Wich Linux Should I Choose?

I am an older, competent, windows user who would love to migrate to Linux. Unfortunately there is no easy path. Linux seems to be a program written by geeks who want it to be different, forcing a windows user wanting to move over to completely learn a new way to use the internet. Even moving to Apple is easier. To learn Linux is like forcing us to learn Chinese from scratch. That will not happen.

Unless a pathway, or a bridge, which is "somewhat" like windows is provided so we can assimilate into this new OS called Linux, I, we, will never really accept Linux to replace Windows. Even though we want to get away from Windows, there is no way to do it, because Linux is just too different to easily learn. I can play with Linux, but that is all I can do - play with it, not use it on a daily basis.
SAD.

And here we are, going to be forced to accept Windows 10 as the next OS, and I have nothing to say about it, for MS will soon kill Win7 like they killed XP, and force me to go to Win10, when I don't want to. I would love to use Linux, but the learning curve is just toooooo steep.
SAD

It would be nice to have a version which would make moving from Windows to Linux easy. The reality is, though, Linux is an OS for the younger geeks, or experienced programmer, not an OS for the avg user. Why can't that change? I realize this is an age old question, which has been around for years, but I'm realizing it is now becoming a reality I need to face.

Hello all.
I have been using Linux OS's of and on since 1996. I completely gave up on MS in 2006. I change out a hard drive in my PC and MS thought I should purchase a new site license, I did not agree with that train of thought.
I found that popping in a disk and getting Linux up and running was easy to the belief that "Nothing could be this easy". It really was. The learning curve was encountered when trying to make Linux Fly. I recommend that everyone new to Linux or anyone with a desire to do a bit more than e-mail, catalog some photos or music get your hands on a Linux command reference guide and learn the terminal. There is so much to understand and do With Free Open Source Software and there are so many ways to access, install and configure the available software. There are so many resources for help and trouble shooting all things Linux however, here's the caveat; I really had to learn how to ask the question to get an answer that worked for me. General question will get you general answers and rarely ever was the answer I sought found the hodgepodge of generalities found in forums or Google searches and the like. I learn to be very specific in my question and the answers were discerned with less difficulty. There are really answers or fixes for the questions I have had concerning Linux.

They say there are no secrets in Linux. I am finding that learning about Linux is becoming a life long experience. I have just started using a Debian distribution that is behind the Raspberry pi. My first problem was that the display would go to sleep after about 15 mins when not used. I wanted to turn this feature off. That is I wanted the display to be on all the time.
After some web searching I came across a way to do this. It involved a file in the root area called "lightdm" which stands for light display manager (I think).
Then under this as a file called the lightdm.conf file. Just one line in the config file gets modified. Now doing this via the monkey see monkey do method works. But trying to find out how this works and exactly what the cryptic commands do, ends up being a frustrating endless search. I tried to find the source code for lightdm buts its documentation is certainly not for beginners.
I tried finding out what a "greeter" was once again huge amounts of time spent trying to make sense of endless terminology.

It seems that nowadays trying to learn about the details of any software system is just so hard. Like try and find good documentation on drivers.
Don't get me wrong I love the fact that at least Linux is open source but I wish there was an easy way to learn about it.

The general question is: How behind are packages being packaged in Ubuntu? I know that this depends on the package and a ton of things, but I just want to get a sense of (stable vs. cutting edge--is there a good balance of both?) Ultimately, I want a system that fast, reliable, up-to-date, and easy to maintain.

I find myself debating whether to go with minimal Ubuntu, Arch Linux, or Slackware. I did some reading and realize that Ubuntu and Slackware are considered stable while Arch Linux is considered bleeding edge (yes, I realize Arch and Slackware require more work to maintain) but never to what extent. For example, I don't mind at all spending a ton of time setting things up since it is a one-time process, but I don't want to spend more than say 10 minutes a month for maintenance and ensuring things to work. From what I've read, Arch actually doesn't require much.

I'm not sure how behind the packages in Ubuntu/Slackware are to warrant me switching to another distro. I'm also not sure how stable Arch Linux is to warrant me to switching to a cutting/bleeding-edge distro for up-to-date stable packages (NOT anything newer, I don't want bleeding edge). I know that Arch has tests its packages too, but people often say "expect breakage".

Thanks!

Some notes:

- Don't recommend Ubuntu simply because Arch/Slackware requires a higher level of understanding to make it work. I intend to read documentations.
- I get the sense that Canonical is in the direction of "my way or the highway" and I really align with the Arch Way, but these are just philosophies that shouldn't have too much say in choosing a distro.
- Package management is important to me in sense that the system is tidy. For now, I have avoided PPAs on Ubuntu for this reason (apt-pinning is a solution but I don't know if it's a complete solution--if it is, I would have no problems with PPAs and actually use them).
- I like a system where it is bloat-free and has what I want, perhaps building from the base up. I don't know if this would necessarily provide me better performance though. I think Slackware kind of goes against this, but it's not a big deal especially because I heard Slackware is quite optimized somehow.
- I was originally set on Arch, but there are people telling me "expect breakage", "never update before an important event because of this" , "too much work to maintain when I just want to get things done" , and highlighting the disadvantages of a rolling-distro. This while I read things like "the only time Arch has broken for me was cause of my mistake in 3 years of using it" , "maintaining Arch takes like 5 minutes a month" , "as long as you subscribe to Arch news and don't do crazy stuff, Arch is as stable as any distro".
- I intend on being a programmer/doing software engineering if that matters. Maybe it means I don't want to spend too much time maintaining (not setting) the OS when I've got other things to do.

