Best distro for a newbie?

[#1]

Thanks for that link, sinynorman.
I tried answering first with my current state of knowledge after nearly 2 years with Linux, and it came up with Freespire, Mandriva, OpenSuSe and Ubuntu.
I next tried it as the complete dummy/newbie I was when I first started and it came up with, (have a guess!), Freespire, Mandtiva, OpenSuSe and Ubuntu!
It gave PCLOS a mention, but with the proviso: "May require Linux knowledge". It didn't even mention Mepis or Mint which with PCLOS are the three distros that I would recommend for any beginner without any technical knowledge, and which best satisfy their question:
"Do you need easy access to a lot of ready-to-run software"?
Who on earth runs zegenie Studios? 

[#2]

Quote from: axisofevil

But for monitoring, the simple CLI command :- iwlist xxxx scanning where xxxx is the name of your wireless interface, will tell you much more.

Using "simple" and "CLI" in the same breath is an oxymoron 

[#3]

Quote from: Heloman

Quote from: axisofevil But for monitoring, the simple CLI command :- iwlist xxxx scanning where xxxx is the name of your wireless interface, will tell you much more.  Using "simple" and "CLI" in the same breath is an oxymoron

I dunno, 'whoami' is simple enough....
Jase

[#4]

Quote from: Heloman

It didn't even mention Mepis or Mint which with PCLOS are the three distros that I would recommend for any beginner ...

You could give them some feedback, if you have the time...

[#5]

PCLOS most definitely!
I have tried various distros over the years, Red Hat, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, Zenwalk and the list goes on. I settled with Fedora for my webserver.
I have for some time being planning to switch all 5 of my machines to Linux because eventually it will be that or Vista. Being that my Commodore 64 is better than Vista I think I will go with Linux
I have being testing PCLOS 2007 on my laptop for a couple of days now and it has blown me away. One of my main concerns was Dreamweaver. I am just after installing it on the laptop (with wine) and it was just like installing it on Windows. Surely it cannot be that easy? Next step will be install on my main machine for more testing but looking very good so far. Definitely recommended!

[#6]

Quote from: Heloman

1. It doesn't initially include all the "proprietary" software (eg Flash) that you  need for even basic use and so for a computer dummy (ie. normal home user like me) it becomes a nightmare to configure when you don't even know your way around the OS. 2. It requires an understanding of Command Lines. What are they? Why?  Whats wrong with  desktop management - sorry, GUI I should call it! 3. If you need admin rights, you're invited to open a terminal. What's a terminal? And type "sudo" whatever that is......

I've got agree with all 3 of those points and its the main reason I've never made the permanent switch to linux. Sure I've run Suse for weeks on end at various points in time but I got so fed up with everything taking hours to research, try, fail, try again, fail, more research, more hours waiting for forum responses, more sturggling etc that I gave up and went back to Windows. I far prefer the GUI and also fail to see the logic of everything being command line driven in linux. In fact I hate having to refer to the console for everything which could be done just as easily in a GUI. Want a 56k PCI modem to work in linux? Fat chance. Despite that, people continue to swear that linux is better. It can work all sorts of other PCI devices but just not 56k. Then finding drivers for sound or GFX cards is a nightmare too. I like the linux idea of a completely free OS but they've still got a long way to go. I also like headless boxes on my network as it saves disk space. Linux doesn't really support this unless you install freeNX which again is a command line installation. Even then freeNX creates a virtual session on the machine - not a real one. Log back in to the real one after using a virtual and the files on the desktop aren't there. Whats the point in that? At least XP gives you RD which gives you proper access to the machine.
I've tried ubuntu... not so keen. Suse... nice interface but again not so keen due to its complexity. Slackware... never again. Knoppix... the easiest of the easiest yet you can't save anything unless you sudo root and unlock HDD access. Knoppix also comes with tons of software which other distros seem unable to fit onto a CD - Why? I've used Redhat in the past on a VPS I used to have. That wasn't the best of OS's either but at least it had some pretty decent support. I'm intending to try PCLOS at some point as I hear its better.
Well thats the end of my rant... time to go and try to fix the car..

[#7]

being in the cli is like being in the radio; unless you have some visual reference, you can't imagine what is being talked about.  if you've seen a field full of ripe wheat, then, if that is mentioned on the radio, you can visualise it.
this could be why the command line interface is so terrifying to some and induces supreme reluctance in others, yet is relished by afficionados.
breaking out of this cycle of fear is easy if you only do it when you want to, not because you have to.
someone on the forum suggests 'df in a konsole and post the results' - der?
someone wishing to learn how to perform a function might ask 'what's the command to see all my files in a particular directory?'
told the answer 'ls' another reader might be intrigued as to what this command does, open a console and see for itself.
suddenly there is no fear because there is no expectation,  instead, a spirit of exploration.  seeing what the command does may provoke a desire to experiment with other commands simply to see what they do.
cd
grep
man
info
ifconfig
df
ping
are all commands safe to use and often the quickest way to accomplish a task.  with a konsole always open you have the option to use it where it will get you want you want fastest.
it is faster to df for your partition usage than to click several times through the gui.
it is faster to find information about your network card using ifconfig than it is to open an application, click to the relevant section then click the option.
after a while you will begin to relish the presence of the command line and make all manner of discoveries.
there will come a time when everything can be configured using the gui alone.  it will not be for a while as there is not a sufficiency of developers concentrating on the gui platform.  more are joining in every day, but we have not yet reached that critical mass that spurs on the development at t a faster pace.

