Re: Which Linux distros would be best for me?

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:45:10 -0500, Walterius wrote:

When I ask which would be best, I mean: ease of learning, community support
and newsgroups, and availability of good, simple books.

That's for you to decide. If there were one distribution that were
absolutely head and shoulders above all others there would not be 357
active distributions (that's the current count at distrowatch.com). I
recommend you visit distrowatch.com and do some homework. I believe there
is a 'newbie friendly' list on the link to 'major distros' - a bit dated,
though it is. If you choose something near the top of the hit page
rankings you won't go far wrong. My personal choice, now, is (K)Ubuntu -
because I like the ease of updating and upgrading. I also suggest you boot
several Live CDs before you install anything - they boot and run from CD
without install. Knoppix is the 'standard' - boot Elive to get a totally
different feel. There is a page that summarizes Live CDs.


I am retired from 20 years of aerospace software development. I live on a
small fixed income. I have used Windows since 3.11 and Office since O97, and
a myriad of other OS's and computers before that. I was a CAX systems
programmer for years.

I like to learn from newsgroups and books. This is, however, my first post
to any Linux ng.

http://www.pctech101.com/pcebooks.php is a good source of free online
books.


I want to add one or more Linux systems to my multi-boot Windows
2000/Windows ME systems.

That's easy to do with modern distros. They will set up the boot software
more or less automagically.


My goal is to Linux and OpenOffice and not need Windows or Microsoft Office.
As a retiree, I can no longer afford to keep chasing after Windows (DOS
4.01, DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE, WME, W2K) and Office (97, 2000,
XP). I also have a suspicion that Vista and O2007 would overload my Athlon
2000+, its 512 MB RAM, and 120 GB HDDs.

OpenOffice2 is very, very good.


I have read that Linux can run on as little as a 286, and can prolong the
life of many an elderly computer?

Can run and can run effectively are two entirely different things. You
can't really expect to run Xwindows and a decent desktop on less than a
P166 (I've installed Elive on a P166 with 64mb RAM, and it is reasonable
responsive).


I have been downloading and testing open source software for a few years
now, and it appears the open source community is close to producing the
tools I need, specifically an OS, office suite, tons of graphics tools, and
some good books.

OOo2, GIMP and ImageMagick.


I use BellSouth DSL. I don't know if they support Linux, but I don't think
so. A search of their Help site turned up no reference to Linux. I sent them
email asking for clarification. If they don't support it, I will eventually
switch to another ISP.

Of course, they won't support it. Doesn't matter. If you have a DSL modem
with ethernet interface you are set up. It is configured in a browser
window. If it's already working with MS, then just boot a Live CD and see
for yourself - there is about a 99% chance it will come up fine -
particularly if you're doing DHCP.


My greatest fear is learning a bunch of semi-meaningless Linux commands a la
DOS or Unix. Best for me would be something that closely resembles
Plug-n-Pray.

Why would you want to do that? Modern Linux systems come with GUI-based
tools for system admin - if that's what you like, use them.


I also have a non-standard mobo that uses a special drivers CD (Mainboard XP
support V8.128--IDE drivers, VGA drivers, sound drivers, fax/modem drivers,
LAN drivers, USB 2.0 drivers). I tremble at the thought of not being able to
use my various peripherals, although I am willing to get another mobo/CPU
combination if absolutely necessary.

Booting a Live CD will tell you that in a hurry.


Thank you for your help, and I apologize for my lengthy post. (Future posts
will be shorter. :)) But I wanted to give you as much helpful information as
possible.

Walter Donavan

.