Any Linux Fans Here?

[=MGN=RedEagle]

Hi guys,

I am looking into Linux. I am looking for a version that is light weight, secure and easy to get programs installed on. Any hints?

 

[Mike Edge]

Slackware or Ubuntu make awesome desktops.

 

[rellek]

Debian netinstall?

You can use testing or maybe even sid which is considered unstable. Stable Debian however does not have the latest versions, but it is, well, stable. On a desktop, I think I would use testing.

If you like doing everything on your own (in terms of configuring the system), you might want to give Gentoo a try. Or Arch Linux.

However, if it's important for you to find finished packages, Debian-based distros are way to go.

 

[Biker]

Linux is only as secure as the user.

Slackware (and slack derivatives) is my distro of choice as well

 

[Deebs]

Centos (aka RedHat) for servers, Ubuntu for desktops.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

Centos (aka RedHat) for servers, Ubuntu for desktops.

Ubuntu is so slow I find. Also, it seems installing certain programs takes quite a lot of effort.

 

[rdn]

#7 here
Ubuntu Gnome

 

[Deebs]

Ubuntu is so slow I find. Also, it seems installing certain programs takes quite a lot of effort.

It is quite easy once you understand it. My problem is that I do everything from the CLI so completely ignore the GUI frontend and I could never offer advice on which frontend to use, backend, SecureCRT

 

[rdn]

It is quite easy once you understand it. My problem is that I do everything from the CLI so completely ignore the GUI frontend and I could never offer advice on which frontend to use, backend, SecureCRT

Cause you're a linux guru

 

[Deebs]

Cause you're a linux guru

Cause I started out running the largest mortgage book in the UK on PCs 27 years ago. God I sound like an old fart.

 

[Adam Howard]

Hi guys,

I am looking into Linux. I am looking for a version that is light weight, secure and easy to get programs installed on. Any hints?

Debian / Ubuntu is your friend.

Debian makes for the perfect web server in that it's very light, easy to use, stable, and uses fewer resources. A fresh Debian minimum install will use about 2 MB for ram for the whole OS. With LAMP installed (Apache, PHP, MySQL) you'd use about 10 - 15 MB and that's out of the box, before you even tweak it.

Debian also make good for a desktop. But if you're new to Linux, I'd suggest Ubuntu. Mostly because it has a wide range of drivers already added, much like how Microsoft Windows does. And of course it's built up from Debian so it too is easy to use, stable, and has the basic "noob" in mind.

But don't let that "noob" idea scare your away... It's not dulled down, indeed as you learn Ubuntu; you'll discover that its made for power users as well.

 

[oldzy]

My hats are always red.

 

[Adam Howard]

Ubuntu is so slow I find. Also, it seems installing certain programs takes quite a lot of effort.

Either you have a bad install or something isn't configured correctly.

I just finished installing a stock install of Ubuntu 13.04 (newest version) on an old Intel 800 MHz (1st generation Intel) with only 1 GB of ram (for a friend).... She's loving it.

 

[SilverCircle]

Cause you're a linux guru

It has nothing to do with being a guru or not, just simple understanding of how a Unix operating system works. My advice to newbies is always the same: Learn it from ground up. Keep away from GUI frontends, control panels and stuff that tries to simplify things and hide important functionality from the user. That's fine for a _user_, but it's a very bad thing for an admin who should - in theory - understand how everything works.

Get a good book on Unix essentials, stay away from video tutorials (most of them are pretty useless anyway) and crash courses, trying to "learn Linux in 10 days" - it's simply not possible, given the complexity of the matter.

In the end, a shell and vi (or any other preferred text editor) is enough to administrate a Unix-type system. It's also the much more efficient (and for 99% of all tasks the much faster) way of doing things. Yes, it's easy to say this if one has 20+ years of experience with Unix systems, but it's still the truth.

 

[ManagerJosh]

Might as well get a Mac .. BUAHAHA jk..

Centos or Ubuntu.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

If I delete windows 8 and go linux but create a windows 8 recovery drive, will I be able to reinstall win 8?

 

[Robert]

Centos and Ubuntu are my fav Linux Flavours for different reasons. Web / Cloud Servers I like Centos for Gaming Server or Servers where I need to compile .NET but still use Linux I like Ubuntu. You can compile C# on Centos as well but each has it's use. Ubuntu as a nice desktop version as well which is great.

 

[Adam Howard]

If I delete windows 8 and go linux but create a windows 8 recovery drive, will I be able to reinstall win 8?

I assume Windows 8 came with your PC and you don't have a CD / DVD for it?

YES, you can make a recovery drive and use that to install Windows 8 at a later time (should you dislike Linux).

But before you do that.... Keep in mind that Ubuntu (and Debian) have a LIVE CD in which you can try Linux without installing it. You simply boot from the disk and Linux is added into memory temporarily. Once you reboot, its all gone and nothing was changed.