Which Version

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OK, so never ever having used Linux I thought I'd go do a search on the net, but to my horror there are loads of different version?? :speechle: How do I know which version is the one to choose and how do I get hold of it. I cant download them on my 56K it would take forever

 

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Actually, there are two decisions to make: Which distro and which version.

Examples of distros are:

Red Hat
SuSe
Debian
Mandrake
Caldera OpenLinux

Versions refer to the Linux kernal for that distro.

Although Mandrake is generally thought to be the most newbie friendly distro, I'd recommend starting with Red Hat. It's used in a lot of back office enterprise environments (just look at Oracle's "Unbreakable Linux") and uses bash as the default shell which maps pretty well to the UNIX command shell.

You might want to start with something a little light like http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...1133030/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/102-5414943-4966565 "Sams Teach Yourself Linux in Just 10 Minutes". That's 10 minutes per chapter, of course. It will give you a quick and basic run down on Linux in general. I've compiled a number of other informative links as well...probably more than you wanted to know, but here they are:

http://www.bookpool.com/.x/3c2pawv3t0/sm/0764539388 is one of the "Bible" books...in this case for Red Hat Linux 9...the latest version of this distro. The book is a tome but it comes with a full copy of the OS plus the source code. You won't be messing with the source code at this point, but you can use the other disks to install Red Hat 9 onto a lab computer and start playing around. The book also contains enough examples for you to be able to make up some "labs" and start doing "stuff" to familarize yourself with the Linux command and file structure.

http://www.linux-mag.com/ is Linux Magazine. Of all the mags put out on Linux, this one is supposed to be the best for newbie learning.

http://linux.about.com/ This link will give you basic info on Linux distros and versions.

http://safari.oreilly.com/ O'Reilly puts out the best Linux books around IMHO. Shop around and take a look.

http://www.osheaven.net/index.htm?catalog.htm&1 You can buy Linux OSes and other Linux based software dirt cheap here. No support though. Probably useful more down the road.

http://www.tldp.org/ The Linux Documentation Project is fantastic and you can order a CD of the documentation for home use.

http://www.linux.org/ Probably the basic site about Linux. Each distro also has its own website.

http://www.linux-tutorial.info/ A tutor on another site referred me here. It's not very slick and polished and has a limited readership so far, but it's good for basic knowledge, not just about Linux, but about computing in general...from hardware to networking. They also have a small forum for Linux discussion.

This is probably more than enough to get you started. I hope it has helped some.

 

Thanks Trip, some very useful info in all that. Not had the time to go through all of it but over the next week or so I'll wade my way through.

 

Ok, ok. I got carried away.

 

yeah but useful