What would be the best linux to download? (newbie)

[silentraver]

Hey what up all,im new and dont know the first thing bout linux, not even wich one to download first. Im trying to get away from windows, because with the new windows xp , it sucks for resources! i have a 64 megabyte 566mhz intel celeron, integrated i810e graphics card, and it sucks playing madden football 2002 on it. i want something that doesnt hog up alot of memory on load and in the background while im playing this game, i cut down all but like 5 services in windows xp , and i still see slow downs in the game. would linux be a good choice to go to? and if so wich is the best to download. lucky i have dsl.

[jtpenrod]

I would recommend Mandrake. This distro is quite friendly to the Linux n00bie. The install program almost runs itself in default mode (which is what I would recommend, you can always go back and reinstall in expert mode once you've gained some experience with Linux). The KDE desktop is no more difficult to learn to use that that of Winders. Besides, Linux doesn't insult the intelligence with that Fisher-Price-esque look and feel, nor do those idiot boxes keep popping up whenever you try to do something, no matter how simple or how often you've done it before. Mandrake also knows how to take "no" for an answer. Sure, DrakeFirstTime *will* ask for a lot of personal information, but you don't have to give it, and it won't ask again.

Aditionally, Mandrake remains quite capable. It's not something you'll outgrow as you morph from Winblows luser to Linux geek.  

[ February 04, 2002: Message edited by: jtpenrod ]

[silentraver]

i downloaded mandrake, off of my instinct thanks though, but still there are 3 cds they have on there ftp site, do i need em all? i just have the first ima try it now. i ran out of room on my hard disk, when it got to the 3rd! wow. only had like 2 gigs to start.

[jtpenrod]

quote: i downloaded mandrake, off of my instinct thanks though, but still there are 3 cds they have on there ftp site, do i need em all?

You really *need* just the first one. This is the bootable CD, and contains enough to set up a working Mandrake system. Those other two CDs have all the "extras" on them. That's another big difference between Linux and, well, you know what: you get *tons* of apps to play with. Sure, you probably won't want it all. (How many text editors do you need anyway?) But the range of choice is truly awesome. The CDs are organized such that all the essential system apps and libraries are on the first install CD. Apps that aren't in wide demand are placed on the next two. The third CD contains specialty apps, CAD programs, programming aids, etc. No reason you can't do the initial install and pick up the extra goodies later.

[Pope]

madden football 2002 on linux? i don`t think that this is possible. im not sure but i think so...

[Calum]

i was just looking through the huge array of programs that installed with red hat 7.0, and the massive truckload of stuff on the red hat 7.0 cd2, and i can't make head or tail of what any of it is!
Is there some list or documentation that will list the programs included on said cds by category? eg, if i wanted a cd burning program with a frontend, i could look for them on the list and read breif descriptions of the features of each choice et c.
thanx, folx!  :cool:

[voidmain]

if you install "cdrecord" and Xcdroast as the graphical frontend, that's a good combo.  There are many out there though, I find that combo to work great for me, in fact a lot of the time I just use the command line "cdrecord" as I can script/automate it easily.  If you look in your /usr/share/doc directory you should find plenty of documentation.  And of course most software comes with manual pages (type: "man commandname") or if you are in KDE press ALT+F2 to bring up a run box and type "#commandname" and it will bring up the manual page in the browser.  And of course there is a whole internet full of documentation for all of the software.  Actually the quickest way since you are new to Linux is to use either the graphical RPM tool or the command line tool to pull the header info from the RPM which will give you a general description of the program, from there a slight amount of searching the previous mentioned places will give you a wealth of documentation.  Just click on the RPM from KDEs file manager and it will bring it up in the graphical RPM manager with a description.

[Calum]

thanks! i will try that,
in the meantime i am still looking for a list though, so that you guys don't need to post every program and what it does every time i have a new thing i want to do on the computer!
I haven't trawled through nearly enough of the docs yet, VoidMain, but i will..