User Friendly Distro for a Non-Technical Linux Lover?

CuCullin · #1 19th August 2005, 08:47 PM

So, my roommate has fallen in love with linux. Currently his laptop has FC3 on it, its a slightly older compaq (about a 1ghz processors I believe, its about 2 yrs old iirc). DWL-G650+ wifi card, and then the basic laptop crap (touchpad, etc, etc).

Heres the deal. The wifi card works like crap in Fedora, and he likes to play online poker. He also watches DVD's on the laptop, listens to music, etc, etc. I'm thinking an easier distro for him, ie: more friendly, I was thinking SuSe, Xandros, Lycoris, Linspire, whatever, and paying a hundred bucks or so for it is not a problem. The only apps he uses really is firefox, OOo, etc.

So anyone have any recommendations?

fpoole · #2 19th August 2005, 11:25 PM

Kubuntu and OpenSuSE are probably good choices. Mandriva isn't bad either.

gavinw6662 · #3 19th August 2005, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fpoole

Kubuntu and OpenSuSE are probably good choices. Mandriva isn't bad either.

I would second mandriva, I dl'd that the other day just to 'try' out another distro, and after 2 hours I removed it. Don't get me wrong, it is a great distro, and comes with many cool programs, but it didn't cut it for me cause it was 'too user-friendly'. There is a pretty menu for everything. But in all, it's hardware detection is amazing, and it's ability to be configured through countless menus makes it easy to get a long with.

kosmosik · #4 19th August 2005, 11:30 PM

when it comes to hardware support all is essentially the same - there is one Linux and this is kernel (drivers and so on) so if one hardware works flawlessly in one distro it will on other - but if it has problems on one it surely will have them anywhere. Fedora is quite good when it comes to binary only dirvers - most of them are aviable as 3rd party packages somewhere...

bubudiu · #5 19th August 2005, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CuCullin

So anyone have any recommendations?

Yeah FC3 (Fedora Core 3) What do you expect on a Fedora forum?

ramibow · #6 20th August 2005, 03:33 AM

FC3 is great. I've also tried Xandros and Ubuntu.

imdeemvp · #7 20th August 2005, 03:46 AM

Mandriva does a good job and so does FEDORA.

fpoole · #8 20th August 2005, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by imdeemvp

Mandriva does a good job and so does FEDORA.

Yes, indeed, but Fedora does have a lot more to contend with for the new user.

Distros like Ubuntu fit on one CD simply because there isn't such a rich selection of software available by default. Instead, GUI integration seems to be key, despite CLI efficiency and even ease-of-use. Because Ubuntu is so graphical, I reconfigured X manually, crashed it, and had to boot into tty1 and cp a backup of my old conf file.

macgregor · #9 20th August 2005, 08:08 AM

I worked for Mandrive back when they were Mandrakelinux/Mandrakesoft and I'd have to say that Mandrakelinux was extremely user-friendly.. too user-friendly for me in fact - which is why use Fedora now. Have him try the download edition of Mandriva and see what he thinks.

tomcat · #10 20th August 2005, 09:57 AM

Newcomer? Mandriva of course. By far the best distro to begin with IMHO.

CuCullin · #11 29th August 2005, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fpoole

Yes, indeed, but Fedora does have a lot more to contend with for the new user.

Exactly. I've already installed fedora to give him the feel of linux - I don't want to answer as many questions during the day though, which is why I'm looking for a more friendly version for him. Today alone I got 3 calls - all before lunch.

Take note that im not ignoring the possibility of proprietary addons, which is a different animal kosmosik. While yes, hardware detection is the same, working with hardware can be quite different. Also, distros that include proprietary or other such drivers that, say, Fedora would not, along with native support for these devices is another example. Not having to deal with him asking me about adding mp3 support, dvd, etc, is yet another plus.

Thats where I'm going with this, I'd like to help him through the install, and get down to maybe one call a day.

Regardless, he jumped the gun while I was on vacation, and bought SuSe and borrowed Xandros to try them both out. Whichever he likes will be the winner I suppose.

imdeemvp · #12 29th August 2005, 07:20 PM

Mandriva comes will all the mp3 plugins and its based in france. The only plugin needed is for dvd playback which is a very small download. All distros have limitations.

rathed9 · #13 4th September 2005, 01:47 PM

Mandrake , in my experience, had the most no problem configs for everything from DVD to MP3 to package installs, and its hefty in terms of packages, compilers etc if you keep delving deeper. Open SUSE is problematic cause they cripple the media players to avoid problems over trademarks and codecs. Looks great and very user friendly too. Mepis and Ubuntu, in a brief spin, are very user friendly and have a one app for one job approach that would simplify choices for a newb. Cant answer about their out of the box experience with video etc. If hes willing to buy, then maybe Suse or Mandriva with membership and support is ideal. No proprietary restriction issues like the free downloads. Although Mandy's download had almost everything except the newest KDE....