Thanks once again.

Good day everyone,

I'm currently a student and as far as I'm aware I still need windows for some program I need, but I am going over to Linux.
(Thus I'm running Windows 8 at this moment)

Today I was going to install Ubuntu 14.04.01 alongside Windows 8, everything went well till I hit the 4th step (Installation type page) of the installation:

A message like follows showed:
"This computer currently has Debian GNU/Linux (Kali Linux 1.0.7) on it. What would you like to do?"

There are then 3 options available:
1) Install Ubuntu alongside Debian GNU/Linux (Kali Linux 1.0.7)
2) Replace Debian GNU/Linux (Kali Linux 1.0.7) with Ubuntu
3 and 4 is greyed out.
5) Something else (You can create resize partitions yourself, or choose multiple partitions for Ubuntu.

I just want to make sure what option to choose, I cant afford to lose all my data and windows.

Problem: Showing Kali Linux as current OS and not Windows 8.

Possible reason for showing Kali Linux as current OS:
I have a live CD of Kali Linux and ran it a few times in the past, but according to my knowledge it shouldn't have changed anything.

Maybe the 1st option is still the right one even though the current OS isn't listed right? Or the 3rd option is like a manual setting I guess.

Thanks for the time reading and helping!

Hi, I'm a newbie. I've moved from windows 8.1 to Slackware a coupe days. They said If I want to know deeper about computer, I have to use one of Linux distro. So Slackware is very basic, that's why I try it. I used use Ubuntu a few time before but Slackware which it's harder. I begin search in the internet about driving the distro.

My language is not English. I used Lingoes in Windows. Now I'm lookin for same one. I need a help for downloading, installing software, maybe step by step because I don't have much experience at Linux in common.

Hi Guys,

I'm new to this community and i just have a basic Linux knowledge especialy Ubuntu+ UbuntuServer. I'm Studying IT its my last year and im working on a thesis called "Windows Vs Linux". I'm trying to setup a virtual company environment in windows and the same in Linux. I want to compare the both... what are the pros and cons from both operating systems, stability, Security, managability, TCO,... . I did some research and stuff but for the Linux part its not easy... So i have a few questions, hopefully I'm getting some response. First of all I'm thinking of using Ubuntuserver LTS as server side OS and for the workclients Mint or ubuntu. Is this a good distro choice ?

My second and i think its the hardest part of setting up a manageable Linux Company environment is an Active directory alternative that offers the same functionality in Linux. Is this possible ? Ok you have like openlDAP and stuff but thats just basic authentication password and shit, but do you have something like GPOS for Linux ?

I'm hoping someone can help me out a bit

Grtz

I am new to Linux & Unix environment.

Could anyone please provide me the Internet URL where I can learn Linux online Free of Cost?

Where would I get a chance to do hands on while learning this new topic?

Thanks in advance for any king help

Regards,

Jayant

I have dual-boot configuration, Windows and Linux Mint. I would like to replace Mint with Slackware. Problem is, Mint installed GRUB and Slackware uses LILO. At the moment I don't have second computer so I can't use help of internet if anything goes wrong, so I need first to make sure I know what to do.
Do I just proceed with installing Slackware and LILO will overwrite GRUB? Or how do I do it?

Hello

As a learning experience, I want to jump from Windows 7 to Linux full time on my laptop. This isn't because of some antiWindows bullshit or because its free or anything like that. I just want to learn the ins and outs of Linux like I pretty much know on Windows.

I plan to go with Ubuntu. LTS or latest stable version? Thoughts?

First off, compatibility. I do need that all my hardware on my laptop be compatible. From shortcut keys to wifi. This is not a brand new laptop so there shouldn't be any problems. Its a Dell Vostro 1510.

Next, software. Basically on this laptop software I use in and out: uTorrent, Teamviewer, WMP, mIRC, Skype, vSphere Client, Microsoft Office......That's pretty much it IMO. Also Facebook and YouTube (Flash) are a must. I will run all this software in WINE. I don't want (most) of the Linux ports. Im not looking to replace programs I like and use daily. Just looking to replace the operating system.

Next, virtualization. Due to some things (like Office) cannot be ran in Linux, I use a VM. VMWare with its unity feature pretty much gives me what I want.

Next, streaming. I need to be able to stream media from a WS2012R2 to this Linux installation. Special setup?

Anything that is blowing over me, please mention.

Thank you