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LennonCook · 03-27-2005, 07:55 PM

Money? Linux? Go look at Ubuntu - you can even get pressed CDs, for free.
That isn't to say the distro is any good, though... but in terms of the horrid GUI-centric distros (that try to hide the command line from you), it is the best by far. Mandrake, and anything else Redhat based, tend to be quite horrid in terms of usability, in my experience. For example, RPM cannot download any packages for you - you have to go hunting down the RPMs you want, and all of their dependancies. Debian's apt-get (and Ubuntu's horrid "synaptic" frontend to it) and Gentoo's emerge do that for you, and do it quite well. Also, Redhat distros tend to present you with a hundred different packages at install time, and expect you to choose what you want then. Get Ubuntu (or Kubuntu or Knoppix), and you'll have one of everything - albeit old versions, which are rampant in distros that come with packages pre-installed.

As you can tell, I would recoomend a minimal distro that doesn't hide the command line option from you - you'll find that basically every GUI control panel will forget some options that you need, and suddenly when something goes wrong, you'll need advanced command line knowledge when you haven't even been exposed to simple CL tasks.
Although, this could just be my bias, since I find that both major Desktop Environments (KDE and GNOME) suck greatly, are bloated, and try to copy other OS's instead of being Linux (KDE copies Windows; GNOME copies MacOS; both do it poorly).
EDIT: The reason I mention Ubuntu and kin mainly is because the only good command-line distros I know of include downloading the packages you want after install. This is a good idea (since it saves total downloading in comparison to getting a package-complete distro), but some packages - X, for example, and most GUI centric things - can be (read: are usually) huge.
Movie playback, I can't remember if Ubuntu comes with MPlayer or XMMS... but it should have something. And in general, if it can do movies it can do music. MPlayer can use any codec you feed it, including proprietry ones... but always look for open ones first - they tend to play better with Linux, excuse the pun.
Graphic editing, Ubuntu definately has the GIMP, which is the best image editing software you're likely to come across anywhere, ever. Just as long as you don't think that to be 'usable', it's interface has to be exactly the same as Photoshop's or Fireworks'.

Ofcourse, other than Ubuntu, there is also Linspire, which is meant to be alright for people moving to Linux from Windows. It is reported to copy Windows in every way possible, including the security issues. Thank god it isn't our fore-runner against Windows...

[ 03-27-2005, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: LennonCook ]

03-27-2005, 07:55 PM	#10
LennonCook Jack Burton Join Date: November 10, 2001 Location: Bathurst & Orange, in constant flux Age: 38 Posts: 5,452	Money? Linux? Go look at Ubuntu - you can even get pressed CDs, for free. That isn't to say the distro is any good, though... but in terms of the horrid GUI-centric distros (that try to hide the command line from you), it is the best by far. Mandrake, and anything else Redhat based, tend to be quite horrid in terms of usability, in my experience. For example, RPM cannot download any packages for you - you have to go hunting down the RPMs you want, and all of their dependancies. Debian's apt-get (and Ubuntu's horrid "synaptic" frontend to it) and Gentoo's emerge do that for you, and do it quite well. Also, Redhat distros tend to present you with a hundred different packages at install time, and expect you to choose what you want then. Get Ubuntu (or Kubuntu or Knoppix), and you'll have one of everything - albeit old versions, which are rampant in distros that come with packages pre-installed. As you can tell, I would recoomend a minimal distro that doesn't hide the command line option from you - you'll find that basically every GUI control panel will forget some options that you need, and suddenly when something goes wrong, you'll need advanced command line knowledge when you haven't even been exposed to simple CL tasks. Although, this could just be my bias, since I find that both major Desktop Environments (KDE and GNOME) suck greatly, are bloated, and try to copy other OS's instead of being Linux (KDE copies Windows; GNOME copies MacOS; both do it poorly). EDIT: The reason I mention Ubuntu and kin mainly is because the only good command-line distros I know of include downloading the packages you want after install. This is a good idea (since it saves total downloading in comparison to getting a package-complete distro), but some packages - X, for example, and most GUI centric things - can be (read: are usually) huge. Movie playback, I can't remember if Ubuntu comes with MPlayer or XMMS... but it should have something. And in general, if it can do movies it can do music. MPlayer can use any codec you feed it, including proprietry ones... but always look for open ones first - they tend to play better with Linux, excuse the pun. Graphic editing, Ubuntu definately has the GIMP, which is the best image editing software you're likely to come across anywhere, ever. Just as long as you don't think that to be 'usable', it's interface has to be exactly the same as Photoshop's or Fireworks'. Ofcourse, other than Ubuntu, there is also Linspire, which is meant to be alright for people moving to Linux from Windows. It is reported to copy Windows in every way possible, including the security issues. Thank god it isn't our fore-runner against Windows... [ 03-27-2005, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: LennonCook ]