[lug] linux distro for a beginner

[Michael Hirsch]

On 6/15/05, Hugh Brown <hugh at math.byu.edu> wrote:
> As I discuss what I do by day (linux sysadmin) with folks and complain
> about windows periodically, I sometimes get asked which Linux distribution
> I recommend for someone who wants to get started with Linux but doesn't
> want to be their own sysadmin.  So far, I've been telling them to get a
> Mac.
> 
> Which distribution would you recommend for someone that thinks MS is vile,
> doesn't want to support them, but doesn't want to become a techie?
> 
> I use Debian and I suspect that may be a bit out there for someone just
> starting out.  I've heard positive noises about Ubuntu (they'll even ship
> you CDs for free).   No idea where Fedora is, though I suspect it may
> change a little too often/too quickly for a home user.
> 
> Any recommendations?

There are lots of good ditributions out there.  My acid test is
whether the users ever have to worry about mounting CDs, floppies,
thumb drives, etc.  For instance, it should be possible to eject a
drive while you have a file browser (or shell) open looking at that
volume.

So far I know that Mandrake and SuSE can both do that.  RedHat used to
fail my test--I don't know if it still does.  I haven't heard of
others that can do it, but there must be some out there.

I believe that if a new user finds that they can't just pop a
floppy/CD in, use it, and pop it out whenever they feel like it, they
will think the OS is broken.  And IMHO it is.

Michael