Greetings, gentlemen,

I have used Windows for years now. But it always lets me down in stability and speed and what not. In the past month or two, I have faced some very annoying problems. For example(this problem is still present), when I log in to Windows, it says "Welcome", and soon when it should take me to my desktop, it'll just stay in a black screen. I can see/move my cursor, I can adjust brightness through my keyboard, but nothing else will happen. I just need to hold the power button and reboot. "Hopefully this time!".

Okay, so the question is, what Linux distro is good for a computer noob? I consider myself as a tech geek, but unlike others, I'm not that interested in computers I'm mostly into Electronics, smart phones and stuff like that though.

I have tried Ubuntu, and I really like the OS itself, but the problem is the hardness of use. I mean I don't fancy study hours for different commands, in Windows, you just click a file and it's ready to do whatever it's supposed to.

I heard Mandriva and SUSE are good noob-friendly distros. Any other distros worth trying out?

I'm looking for easiness of use, speed(lightness? My GPU is i3000HD so no eyecandy please ) and customizability. I know Linux is basically all about commands, but there has to be "noob-Linuxes" too! My brain can remember some commands anyway, I just don't wanna read a book about it!

The things I do on computer are pretty basic, surfing on the internet(Firefox), watching movies(VLC) and download, ahem, legal torrents(Vuze, I guess)

Thank you for help guys!

Hi there,

yea, Windows reached its best with Windows XP and has been decaying since. However, that's most of all in usability, not in stability or reliability. What you describe is absolutely not typical.

Seriously?? That's one of the most intuitive ones, in my eyes. Even more than Windows.

That's my experience in Ubuntu as well. But Ubuntu may have become more cryptic since 11.x - I stopped using Ubuntu at version 10.10, when they changed the desktop completely. Since then, Linux Mint is my choice.

Any distro should be suitable for that portfolio. Take your pick. Many distros are available as "Live systems" that you can boot off a CD or USB pen drive and try them out without installing them on your hard disk. Try a few, and make up your mind.

[X] Doc CPU

Why not just fix the windows machine? You may have a simple driver problem.

I was rather astonished to read that. On none of the distros more aimed towards the newbie (Ubuntu, Mint, Mepis, PCLinuxOS, ...) it is necessary to launch the command-line for the purposes you describe.
I am really interested in what you tried to achieve with the command-line, may be you are willing to share your experience.

Most of the more well known distros are fine for new users. Some like Arch, Gentoo, Fedora, Mandriva, Funtoo are not. OP check out Zorin OS the RC is coming soon. That would Zorin 6 It has a Windows feel and look by default. Its based on Ubuntu but without the Unity desktop. As you noted as Windows installs get older they tend to get slower. There are things users can do to speed up however. I did see your comment about Ubuntu. Its very straightforward but I suspect may not be your taste. http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=zorin

Go to the Zorin blog and find Zorin 6. Grab a download. Make a live DVD and enjoy. If I didn't have Ubuntu and Mint installed on my laptops, I'd use it. VLC is there. All the codecs are there. Bittorent client for LEGAL downloads. If you have problems return and we will try to help you. You should not need to use the terminal and their is a update manager that is easy to use.

I'd agree with TobiSGD on this. Almost every full distro can be pretty much limited to GUI if you wish. I don't know where the OP is getting is information, ten year old web sites maybe?

In all honesty if you are googling an answer related to any distro you tend to find a lot of cli strings as answers for the simple reason that it's much easier to just copy and paste a command as opposed to saying "click here, click here, click here, click here, click here, click here." That's been my experience. Not that the command line is essential in lots of distros. Just the answers to questions are frequently given that way. For someone that's only a few hours/days into linux, and especially someone that's very accustomed to windows who is now seeing terminal commands for the first time, it can definitely seem that the terminal is the only way to do things. I personally have come to prefer hand editing certain config files and the terminal is incredibly handy for certain things, but it's not for everyone.

One problem in the Linux community is that so many users have great technical skills but few social ones. They do what, I call
Geekspeak. Here is another distro that has a Windows look and feel: http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Syste...OS-53408.shtml The terminal could be confusing for a new user and I've found myself having to google certain things but overall most Linux distros are pretty intuitive.

The big problem I see is most people come from Windows and expect to have the same exact experience and expect to have to learn nothing.

You might have to use the command line to get out of jams, it does happen. You did not start on Windows when you were 10 and automagicly know how to use it. As simple as Windows is, it also had a learning curve at one point or another. Believe me, I know as I deal with people new to computers about daily and I also know people who have used it for years and don't get it.

