Trying out Linux for the first time, but can't even get it installed.

@OP - Your experience would have been better if someone with linux experience went through the installation with you.
 
HideInLight said:
I decided to give this a go:
openSUSE-13.2-DVD-x86_64.iso
Click to expand...

Suse is a dog.
Go for something a little more elegant, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, CentOS, come to mind.

If you don't mind slightly older software I would say run minimal CentOS 6
If you want GUI and so on probably Mint
 
Just checking in to say +1 for Linux Mint as a desktop OS. I dual boot Windows 7 and Mint 15 at home. As a software engineer, I would be perfectly content to work on Mint or Ubuntu indefinitely. In fact, depending on my current project, I sometimes prefer Linux over Windows (but not always). Linux servers are a no-brainer.

At home, I would not want to live with Linux. In theory it can do everything Windows does, but in practice you often end up wasting hours on things which you want to "just work", like getting your headphones to work under OSS or figuring out why the transfer speed to your flash disk halves after the first minute. As the old saying goes, "Linux is only free if your time has no value".
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
My go-to distro for any server related stuff. Wouldn't recommend this to a beginner though and definitely not a desktop operating system.
Click to expand...

He did say he wants to learn, you learn **** on desktop Linux.

[strike]If the op really wants to lean, install OpenBSD. Another option PCBSD is actually very user friendly[/strike]
 
Edwe said:
Just checking in to say +1 for Linux Mint as a desktop OS. I dual boot Windows 7 and Mint 15 at home. As a software engineer, I would be perfectly content to work on Mint or Ubuntu indefinitely. In fact, depending on my current project, I sometimes prefer Linux over Windows (but not always). Linux servers are a no-brainer.

At home, I would not want to live with Linux. In theory it can do everything Windows does, but in practice you often end up wasting hours on things which you want to "just work", like getting your headphones to work under OSS or figuring out why the transfer speed to your flash disk halves after the first minute. As the old saying goes, "Linux is only free if your time has no value".
Click to expand...

I use Linux and BSD almost exclusively, I can't work on Windows!
1 ancient Windows desktop for playing Civilization 2 - and a windows VM for the ***** ******* *** ********* **** IE.

I don't understand how anybody can get any work done on windows, it drives me mad when I try an use it.
 
Edwe said:
Just checking in to say +1 for Linux Mint as a desktop OS. I dual boot Windows 7 and Mint 15 at home. As a software engineer, I would be perfectly content to work on Mint or Ubuntu indefinitely. In fact, depending on my current project, I sometimes prefer Linux over Windows (but not always). Linux servers are a no-brainer.

At home, I would not want to live with Linux. In theory it can do everything Windows does, but in practice you often end up wasting hours on things which you want to "just work", like getting your headphones to work under OSS or figuring out why the transfer speed to your flash disk halves after the first minute. As the old saying goes, "Linux is only free if your time has no value".
Click to expand...

I must have been lucky with Zorin, everything works except my crappy old canon printer.. but then again that does'nt work with windows 8.1 either. Only downside is it takes longer to boot than windows.
 
grobister said:
I use Linux and BSD almost exclusively, I can't work on Windows!
1 ancient Windows desktop for playing Civilization 2 - and a windows VM for the ***** ******* *** ********* **** IE.

I don't understand how anybody can get any work done on windows, it drives me mad when I try an use it.
Click to expand...

The right tool for the job. If you can get my obscure embedded C compilers working correctly on Linux at all, I will go to work wearing a penguin costume for a week. :)
 
Edwe said:
The right tool for the job. If you can get my obscure embedded C compilers working correctly on Linux at all, I will go to work wearing a penguin costume for a week. :)
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but that sounds like me being forced to use IE for broken Lights out cards etc.
I agree about right tool for the job 100%
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
My go-to distro for any server related stuff. Wouldn't recommend this to a beginner though and definitely not a desktop operating system.
Click to expand...
I'm rolling out CentOS 7 Gnome3 to my desktop clients nowadays, okay for an office environment but not recommended for the home user due to "non-free" and "ugly" package limitations.

Fedora is still my favourite Gnome desktop distro though, with the advent of "fedup" I don't believe I've done a fresh install on my systems since F17 (currently on F21).
 
Edwe said:
Just checking in to say +1 for Linux Mint as a desktop OS. I dual boot Windows 7 and Mint 15 at home. As a software engineer, I would be perfectly content to work on Mint or Ubuntu indefinitely. In fact, depending on my current project, I sometimes prefer Linux over Windows (but not always). Linux servers are a no-brainer.

At home, I would not want to live with Linux. In theory it can do everything Windows does, but in practice you often end up wasting hours on things which you want to "just work", like getting your headphones to work under OSS or figuring out why the transfer speed to your flash disk halves after the first minute. As the old saying goes, "Linux is only free if your time has no value".
Click to expand...

OSS was the audio API up to kernel 2.4 in 2001. It had been deprecated to ALSA by kernel 2.6 in 2002. If you are having difficulty in setting it up then it may be because it is not there anymore. Look at ALSA / Pulseaudio instead.
 
garyc said:
OSS was the audio API up to kernel 2.4 in 2001. It had been deprecated to ALSA by kernel 2.6 in 2002. If you are having difficulty in setting it up then it may be because it is not there anymore. Look at ALSA / Pulseaudio instead.
Click to expand...

It was just an example of a problem I had way back, not an actual plea for help. I actually happen to know that and fixed the problem under OSS and later ALSA by recompiling modified drivers from source. But that's besides the point.

The point of my post is that you don't want to struggle with compatibility after a long day of work. You just want to click play and see the damn funny cat video.

On another tangent: ALSA is okay, but don't even get me started on PA. :sick:
 
Gonna put this on hold for now.

Unreal Engine 4 was made free a few days back, cannot withhold my curiosity on that one.
One of the major things holding me back apart from limited bandwith for another distro/time/not picking up the modem is this cloud and "installer" trend. Getting an actual standalone installer is more of the exception than norm with linux it seems.

Imagine a android phone without the google playstore and an internet connection.
 
HideInLight said:
Getting an actual standalone installer is more of the exception than norm with linux it seems.
Click to expand...

Have you been downloading netinstalls? I can think of practically no distros without an offline installer.
 
Bar0n said:
Have you been downloading netinstalls? I can think of practically no distros without an offline installer.
Click to expand...

Referring to the 3rd party software. If you go to the VLC website, they won't have an offline installer there.
You have to go to another webpage.
 
Bar0n said:
Have you been downloading netinstalls? I can think of practically no distros without an offline installer.
Click to expand...

Referring to the 3rd party software. If you go to the VLC website, they won't have an offline installer there.
You have to go to another webpage.

It's either that or you find a ftp server, with bunch of files and no idea which one to download.
 
HideInLight said:
Referring to the 3rd party software. If you go to the VLC website, they won't have an offline installer there.
You have to go to another webpage.

It's either that or you find a ftp server, with bunch of files and no idea which one to download.
Click to expand...
You are missing the point of a distribution.

If you are using Debian or Ubuntu, just: apt-get install vlc, or search for it in Synaptic or Ubuntu Software Centre.
 
He's looking for something like RealOS but it's still in development.
 
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