Nix!

[athelind]

I'm planning to turn the Spare Computer that's currently gathering dust into a *NIX Box. I'm looking for a flavor of *NIX that is easy to install, and has a wide range of hardware support. I want to get more familiar with the care and feeding of Open Source software such as The GIMP and GRASS -- right now, I can't even decipher the installation in structions for the Windows version of GRASS.

I am, with no little trepidation, opening the floor to input. What flavor of *NIX would be best for a relative newbie?

Comments

[hinoki.livejournal.com]

Red-hat or SuSE. Stay away from Debian.. that's a pain to get going. SuSE would be your best bet, I'd say. I even have the cd's.

--Hinoki

[richardf8]

I would definitely do a Linux Distro. I use RedHat 9 myself. I find it easy enough to use and configure. I've heard good things about SUSE too. Right now, half my machines are runing RH9 exclusively.

[foofers.livejournal.com]

What flavor of *NIX would be best for a relative newbie?

Mac OS X. *fans flames* :)

But seriously...I'll second that "stay away from Debian" suggestion. Even on a fairly vanilla box that one had me screaming and wanting to throw it out the window, and never could get X11 running. I used to run and was sufficiently pleased with RedHat, but that was many, many years ago...dunno how recent versions hold up against other distributions out there, but might still be worth a look.

[richardf8]

Mac OS X?

Cool OS, but I don't think it will run on the box Athelind's considering. Unles there's an Intel port?

Yes, but....

[yasha-taur.livejournal.com]

Actually, there is a port of the BSD part of OS-X that does run on an x86 box. It's called Darwin, it is Open Source, and you can download it from Apple and install it on a PC. It has NO GUI or any of the other stuff that makes it 'a Mac', it's just the BSD Unix part. It is actually a pretty nice flavor of BSD, I have been told. I believe it's meant mostly for developers. It also makes it nice for people that need complete compatability at the command line level between their Macs and a few PCs.

Obviously it wouldn't be the best choice for Athelind, but it is there....

[xylen.livejournal.com]

I'd advise SuSE. I'm a virtual 'nix zero but I'm running my webserver on it and it was actually easy to set up and work with.

[bfdragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, SuSE to start off with. Though, I am now having a lot of frustration with that lately. I’m trying to get a particular application to run, and am stuck with seemingly mutually exclusive dependency problems, so, am going to Debian to try it there. Now that I am a little more experienced with Linux, the two seem about the same, so.. I guess it depends on your experience.

If you are thinking "RedHat", which really is not a bad choice, You might want to hold off until Fedora Core 2. RedHat 9 is the end of the line for non 'enterprise' versions. Fedora is the community run replacement. But I hear that Core 1 has issues that are supposed to be fixed in Core 2.

One last note about SuSE, there is no ‘iso’ option other then the boot disk, so you either have to install everything straight from a server on the net, or buy the retail box.

- Talos

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Many claim that Red Hat is newb-friendly, though many ditch it for saner pastures once they figure out what they're doing... I haven't used Red Hat for years so my own experience there is a bit out of date. I'd suggest avoiding Debian until you're more experienced... I've heard a few decent things about FreeBSD but I can't verify the ease of install at this point- need a spare box of my own first. Avoid NetBSD as if it were a cracked container dripping fluid and labeled "EBOLA VIRUS". Of course, you're planning on sticking with x86 hardware... Otherwise the most obvious answer to the question "What flavor of *NIX would be best for a relative newbie?" would be Mac OS X. };>

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, the other hippie Mac user already made that joke.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

   I wasn't joking. };> It is in fact the most correct answer to your question, since you did not qualify it with "...on x86 hardware." I merely answered the question you asked. As an aside, I don't see Unix ever getting easy on x86 at all unless A) Mac OS X (in full, not just the Darwin/BSD core) gets ported, B) the FS/OSS community finally takes ease of use for nongeeks seriously (this I don't see happening anytime soon if ever) or C) some commercial interest decides to finally do it and do it RIGHT. Note that none of the current commercial distros of Linux yet have succeeded in RIGHTness in that regard, IMHO, though they're better than they used to be. Not that it would necessarily take much...
   And I didn't see Helvetica's post until afterward anyway. I don't usually read comments before posting an answer to an entry when I'm paying for my net time by the second- cybercafes are a bitch that way. };>

[turq.livejournal.com]

SuSE's pretty nice, but I actually find the latest releases of Mandrake to be even easier to deal with.

- Turq.