Advice for a linux noob

**cunny** · 27th February, 2009, 10:14 PM

Can anyone point me in right direction for software for latest version, what i would need is:

Browser
DVD burning software that supports dvd video/img/iso.
and any other good software that people can recomend.

Cheers

**caveman_nige** · 27th February, 2009, 10:21 PM

cunny, i have found the product ubuntu cames with does the job ok, not bothered with any others as it works so well. I used it today to burn a dvd iso with no issues at all, easiest burn prog going...

**chroma** · 27th February, 2009, 10:25 PM

One word: Slackware.

I've used several different distro's and always wind up back on good old slackware.

It used to be a nightmare to set up (and still is on obscure hardware, but the same could be said of every distro)

A month of slackware is like a year of ubunto, in that you'll learn more in a month of slack than any other setup.

**cunny** · 27th February, 2009, 10:32 PM

well need to do a triple boot system. Xp vista linux.

So whats the best version of linux as in stability and ease of use as will be a noob on this os

**caveman_nige** · 27th February, 2009, 10:34 PM

I have the same set up cunny, I played with suse and ubuntu as they seem to have great support but ubuntu seemed to have a little more...

**cunny** · 27th February, 2009, 10:37 PM

how many hdds u got in there nige? i got 2x500gb and thinking about slicing them both in half (do allot of downloads and burning tso need the cache)

**caveman_nige** · 27th February, 2009, 10:44 PM

I have a single 160gb hdd in my lappy... I set a 30 for XP NTFS, a 30 for Vista NTFS and a 50 for a shared data partition formatted fat. I left the remainder and installed ubuntu into it and it created it partitions etc.

You will need to use a boot manager in vista to give you dual boot before you install the linux.. I used EasyBcd after this was set up, I installed the linux OS and that of course uses it own Grub loader...

btw the system restore in Vista does not work when the drive partitioned like this...

all other machines i have are single OS jobbiess

I know what you mean about disk space though I bought myself a NAS and raided 2 x 1tb disks (mirrored) for my growing amount of data..

**ps2chiper** · 28th February, 2009, 02:55 AM

I dont use windows at all. You will find that anything you needed to do in windows can be done on linux. You can use K3B for burning dvds. also you can use Nero Linux, and imgburn under wine. k3B will burn xbox iso's and so will imgburn. and nero linux will do almost anything windows nero will do.

**carrownisky** · 28th February, 2009, 07:10 AM

I use UBUNTU 8.1
Quick dowmload - no problems burning or with anything else other Linux OS may be good but I have no experience of them - hope this helps

**ps2chiper** · 28th February, 2009, 12:14 PM

Ubuntu seems to be the most popular now. All I use is ubuntu and never tried anything else. But from what I read, Other linux distros are lighter. For example debian is simpler and has less startup processes. And I heard Centos is supposed to be really fast for servers and have good server support information now. Redhat based distros have really long support. They can run for 10 years with out a core upgrades, they just get patches for security stuff.

**grizzlyt** · 28th February, 2009, 06:36 PM

I don't know about the assumption that Debian is easy to set up, because if you know some stuff that's right but Ubuntu is based on Debian, so you could say that it's a Linux distrib without the hassle.

It is becoming a good server platform too for your basic LAMP setup, because it's now so popular.

If you want a Ubuntu system, there are much more shiny inclinations , like Mint, OpenGeu or Elive.

If you choose a RPM based environment the way to go is either Fedora (Red Hat), Mandriva or OpenSuse.

Hope this helps, get a look at distrowatch.com what's in for you.

**ps2chiper** · 28th February, 2009, 08:22 PM

I didnt say it was easier. Just it is lighter then ubuntu because it doesnt run as many processes. It is like a striped ubuntu.

**belfast** · 11th July, 2009, 11:19 AM

ps2chiper is correct k3b is an excellent app for burning CD's. I've used linux since setting up a freesco router back in 2000/2001. I would say that ubuntu is the best distro I've ever seen for desktop users, it's support and software for multimedia apps is second to none.

The Absolute beginner forums and howtos are excellent for new users.