Your going to have to learn! There is just no way around it. Yes, you can get some version of Linux that claims to be some kind of Windows mockup but at the end of the day it is Linux! The file structure is not like Windows, Security measures are nothing like Windows, Putting a cd in the tray is nothing like Windows and this can go on and on.

If you don't want to fix the Windows problem and want to use Linux then I welcome you. If you are hoping to get the same experience then I pity you and wish you the best.

You forgot "and hope like hell there are no issues" Zorin 6 is for now a 'RC' (release candidate). Aka 'beta'.

I cant suggestthat anyone uses Zorin at all, I hate distros that demand 'donations' for d/ling. Not that all the Zorin versions do that, but the free version is missing some of the stuff the paid for versions have.

Ylmf is chinese, and version 4.0 has different package management to other distros. The different package management will make it more difficult to get help. Being Chinese, the website and any help pages will be in Chinese as well. Not easy for a beginner IMO.

Zorin and Ylmf are both distros with windows 'look and feel', and IMO its not a good thing. Looking like windows doesnt make the distro any easier. It can make things more confusing, at least if your desktop looks different to windows you wont get confused about which OS you are running......

I tend to give command line answers in a lot of cases...not because you cant do it from a GUI, but because the typing is easier, LOL. That is probably true of a lot of linux users, even those of us that use GUIs for a lot of tasks. Nobody likes having to type 60-100 words when one sting of 10-20 characters can do the same thing. Having to take screenshots to show people where in the GUI they need to poke is also annoying.

Not only annoying, but often impossible. I don't run Ubuntu, so I can't take screenshots of the Unity interface and I won't run a VM extra for that. Gnome 3 is to invasive (and IMHO unusable crap) for my Slackware systems, no way I go and install that. (open)Suse has its Yast, Mandriva/Mageia their drake-tools, I can't make screenshots of them either.
But the terminal and Bash work the same on any system.

My points exactly. It tends to give a mistaken idea to the newcomer that it's the only way to do it though. They don't have the fundamental understanding that in most linux distros there are multiple ways (GUI & CLI) to accomplish the same task and then from disto to distro, or even in different desktop environments on the same machine, there are still other ways to accomplish the same task.

Rule number 1 of Linux is that it's not windows, or even OSX (despite many similarities).
Rule number 2 is that you have the ability to choose what works best for you.

I gave the OP some distro suggestions. Two that had a Windows feel and look. Is Zorin a decent distro, sure. Is it for him, maybe. I don't think users should have to have a IT degree to use most Linux distros. Luckily many are simple to use. Sure a new Windows user had to get used to Windows but its been with us since the start and most people understand the basics. Many new Linux users are turned off by to them complicated answers to what should be simple problems given by those who know Linux. Most people want to use their computers to do work. They don't want to have to also learn how to use a OS to do so. Ubunt, Mint, Zorin, Fedora to a degree are easy to use and update. That's a good thing.

The average user does not add many programs to their systems. In fact Windows XP is still being used by 40% of Windows users. That's a lot of people! Think this way. Most people can drive cars but don't care about how they work. They may be able to change the oil, fix a flat or replace the battery but brakes or transmissions... I don't blame them nor should they have to have to 'learn' about how cars work to drive them. Put gas in, turn it on and go.

But you had to learn to drive a car. As well as you had to learn how to use Windows (and whether it is old or new is a moot argument).

The problem is that everything in life has some sort of learning curve. Aside from sleeping or whatnot. You had to learn to program the time on a VCR, or did you just watch it blink? You didn't learn how to drive a automatic car and all the sudden jump into a stick shift and go? Why do people use this theory in an OS? You can't use one and just expect to know the other just because a car is a car and an OS is an OS.

I'm sorry, but this thinking bothers me. I also hate to share knowledge just to get a call a week later about the same subject. I get it all the time people in general don't feel the need to take the time to learn. But we do it to drive, we do it to work, we learn to have a relationship with our spouse, we learn how to raise our kids, we learn how to work our cell phones, we learn how to work a {insert game console here} but yet we expect our PC to just work without any thought involved? The logic simply escapes me!

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My advice would be either Kubuntu or Lubuntu. Their KDE and LXDE desktops respectively are much more like Windows than the "main" Ubuntu's interface. KDE is highly-featured and looks nice, while LXDE is more streamlined. With all the main *buntus essentially the same distribution just having different programs (technically, packages) installed, you should find it easy to get support as they are widely used.

One thing I think is great for those new to Linux is the ease of software installation. Whichever distribution you use should have a "package manager" or "software centre". (Distros that don't wouldn't normally be called noob friendly). Thanks to Apple and Google, I can now just tell you they're basically an app store, only all the apps are free.