Best distro for a newbie?

[#1]

Quote from: okrzynska

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.

I'm a simple faaarmer boi in Somerset - and I don't earn anywhere near that unfortunately :):)
That said. Linux skills are on the up and if technically competent, you certainly can command a decent salary nowadays - and much more opportunity to do it.
B.

[#2]

Quote from: okrzynska

I've heard of some of them earning in excess of £90k in the city. Thats what you call decent money.

That's why the banks went bust!!

[#3]

okrzynska, it's not a question of the programmer 'knowing better'.  he is fulfilling a need for himself and passing along the fruits of his labour, taken to the limit he wishes to go.  this is the wondrous nature of open source.  you, i, anyone, can now take that code and see how to add a gui.  it's beyond both my skill level and interest, but, fortunately for me, there is always some coder keen to find a project and eventually it will be taken up and written for.
none of this can happen if there is no feedback from the user as to what it desires, unless the coder happens upon the app and sees a use for it.
open source is 'pass it on'.  every time a piece of code is passed on, more eyes see what can be done with it, more people will do something with it and more people can contribute feedback in the form of criticism, suggestions for improvement, added features and anything else.
you haven't taken a look at mypclinuxos yet?  in march 2005, when i joined the pclinuxos community, there were few projects at mypclinuxos.  now there's 15 or more.  on pclinuxos there was something over 2000 members.  now there is ten times that number.  this means more people to join more projects, become packagers, help beautify linux, bring the wiki up to date being only a few.
pclinuxos has spawned myriad remasters by people who have discerned a need and set about fulfilling it.  tinyme, with a legacy kernel, for older, more limited hardware; BusinessEditionLlinux with server software for those requiring server facilities.  pclinuxos is a dedicated desktop distribution, but so well built is it that it is attractive as a base upon which to build a specialist distribution, of which there are hundreds based off various distributions.
'from each according to its means; to each according to its needs'
the originator does not need a gui, so he does not write one.  he leaves that to whomever comes along and fancies trying its hand at it.

[#4]

Your last sentence sums it up perfectly, artificer. Understandable but,  sadly IMO, that is why a non-techie newbie like me is easily put off Linux.
Apart from the dependence upon CLI, another aspect that annoys me is the difficulty of root access in so many distros. The attitude when I once raised the question in the Ubuntu forums was that a normal user shouldn't be trusted with such access in case they did themselves harm.....
My last OS was WinXP Home, where the user was admin by default and had immediate access to the registry and all system files!
Its become almost a hobby with me to try all latest distro releases as they come out, which needs constant changes to Grub. The only way I can easily do this is to copy/paste Menu.1st entries across partitions. Fortunately PCLinuxOS ( and a couple of others) with its enlightened root login allows me to do this 
That's just one of the many reasons that PCLOS appeals to me. I think that Tex is clearly aiming to make his distro appeal far more widely than just the tradiitional Linux community. I wish there were more like him...........

[#5]

it's a nonsensical attitude to suggest that the owner of a machine be denied root access.  when you need root privileges, they are accessible from within your user account.  the real advantage of not working in root, especially when going online, is the extra layer of security from intrusion you get.
a cracker might be able to get at your user area, if you used a weak password, but unless it can get the root password, it can only mess up your user.  it can't get at any other user on the machine, including root.
for many distros today, there is little need to go to the cli.  what people need to realise is that it all starts from the cli, which grew out of the lights, switches, punched tape and cards that had to be interpreted in a painstaking and boring way.  time was all documents, databases, spreadsheets and games were text only.  building a gui on top came much later and is continuing to evolve.
there is much less need for cli and those people who use it do so from choice because it's quicker.

[#6]

It is always possible to setup root access - GUI if you want it.
Just because Ubuntu allows many forms of root access, it doesn't mean that's a bad thing.
There are various forms possible:-
With a few exceptions,
sudo command - gives root access for a single command on CLI
sudo -i gives root access on CLI for the current session.
gksudo gives root access for a single GUI command/program (this is integrated into many system operations)
signing on as a root user:-
Allows you to do anything via CLI
Allows you to do anything, provided you have configured your GUI to allow root access.
It is trivial to setup a root password - although Ubuntu comes shipped without one.
But carrying out anything as root - whilst possible, simply puts you into the Windows virus world.

[#7]

Quote from: artificer

there is much less need for cli and those people who use it do so from choice because it's quicker.

Agree. With PCLOS, Mepis etc I never have to use CLI. But if ever I post a query in a Linux forum or Ng the reply invariably involves complex ( to me) CLI!

Quote from: axisofevil

But carrying out anything as root - whilst possible, simply puts you into the Windows virus world.

I never boot in as root when I'm online. Surely that's safe, isn't it?
Thanks for both your comments.

[#8]

Sorry - I meant to say carrying out everything out as root - not carrying out anything out as root! 
Actually the reason you get given CLI procedures if you go to a general Linux help area is that whilst most distro's
contain many of the same programs (commands), the interface is different between GUI's but standard on the CLI.

[#9]

an easy way to start, new laptop and Linux only £120 http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=225532&C=Newsletter&U=08P11-4&T=11946872

[#10]

i'd rather buy a second hand laptop from ebay.  better spec and decent sized screen.

[#11]

The best distro for a Linux newbie?
That depends on what the newbie wants from Linux. It is possible to install a version of Linux from a CD/DVD, and get it up and running without too much trouble. Doing this is probably similar to installing XP from a CD/DVD, and again you get it working without too much trouble. In neither case do you learn anything about the OS you just installed and when they break (both will) you won't know where to start to fix it.
If you want to learn about Linux, you need to install gentoo. It needs a LOT of command line interaction, but you can be guided by the best Linux documentation available of any distro. It will take you a long time the first time you do it, but you will learn a hell of a lot about Linux. And you will end up with one of the best optimised, most flexible, most complete distros there is. You can keep this system current for years and never need to re-install a new version.

[#12]

I would go for Ubuntu - if the object is to get a fully-functional computer up and running in a few minutes. 
Gentoo is too hard for me.

[#13]

I agree that Gentoo is too hard for a Linux newbie. Its too hard for me after two years Linux experience.
What I wanted as a newbie is is a distro I can install and have up-and-running with minimum knowledge. What I didn't want was "a LOT of command line interaction"! In fact I don't ever want to have to use the CL. That should be strictly for geeks, not the average home user.!
I know Ubuntu is flavour of the month,. we've discussed this at length elsewhere. But even though I started with it, I found PCLOS and Mepis much easier.

[#14]

`flavor of the month` does not mean best 

[#15]

Well Ubuntu has done all that I've wanted over the last couple of years.
Still does.