Narrowing down linux choices

[Draymire]

I have decided that i would like to try linux and have narrowed my choices down Geento, Mandriva, or Debian.
I have two questions:

Which one of these do you think would be the best Linux distro to use for someone completely new to linux? however i would prefer one that will teach me about computing as i will spend as much time as necessary to learn everything about my system.

Secondly, dual booting a linux distro, can i do this without having to re-install my windows os? or does this work for these distro's at all. I am using windows 7. If i have to reinstall stuff that is not a problem but no dual boot is.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Goatboy]

I have decided that i would like to try linux and have narrowed my choices down Geento, Mandriva, or Debian.
I have two questions:

Which one of these do you think would be the best Linux distro to use for someone completely new to linux? however i would prefer one that will teach me about computing as i will spend as much time as necessary to learn everything about my system.

Secondly, dual booting a linux distro, can i do this without having to re-install my windows os? or does this work for these distro's at all. I am using windows 7. If i have to reinstall stuff that is not a problem but no dual boot is.

Thanks in advance for your help.

First off, welcome to the Dark Side! Cookies and drinks are on the counter.

*ahem*

As far as a "learner's" distro goes, I would suggest Ubuntu. It is VERY closely related to Debian, so close in fact it is said that 'Debian is "the rock upon which Ubuntu is built".' If you are looking for Debian, Ubuntu will be very easy to learn.

Dual-booting is a breeze. You burn the Ubuntu Live CD iso to a disk, boot into it, and the instructions are all there in a step-by-step guide. You can choose to reinstall with just Ubuntu, or to install side-by-side with Windows.

It should be easy, but if you have problems, ask me. I have had to do this for several people, so I know the process by heart.

[Draymire]

Thanks for the quick response.

I had a little experience with ubuntu in school and thought it was pretty good. why it took a year to get to actually use linux i don't know. Now all i have to do is wait til monday so i can use my school to download ubuntu. they can pay for my learning after all that is what they are supposed to do, teach me. lol

[Goatboy]

One other option, if you want this done fast, is to use Wubi. It's a Windows program that installs Ubuntu for you, instead of doing it from the disk. It may be a little easier. I only used it once, long ago, but it worked fine for me.

[Defience]

One other option, if you want this done fast, is to use Wubi. It's a Windows program that installs Ubuntu for you, instead of doing it from the disk. It may be a little easier. I only used it once, long ago, but it worked fine for me.

This is what I was also going to suggest. I dual boot with Vista and Ubuntu. For some reason the iso install failed for me with Vista but wubi worked fine.

[thedotmaster]

I've been having a problem with Vista recently as I want to put my mum on Ubuntu, but - for the moment - retain the Vista partition, just in case she doesn't acclimatise as well as hoped. However because of the, quite frankly, stupid way that Vista is written - it is an absolute effort to resize the partitions and I've read a number of tales of corrupted Vista installs because of it.

Back on topic, I personally would choose Ubuntu over debian - the debian repositories take far longer than it should to update and a lot of things in there are out of date.

[faazshift]

I have used Gentoo for years, and have learned TONS from it. For learning, this is my suggestion. But if you are fairly new to linux, I would definitely suggest Ubuntu (at least for now). But it may be worth it to try out Gentoo at some future point. But, either way, linux is way better than windows. Good luck!

[Draymire]

Ya i think i will use ubuntu for awhile until i get used to linux, resizing partions shouldn't be a problem because i have windows 7 on its own seperate partion from everything else. so in theory i should only have to resize my e: drive which contains nothing i am not afraid of losing. If it comes down to a full format of my HDD would mean nothing to me. Anyone have any good programs for partioning though as i used the windows disc to do it the first time.

[Goatboy]

Ya i think i will use ubuntu for awhile until i get used to linux, resizing partions shouldn't be a problem because i have windows 7 on its own seperate partion from everything else. so in theory i should only have to resize my e: drive which contains nothing i am not afraid of losing. If it comes down to a full format of my HDD would mean nothing to me. Anyone have any good programs for partioning though as i used the windows disc to do it the first time.

The Ubuntu CD allows you to partition from within it. Wubi does not create a separate partition, so this is not an issue.

[Draymire]

I think i am almost ready for some of those cookies and drinks. I just got Ubuntu 9.10 installed without any problems. Now all i have to do is get my rogers mobile internet to work and set up python and pygames, then i can hack and program all i want.

Thanks for the help.