Ok, I do not mean to start an erruption of arguments, or any means is heated discussion here. Just simpley wandering what the easiest distro of Linux is? And where to D/L it, as an .ISO file if possible ( since I have been taught how to burn .ISO files whilest posting on these forums ). Please keep in mind that I am a total who has yet to get my feet past the six inch area of the water so far. I know absolutley nothing of any distro. What I am wanting is something that is extremely user friendly and stable, but it has to be really easy to understand so that I may learn it. And if possible, somewhere I can D/L a manual where I can find commands and other sorts of info I would need to successfully operate it, pretty much something resembling "<enter distro here> for dummies". I wish they made mdk 10.0 for dummies, I would buy it. My future plans are to learn linux, then I hope to learn to code in c++/python/any other I can find languages, and hopefully one day I can contribute to a linux distro.


P.S. You always should keep in mind a dream you have set for yourself, for without it you are going no where fast and could end up somewhere worse then no where and not know how you got there. so as Dr. MLK said "I HAVE A DREAM!"

Dr. MLK was a smart man with a great goal in his life, how sad others viewed his dreams as thier nightmares. May he R.I.P. with our tears.

well you can try mandrake but i find it EXTREAMLY clutterd or you can try suse it looks nice then if you want to move on try ubuntu

mandrake was not that easy with what I attempted on it. I had it on my computer for bout a week and could not do anything on it, upgrading was dificult even and I could not get the kopete to upgrade nor could I get firefox to install. I have a copy of mdk 10.0. Not an easy distro. It is suspose to be the newbie version of linux distros but I found it rather dificult. I am still working on getting linspire installed on my computer, but it keeps locking up during the install process, furthest I have gotten was like 84% installed. I think the power management keeps shutting the screen down but do not know how to switch it off. Someone mentioned in another post, I think it was, knoppix? Is it an easy distro?

You must allow yourself enough time to "learn" Linux. I'm sure you didn't pop into Windows and just "know" how to do everything.. I think you'll find that most who actually take the effort to learn, don't go back to Windows---at least not as their main Operating System.

All that said, the "easiest" distro in my eyes is Suse. Suse 9.2 is out now, has great hardware support and is basically plug-n-play. If you already tried Mandrake, as you stated and didn't like it, give Suse a go. I hear PCLinuxOS is also in the same category, but I haven't spent that much time with it. Ubuntu is also great to use and has a pretty decent sized following these days.

Thanx for your thoughts jspired and speel. I realize I did not give mdk much time for me to learn it, but that was mostly cause I did not have any documentation to learn with. Just the OS, I did not have a book or guide. While it has great help docs on it, I could not get it. Usually if I am not able to do anything on something within the first week, it will take more patients then I have. Every OS I have ever used successfully and enjoyed, I was able to manuver in within less then a week, including M$ windows 3.1, winnt, win95, win98, winme winxp. I am not against M$, just heard lot bout linux and would love to have the power it offers with the free offers left and right. will look into suse and ubuntu. Thank you.

Easiest distro is Knoppix without a doubt. Just pop the disk into your CD drive, reboot and go!

Just make sure that your BIOS supports bootable CDs (not a problem with most boxes these days).

couple of questions, harishankar, is knoppix a live distro only? meaning can only run from cd or is it installable too? Also, know any really good newbie docs for it?

knoppix is installable to your hard drive, sure.

Ok, have looked around at the distros you have mentioned and have narrowed it down to three distros to decide between, peanut, ubunta, and suse. I am leaning more towards suse atm. ruled out knoppix cause everything I saw of it said it was pretty much a pure live OS and could only be run from the cd. I want a distro on the H/D to tinker with and need something that someone who knew nothing of computers could come up to and would be able to browse to an extent. My father knows a little bout computers, but I am wanting to install something for him that he will not have to really do alot of learning bout. If I could get my damn linspire 4.5 to install I think he would love it, and so would I.

sasho, got a site to get knoppix from to put on hd? If so, hehe, choices just went back up to 4 different choices for linux distros.

ICP would use ubuntu lolol

Shaggy/Violent J would use linux period, assuming they could figure out you do not use white out to erase your mistakes, lol. I love thier music, but gotta admit, they do not sound to smart as far as computers go.

lol your right on that one

If you managed to learn and conquer WindowsME, you can certainly get a handle on Linux!!

A little hint on documentation:

You've basically got two options. You can buy a boxed set and you'll get a printed manual (and support the distro you buy from) or you can get the documentation online from the sites involved. Most of the time you can download it. Mandrake has documentation (and its pretty good) but the link off the site is small, as they want to sell you a boxed set.

If you want solid Linux knowledge that you can use on any distribution, read the RUTE guide. Its readable and covers everything about Linux.