Best distro for a newbie?

[#1]

Quote from: pierre_pierre

this thread clearly show the reason why Lunux has only intruded into the Bill Gates empire to the extent of 2.5% - it is far to Geeky, although I am using it, it came straight out of a box, every thing pre installed and working, no need to get my hand dirty

see below for source, Nov edition of PCPlus

[#2]

I did a search on Dell.
They offer one low end desktop and two laptops with Ubuntu - at least that's all I found (their sear engine is pretty bad).

[#3]

Quote from: axisofevil

If this command line idea is so bad, why does every OS provide a plain text editor? Windoze calls theirs notepad, Linux has a selection of various text editors.

In a text editor you write plain English. In a CL you have to write double-dutch!

Quote from: hootiegibbon

I would say to the newbie learn some basics or some CLI apps, if X ever fails ....

"X"?  OK I've learned now what X means but for a compete newbie your are talking a different language.
But I've probably made my point. Dos is outdated for normal use, and Linux will never get mainstream recognition until CLI goes the same way.
Just IMHO 

[#4]

Quote

In a CL you have to write double-dutch!

  thats not fair, the Dutch speak and understand English

[#5]

You can choose to not use a CLI.
That means never using the "DOS" screen in M$, or entering a command in their "Start" menu 
Of course you will lose functionality by limiting yourself to GUI only.
For example if I want to see network statistics of all my network interfaces, I use the the CLI to enter the command

ifconfig

without any parameters.

[#6]

I just think it's really interesting that the OP started with the statement " I'm not trying to start a distro war" and then proceeds to stoke a fire underneath the "Linux vs. Windows" debate ... Just MHO of course ...

[#7]

Quote from: Heloman

OK, I'm not trying to start a distro war!  I'm now  Linux-only and love it, but fear that I will never be able to persuade others to try it until it becomes more user friendly and less geekish.

I bet you've used that CLI thing 

[#8]

Yep. I've used that CLI thingy. But only painstakingly copy/pasting instructions I was given in a Linux Ng. No idea what I was really doing 🙂

Quote from: paulh

I just think it's really interesting that the OP started with the statement " I'm not trying to start a distro war" and then proceeds to stoke a fire underneath the "Linux vs. Windows" debate ... Just MHO of course ...

Linux vs. Windows would be an OS , not a distro, war!  And I'm sorry if you got the impression that I was starting a Linux/Windows debate. Not so. I haven't had Windows on my box for ages now, and would never go back to it.
I suppose I'm just bemoaning the fact that Linux is so reluctant to become as newbie/dummy /user friendly as Windows . Fortunately some distros such as PCLOS, Mepis, Mint etc seem to be going in the right direction 
.

Quote from: pierre_pierre

thats not fair, the Dutch speak and understand English

Indeed they do! I once spent time aboard a Dutch warship, and their English was impeccable (ie. often better than mine) 

[#9]

I have used Ubuntu for a few years now and the latest offering has moved forward in user-friendlieness a great deal, e.g. detection of plugins for example and ease of installation. The change to the deskop GUI has been a huge step forward for Linux in recent years and can only get better - why else would Dell provide Linux unless there was a market for it?
Linux will face difficulty in appealing to the masses due to its image of command line. It uses Open Source code and as there is no money in that for third-parties there is a shortage of companies willing to provide Linux apps etc will not help its appeal.
Who knows, maybe one day there will be a 'coming together' of Distros to supply a lot less well-supported and developed ones to truly rival other OSes in ease of use/support, esp Wireless which isn't the most reliable to get working at present but better than it used to be.

[#10]

There has already been a considerable convergence in Linux systems...
Read, in detail! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions

[#11]

Still a long way to go though IMHO to help the decision making process for those trying Linux for the first time.

[#12]

Yes. Wireless is a major problem still. Took me a few days browsing the web and learning about ndiswrappers etc. before I could get my Belkin wireless card working with PCLOS. So far the only distro which has been able to configure it from the GUI is Mepis 7.0.
You say "Linux will face difficulty in appealing to the masses due to its image of command line." I would suggest that its not the image of CL, but the fact that too many distros require its use, quite unnecessarily in my view.....

[#13]

Ubuntu allowed me to configure my Netgear wireless.
A simple GUI for specifying the IP address; default gateway; DNS etc.
Another GUI for monitoring signal strength and graphing S/N ratio.
But for monitoring, the simple CLI command :-

iwlist xxxx scanning 

where xxxx is the name of your wireless interface, will tell you much more. 

[#14]

I find Mint to be one of the best distro's for putting everything on the live cd - ie Flash, Java etc.
Others that make honourable attempts are:
Mepis,
PCLinuxOS,
Kiwi OS,
Moon OS,
Berry,
MCN (old and discontinued now - based on Mandriva though) - this one tries to setup my USB attached printer when it boots up!
There is a Toshiba Netbook coming out soon that uses Ubuntu for it's Linux variant, would be interesting to see what they've tweaked in that.

[#15]

This Linux Distribution Chooser is quite useful - it confirms that I'm using the right one.