "issues" and none of them is a proper ms windows replacement. i have heard that SuSE have dodgy licence requirements of their users now, so personally i am staying clear of it. the only people i know using it are also capitalists, make your own mind up.

I would also recommend slackware if you are not looking for a windows clone, and if you are interested in learning a bit about linux. unlike debian and gentoo, you can get a working slackware more or less out of the box and then dive into the configuration of it from there.

some people end up with quite unusual favourite OSs though, you'll just have to try a few.

Another way of quickly getting a feel for a number of different Linux distros is to download the VMware Player together with one or more of the Linux Virtual Appliances.

>>>I'd like to do a dual boot.

Yes you can. When you start your installation Linux will tell you that he found another system and ask if you want to keep it.

Then when you are done with the installation, Linux asks you if you'd like to install a boot loader, and if you would like to dual boot, and choose the default system.

>>>Unfortunately my laptop's only got a single hard drive and it's only got half a gig of ram. Will this be ok?

Yes, that will be OK. I recommend that you choose an X windows manager that have low memory usage like Icewm.

Build your own opinion, by building your own experience. Start here.

Linux Online - List of distributions

I like this site:

DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

I will also mention LinuxMint. This is Ubuntu dervived, but there are a number of window manager options, and I could be wrong but I seem to remember Clement telling me that each one has a live CD version so you can try to find the most suitable version before installing.