The noob question thread

[Kasyx]

I think I'm gonna go with Linux Mint. It looks awesome! I had a look at screenshots from the other distro's and Mint looks by far the best. After a little googling, my choice came down to OpenSuSE or Linux Mint. First I gotta get myself another HDD. Linux has it's own media player right? Can I install the K-Lite Media Package and use that instead? I see WinAMP isn't supported on Linux, so has anyone tried XMMS? What media player is used in Mint?

For a media player, you can't go wrong with Amarok - it is Winamp to the power of awesome. Just do some basic googling to learn how package management works. If you're trying to find a Linux app for something, just google for it and you will find a million alternatives.

As for a video player; why are you not using VLC? VLC takes K-Lite, punches it in the face, sticks it in a porta-potty and rolls it down a hill.

The best piece of advice I can give is DO NOT COMPARE LINUX TO WINDOWS! Do not think of it as the latest version of Windows, or think about it in Windows terms, e.g. "herp derp /usr/share/bin is like C:\Program Files! HERP!"; they are completely different things and trying to relate one to the other will just confuse you.

Do not do it.

 

[Drake2007]

As for Desktops, OpenSuse is in my experience the most polished distro out there, Ubuntu just never seems finished off.

 

[Nokkie]

don't be afraid to take on the pro's in their own backyard... Good thread...

 

[garyc]

Which Linux Distro has the closest resemblance to windows, or which one would you recommend for someone who's upgrading from windows XP to linux? Which Linux is best for someone to start off with, if that someone has no knowledge of Linux whatsoever?

Edit:

And how do you pronounce SuSE? Is it like "sooz" or "soozi" or "soos ii". Open Soozi sounds cool.

SUSE is a German acronym for Software und System-Entwicklung, and is pronounced (Sigh)(sOOn)(Sigh)(commA).

Linux Mint is a good starting point. It makes things simple, which will allow you to focus on the applications you want to run. This will tell you relatively quickly if Linux will do the job for you.

+1 on VLC as a video player - for any OS.

The music player was one thing I experimented with a lot. If you want one that is playlist orientated where you stack things up an let it play then Amarok is a good choice. I was looking for one which was orientated towards a more direct selection of a song with immediate playback. It should also offer support for compilations. I ended up using Quod Libet with directory sorting for the desktop PC and XBMC for the home theater PC.

 

[MiY4Gi]

I never really liked VLC. It just looks so old fashioned, and MPC feels and looks simpler.

When I change to Linux Mint then I'll check out Amarok first.

 

[Ockie]

I never really liked VLC. It just looks so old fashioned, and MPC feels and looks simpler.

When I change to Linux Mint then I'll check out Amarok first.

I agree....the GUI can do with a bit of a revamp me thinks, but at the end of the day, it playes any bloody format you can throw at it and I just love it. I remember me and my sister wanted to watch a movie that she got from someone on a flash drive....and the extension was mkv or something. Windows Media Player went into cardiac arrest when we tried to open it. We googled it, found out the format is called Matroska. I said to her to get her 3G fired up, download VLC and we were happily watching the movie in about 20 minutes. Ta Da!

 

[MiY4Gi]

Lol, cardiac arrest. Yeah, that's Windows Media Player. I use Media Player Classic from the K-Lite Codec Pack. I haven't yet experienced a format it couldn't play, although occasionally I would need to change the renderer for .mpg files.

 

[ocky]

For audio, here are some players. Goggles is quite good, depends what you want. (Google them - sorry for that)

Audio players

1. Rhythmbox

2. Banshee

3. Exaile

4. Listen

5. Decibel

6. Gmusicbrowser

7. Quod Libet

8. Amarok

9. Songbird

10. atunes

11. Youki

12. Audacious

13. Christine

15. Gejengel

16. muine

18. Quark

19. juk

10. sonata

11. Gimmix

12. Aqualung

13. Bluemindo

14. Pympd

15. Mesk

16. GMPC

17. Goggles Music Manager

18. Jajuk

19. lsongs

20. jukes

21. DeaDBeeF

22. Guayadeque

 

[MiY4Gi]

Dang, that's a lot of media players. Why are there so many?

 

[Ockie]

Dang, that's a lot of media players. Why are there so many?

Cause its Linux?

I even listen to my MP3's on VLC....I have not been able to find another media player that has a equalizer like VLC. It gives great bass with little distortion and crisp treble! grrrrrrrr

 

[CataclysmZA]

Cause its Linux?

I even listen to my MP3's on VLC....I have not been able to find another media player that has a equalizer like VLC. It gives great bass with little distortion and crisp treble! grrrrrrrr

Same here, VideoLan always seems to be ahead of the competition and does even the simplest things much better (like the settings page which makes noobs feel less noobish).