Easy Liunx alternative

[Ricky-Ray]

I've got a spare older laptop that I've wanted to turn into a Linux machine. I've slightly dabbled with Ubuntu, but I was wondering if there was another Linux alternative that was easier for beginner's.

Thanks.

[vikingm03]

I would say Ubuntu is already on the "easy for new users" end of linux. However, if you are wanting something that is easy to use AND interacts similar to traditional windows, a few alternatives would be Linux Mint, Kubuntu, or Lubuntu. There are sooooo many more, and I'm sure other Linux users of calguns will chime in with their favorites soon!

Good luck, have fun learning =)

[BakoJ]

I loaded a copy of Pear Linux on an older laptop and gave it to my daughter. She loves it because it looks and feels like a Mac. It is super easy to use, seems to be based on Ubuntu and comes with tons of apps already installed.

[stilly]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

http://distrowatch.com/

Take your pick, there is about 300+ on their site and you can search for good ones for beginners or other attributes. Great site.

THere are about 21 listed for beginners, Pear is not on that list, BUT, If Pear does not work for you, give Linunox a try...

http://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=Beginners&origin=All&basedon=All&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&status=Active

[ShadowX]

Run BackTrack and put it to good use.

[the86d]

Pear Linux 8 Beta 2 (stable enough to run every day, for me), and the only REAL issue I have really had is that Citrix on x64 is a bit goofy, post-install.

If you don't need a Citrix client, then it's so simple-a Mac user could do it...

I have been running Pear (7, and now 8, Beta 2 exclusively on my work rig for over 2 months), and durned happy with it. If you tell it to reboot/shutdown, it will sometimes log you out instead, and then you have to shutdown/reboot.

This is the best distro I have used, and I have tried about 100+ distros (Different versions counted/included..).

I have had BAD luck with most *buntu distros functioning, or it had limited hardware support on the machines I have tried it on.

[the86d]

Run BackTrack and put it to good use.

Backtrack might be a little much for an "Easy Linux Alternative". Maybe Slax would be better, but the wireless support for Slax really sucks... for even those who are good with a CLI.

[ShadowX]

Its actually easy. You can even stick it in a thumb drive and its good to go. One download and you're done. It doesn't get any easier than that.

[the86d]

Its actually easy. You can even stick it in a thumb drive and its good to go. One download and you're done. It doesn't get any easier than that.

You don't have to make the stick bootable? Then type "startx"?

Although Backtrack works REALLY WELL OOTB, I think burning an ISO of Slax would be MORE simple, as almost everybody (or at least their kids ) can already do that...

WOW BT5R3 is already out? I have been busy with other crap, as my latest Disc is 5.

The best try-before-you-buy (AKA Live CD/DVD) might be Knoppix, as I have had issues with less-recent Backtrack distros not being able to install, just like Slax.

[njineermike]

Even a stick needs to be correctly formatted for any Linux distro. And a USB drive is inherently slower than installing to the local HD. I've been trying Lubuntu pared down with a VMWare image of my machine as an experiment in a "counter on a stick". Almost good, but still buggy due to throughput. Ubuntu is probably one of the biggest players, but the constant updates get to be a hassle since they don't always download the headers required to recompile some of the programs and you have to grab the .deb manually. It's especially annoying with the update breaks your wireless and you need to hardwire to get he headers before your WiFi works again.

[wheels]

I've been horsing around with CentOS doing a SANS free cyber security course. It's a live CD, so you can just run it from the CD to eval or it does a painless install to disk. Disclaimer - I'm using VMware to test.

Here is a link to the ISO

http://tinyurl.com/centos63cd

[Ricky-Ray]

I took a look at Linux Mint last night and downloaded the ISO so far. I also looked at Pear linux 7 but it seems like all the download sites are down.

Biggest problem I have is the laptop doesn't have a CD drive so I see how to get it to install on the HD from a USB stick. Looking at PenLinux right now but I don't think that will do what I want it to do.

[ocabj]

I still prefer Centos, although I've been doing a lot of work in Ubuntu because we shifted from Centos to Ubuntu at work.

My VPS on Linode (which houses my domain) is Centos.

[pitbull30]

I've been running a copy of mint for awhile now. It's outdated. I went to it after trying Ubuntu. I like Ubuntu but they changed up the menus on the last distro I was on and decided to try mint. I've been on it ever since. 1 year plus now.

Try them both and see what fits.

[ShadowX]

You don't have to make the stick bootable? Then type "startx"?

Although Backtrack works REALLY WELL OOTB, I think burning an ISO of Slax would be MORE simple, as almost everybody (or at least their kids ) can already do that...

WOW BT5R3 is already out? I have been busy with other crap, as my latest Disc is 5.

The best try-before-you-buy (AKA Live CD/DVD) might be Knoppix, as I have had issues with less-recent Backtrack distros not being able to install, just like Slax.

If typing the login ID, Password and "startx" at the CLI is considered hard, people shouldn't be using Linux. As for installing it into a thumb drive, its easy as long as people RTFM. You can burn a CD also if installing it into a thumb drive is too hard.