Babbies First Linux

Baby's First GNU/Linux OS

Being a technology board, talk of different operating systems and distributions is common. You may desire to try a new OS after reading about them. For users looking to make the switch from Windows or Mac to a GNU/Linux distribution, here are some recommendations.

Installing an OS

It is recommended that you test out an OS in a Virtual Machine such as VirtualBox or run it from a Live CD/USB before installing it. This lets you test out the operating system without any permanant change to your system. You should also consider booting as a live CD to ensure good hardware compatability.

There are detailed instructions available on installing Linux Mint in a VirtualBox.

However, if you've decided to dedicate yourself to GNU/Linux -- getting it up and running isn't as daunting as one might think. First of all: you have to figure out what distribution you want, and what architecture your CPU has, and download the corresponding ISO. Do download it with torrent, or check the checksum after it has finished downloading. It will save you a lot of hassle if you get a corrupted ISO. There are multiple tools available for creating a GNU/Linux bootable USB from this ISO, where the most common ones are UNetBootin if you're already running GNU/Linux, and Win32ImageWriter if you're on a Windows system. Boot from the USB, follow instructions. Problems? Official distribution manual, or just make a thread on /g/ once you have searched exhaustively on Google.

Desktop OSes

If you're looking for an OS to use for daily use, try one of these. Keep in mind that 99% of your software and games will not work if you dont have the time to fiddle With wine. Most software has an equal or better FOSS replacement however. Check out osalt for more information on open source alternatives.

Gentoo

No, really. Gentoo is actually not a bad choice at all. But if you make a thread asking for help, expect a ton of "Install Gentoo" responses.

A common misconception is that gentoo is actually very hard to install. If you have patience, a few hours to burn, and can read a manual, it's not actually hard. What is annoying is maintaining gentoo after you have it installed, and if you have a slow machine, compiling programs can be a pain in the ass. There are binary packages available in portage.

Gentoo is available at http://here.www.gentoo.org/main/en/where.xml

Linux Mint

Linux Mint is a distribution based off Ubuntu. Linux Mint comes in the flavors of KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, and MATE. Linux Mint is very comparable in ease of use if not better than Ubuntu for beginners and people who want something that "just werks™". It comes polished off without the integration of Amazon services, but it installs proprietary software like flash by default, so be prepared to remove shit after install. It is also somewhat customizable, so if you want to start off easy and work your way up when you feel like it, this isn't a bad distro to try first before you try something like Debian, Arch, or Gentoo.

Manjaro

Manjaro is a distribution based off Arch, in many ways similar to Linux Mint, this distribution also focuses on user-friendliness, claiming that the user will never have to use the terminal. It comes with numerous tools pre-installed, similar to those in Linux Mint, from steam to Libre Office. It's a highly stable distribution,but despite that, it's a rolling release, which means your system will always be up to date, and you'll never have to do a big update (from Mint 17 to 17.1) like you would on most Ubuntu/Debian based distributions. It's main DE are Xfce and KDE, being one of best looking distributions ever, but many other flavours are available, from Gnome3 to i3. Another big advantage for this distribution is that you'll have access to the AUR, the biggest software repository in the world.

Available for download at https://manjaro.github.io/download/

#! (Crunchbang)

Crunchbang is a lightweight Debian-based distro aimed at experienced users. However, it can be used as a means of educating newer users of GNU/Linux due to the intuitive nature of openbox. If you're willing to learn how to edit configuration files, you may learn a little bit of something on the way. Overall, it's user-friendly while providing convenience to more experienced users.

Available for download at http://crunchbang.org/download/

Fedora

Fedora is almost as user friendly as Ubuntu. However, its repositories are not nearly as large, but you can add repositories quickly and easily. If you add RPM Fusion and livna repositories, you can have access to almost any program you will need. Fedora is available in different spins. Personally, I recommend the KDE or XFCE spins, but you can install any version and then install a new DE if you want to.

Adding reposories is simple. Livna, for example:

sudo rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm

Fedora spins are available for download here: https://spins.fedoraproject.org/

Arch

Arch has excellent documentation and community support. If you like to tweak every damn little thing but don't like compiling *everything*, Arch is for you. Alternatively, you could try Archbang.

Arch wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/

Arch downloads: https://www.archlinux.org/download/

ArchBang: http://archbang.org/download

Debian

A great server distro. It comes in three variants: stable, testing, and sid. - Stable lives up to its name, being the most stable. However, the packages are very outdated compared to the other two versions.

OpenSUSE

OpenSUSE is a commonly used distro. If you plan on only using KDE, this is a good distro for you.

Puppy Linux

Puppy is a distribution aimed at being lightweight, fast, easy and portable. Puppy Linux can be run entirely from RAM. It is meant to be booted from a CD or USB as opposed to being installed. Variations such as Racy Puppy exist.

PC-BSD

Admittedly this is BSD based, rather than GNU/Linux based however it is still a very acceptable option as a first *nix os. It has a graphical package manager and supports a variety of desktop environments and Window managers, as well as FreeBSD's ZFS filesystem.

Servers

You may be interested in GNU/Linux as a server as opposed to a desktop. While less commonly asked about, it is still quite common.

Debian

Debian is one of the best operating systems to use for a server. Stable, rock solid and not too hard to manage, but at the same time customizable enough for your server's purposes.

Ubuntu Server

Ubuntu server is based off of Debian testing. While this means it does have the slight chance of being not as stable as Debian Stable, it still is a great choice for a server OS. Recent LTS releases have focused on providing heavy integration with Openstack, providing an out of the box turnkey solution to run an OpenStack Icehouse environment in a public, private, or hybrid cloud.

CentOS

CentOS is a clone of RHEL, which is in turn can be thought of as a very stable version of Fedora tech support. Of course, CentOS doesn't have the same kind of tech support that RedHat offers for buying a license for RHEL, but you can probably find most help you need by searching on the internet.

Mirror list for downloads: http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=30

Specialist Distros

Some distros serve other purposes, such scanning for malware, data forensics, penetration testing or several other purposes.

• GParted - a live distro aimed at helping users partition their disks
• Backtrack - an Ubuntu-based distro aimed at penetration testing
• Tails is a live system that aims to preserve your privacy and anonymity. It helps you to use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship almost anywhere you go and on any computer but leaving no trace unless you ask it to explicitly. It is used by Edward Snowden.
• Liberté Linux - Much like Tails, but more lightweight.
• iPredia - A debian based distro designed for i2p users. This has many i2p applications included such as Robert torrent client, and imule.

Resources

http://distrowatch.com/