[#8]

Example of power of CLI
I do a daily backup (automated) of my most vital files on a daily basis to a second disk, with the date as part of the sub-directory created each day.
(See System -> Admin -> simple backup in ubuntu).
I can list my backups with the "simple" command

sudo du -h /backup | sort -k2

This shows the sizes of all the directories in my special /backup partition.
It took me ages to work it out 
I can explain it - if asked

[#9]

it's beautiful, axis and so economical.  have you set it up as a cron job?

[#10]

The beauty of the CLI is that it allows a huge amount of automation that would not be possible with the GUI.
Part of my day job (apart from lurking in forums) is administration of a fairly large Unix server farm - and believe me I 'have it automated as far as I can.  It means my day is free to figure out ways to automate more stuff, and plan and implement improvements.  It also means if the brown stuff hits the air-current generation device, I can immediately hop into action.
B.

[#11]

Sbackup is ideally suited to those who prefer a GUI interface.
See documentation at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem/SimpleBackupSuite
It will only backup (at least directly) to a hard disk - not via network, CD, DVD etc.
Basically you specify how often it does an incremental backup and how often a full backup.
It's totally GUI based - including configuration and restores.
It generates a CRON job - this is a system which runs jobs in the background, without any user intervention.
It is necessary for your computer to be switched on at your chosen backup time.
There is a GUI option to run the backup "now" if you missed a backup.
All my command does is to show that a backup has run and is of an appropriate size.
[run in a CLI]

[#12]

In my experience Linux has come a long way since I first tried it about 7 years ago as far as useability for a newcommer. Although there are some things that can only be done using the command line this also has advantages as pointed out. Personally I think it is useful for remote access and I would use it often for my Fedora webserver. Very rarely would I use VNC. I still have limited command line knowledge and admit that it is something that is daunting and complex to start with. I think it would be good to mention Linux use of config files also. Many people would find this complex but it also has huge advantages. If you compare Microsoft IIS to Apache. This would be the example I am familiar with. There are only so many settings that can be changed in IIS due to the use of a GUI whereas in Apache the options are endless. Not forgetting that there are also web based tools that will make changing config files and running comands easier if you so wish. Webmin, PHPmyAdmin and Swat are a few examples.
Linux may not yet be 100% as easy as Windows for someone who has little or no computer knowledge but with distros like PCLOS it is definitely getting there. It is also good to see manufactures shipping with Linux like the Asus eee for example. At a time soon after Microsoft released (in my opinion) the worst operating system ever this can only be good for Linux! I would love to see Linux putting up a good challenge to Microsoft sometime in the future.
I personally hope to have all my machines completely switched over by the end of this year including the use of entirely native Linux apps and not Wine. This is a process I am taking very slowly and doing a lot of learning and testing along the way.

[#13]

I gotta sorta agree with you Sean to be honest. While I dislike the linux way of life being limited to the command line for most advanced stuff I do see the sense in what you say. I remeber when I was 18 years ago and just discovered that you could host apache on your own computer (I always beleived you had to have a special server bit of hardware for the job). I found the httpd.conf file and was lost - for days. Eventually I got it all sussed out and working (as you do like). Thing is with linux though it isn't one program - its an entire operating system and a very complex one at that. I frequently wish I was as skilled as Mr Zubel as unix admins can command very high wages. I've heard of some of them earning in excess of £90k in the city. Thats what you call decent money. I'm also a massive fan of automation in general and beleive that in the future this is the way forward.
Still.... for newbies like me linux is a monstor I don't want to fight. I've been there done that and every time I've reverted back to windows for its ease of use. It just annoys me that these programmers can spend hours writing code for their program to parse a file of settings yet they can't create simple GUI forms where a user can point and click. Wheres the logic?

[#14]

the logic is in that the programmer discerns a need and fulfills it in the way that suits him, usually the konsole.  it is not until much later that some developer comes along, finds the app useful and decides to create a front end.  only rarely does the initiating author follow through from konsole app to gui.  for him, it's unneccessary.

[#15]

Exactly - for him. For the rest of us who don't want to spend countless hours googling the commands or why it wasn't understood we need the GUI. Still, you know what these programmers are like... they know better.