[Dark Hunter]

After so many people have told me how great it is (I go to a Tech college... so lots of Linux people around, in fact the classes actually assume you'll be using Linux by default), I've decided to start using Linux.

However, I would like some advice before I go buying anything:

I'm going to be getting a laptop to put Linux on, and from what I've heard a slightly older one is better, to avoid driver compatibility issues. How old do you think the laptop should be?
What distro of Linux would be best for a beginner? I've heard Ubuntu reccomended.
Anything else I should be taking into consideration for all this?

And, yes, I am aware that there is no tech support available for Linux.

Thanks!

[IceFire]

Laptop age shouldn't be a huge issue.  I wouldn't worry much about that.  Sometimes it takes a while to deal with a new chipset but most laptops, even if they are a new model, are less likely to be all new parts.  If possible just be smart about the purchase and pick something mainstream.

I heard from people about how great Linux was as well and after listening and learning and doing...I've discovered its just fine and works fine as an OS with a great level of customization but its not going to make your PC do handstands or anything like that.  The incredible part is that its community driven and everything is "free".  For the programmer/developer type that wants to get into the details of the OS or applications running on it...Linux is astounding.  For the average person it doesn't make so much difference.  I'd really love for the playing field to be leveled and put Windows on the same level as Linux but right now the support for everything mainstream is still Windows.  Still...every year I feel that Linux gets closer and closer to mainstream acceptance.  One day it will happen.

I'd personally suggest Ubuntu as the distro to go after.  Its easy to install and get running.  Its user oriented so its meant to be ready for the average home user.  They usually succeed on these points.  I've also used SuSe and am considering Fedora Core which just had a new release and looks really great as well.  If you have the system for it (Core 2 or the latest AMD Phenom) you could setup a VMWare server and then run Linux virtualized within Windows.  I've been doing that just so I can play without making it my primary OS.

Tech support comes from people on forums.  Honestly I don't think thats much different than Windows for me...most of us go here or somewhere else and try to get community help. Who really calls Microsoft for support?

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Who really calls Microsoft for support?

* Androgeos Exeunt de-cloaks.

I send them e-mail...

* Androgeos Exeunt cloaks.

[SeanP]

I've run Ubuntu on my laptops for the past couple years with nary a problem for personal use as well as for classes that required Java (shudder), C, C++, ML, Scheme, and x86 assembly.

The only thing is Ubuntu generally doesn't come with any development packages installed - it's targeted more at users after all.  If you're programming in C and don't want to ssh or telnet into your local campus to do all your coding, you'll want to install at the very least the following packages:
* libc6-dev
* manpages-dev
* ddd (debugger)
* gcc
* valgrind (are you freeing all your memory?)
* indent (for when you've made a mess of it, run indent -kr -i8 file.c)

Those can be installed either via Synaptic Package Manager (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager) or via the command line with apt-get.

Ubuntu ships with at least three very capable editors - vim (Vi IMproved), gedit (GNOME's version of notepad), and nano.  I use vim, can tolerate gedit for programming, and abhor nano, but that's a very personal choice.

On the subject of drivers, you probably won't have a problem, but if you have any doubts, boot in LiveCD mode first to make sure the distro you eventually choose can find drivers for everything.  Personally, the only thing Ubuntu doesn't really know about is this dadgum fingerprint scanner.

Hope that helps, and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me or reply here.

[achtung]

I'll go ahead and suggest Fedora which is heavily backed by Red Hat.  It was the distro that essentially turned me into a Linux-only guy.

If you get a laptop, avoid Broadcom wireless cards like the ****ing plague.  The company refuses to release Linux drivers or release their design specs so drivers for their cards are naturally iffy/non-existant.

[Mars]

Ubuntu is ubiquitous...

but I like it.

I'd recommend Kubuntu or Xubuntu, but that's just cause I hate GNOME

[phreak]

I should be having a friend come over sometime this week to walk me through Gentoo.

[Fury]

I'm going to be getting a laptop to put Linux on, and from what I've heard a slightly older one is better, to avoid driver compatibility issues. How old do you think the laptop should be?

The age shouldn't be much of an issue. Regardless of age, problems are caused by unsupported hardware, especially wireless chip.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported

Free Software Foundation (FSF) recommends the Ralink 2500/RT2400 and Realtek RTL8180 chipsets. A recent (December 20, 2006) [WWW] article also mentions Ralink and Realtek as open-source friendly Wifi vendors, as well as Atmel.

As for video card, I recommend getting a laptop with either Intel onboard video or ATI Radeon. ATI support is only going to improve because they released tech specs for their cards, allowing people to code free drivers.

I recommend Ubuntu as well. I prefer it over Fedora for new users because it has more end-user friendly policies when it comes to non-free drivers and software. Repositories are in my opinion better handled in Ubuntu than Fedora from new user point of view.

However, nothing stops you from trying both of them. Partition your hard drive into four partitions. One partition for Ubuntu, second for Ubuntu's swap, third for Fedora and fourth for Fedora's swap. I know I left out separate home partitions, but since this is a laptop it shouldn't be difficult to backup stuff if reformat is necessary.

Should you choose Ubuntu, https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ and https://help.ubuntu.com/ will help you a lot. Likewise http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ and http://www.fedorafaq.org/ will help with Fedora.

I should be having a friend come over sometime this week to walk me through Gentoo.

Unless I'm mistaken, you are already well versed in linux stuff. Gentoo is by no means a distro for beginners.

[Ghostavo]

Actually, I recommend Gentoo to anyone being introduced to Linux, but ofcourse warning them of it's technical side so that they don't get scared away from Linux for good.

Sure, it looks complicated and difficult but it helps introduce most if not all the things that seperate a Linux distribution from say Windows. It brings concepts into the mind of the unexperienced that would otherwise be lost if he used Ubuntu and such "easy" to install distributions. After a Gentoo install (or several  ) you'll be ready to just about handle any distribution you want, and thanks to community efforts, it has by far the best documentation in any present distro so if you have doubts you can just read what to do.

The downsides are you have to be prepared to waste a lot of time in the beggining since it's a somewhat lengthy process if you aren't already aware of what to do, you have to know exactly what your computer's components are (which is not relevant if you use the kernel compile script they give you, but if you truly want a kernel configured specifically to your machine... ) and that thanks to Ubuntu popularity, google is overloaded with links to Ubuntu's forums when you try to research something more. Then again that last part is something all distribution other are suffering with in my opinion.

However, nothing stops you from trying both of them. Partition your hard drive into four partitions. One partition for Ubuntu, second for Ubuntu's swap, third for Fedora and fourth for Fedora's swap. I know I left out separate home partitions, but since this is a laptop it shouldn't be difficult to backup stuff if reformat is necessary.

Why two swaps? Isn't that just wasting space?

[Fury]

Why two swaps? Isn't that just wasting space?

In theory yes, but I had two distros crashing constantly because of shared swap partition, even though they weren't running at the same time. I didn't bother figuring out why it happened so I just went with having swaps for both.