Re: How to pick a distro?

James Miller
2005-04-06T21:21:52Z

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, NNK wrote:

> I was wondering what I should be looking at in the different distros before
> picking one to use.
>
> Being a total novice, I don't have much experience on Linux, so I'm wondering
> what I should be asking.
>
> Any advice?

In addition to Ray's advice, I'll add a couple of observations. The main
problem you'll want to adress at the beginning is hardawre compatibility.
Though that's gotten pretty good under Linux, you shouldn't just assume
your hardware will be supported. If some important element of your setup
is not supported, or is poorly supported, your foray into Linux could turn
sour quickly.

A couple of ways to adress this: 1) find a distro with a good support
community (e.g., Ubuntu is a newbie-oriented distro with a really active
forum) and ask about your hardware there ahead of time. This presumes you
know what kind of hardware is in, or attached to, your machine. What kind
of NIC/modem, video card, hard drive controller card (if any), usb
devices, printer. That sort of thing. Short of finding out all that, you
could try a less involved option: 2) download and burn a copy of a live CD
like Knoppix, boot from it and see if everything works ok.

James