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What's the best Linux for beginners?

desktoplinux.com — This short article suggests the best distros for Windows users who want to switch to Linux and basically just want a virus-free, crash-free, working PC.

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deviceguru 2 years 3 days ago

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Waterrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7
When I decided to leave Windows, I did a lot of research and lurked in a lot of Linux forums...Reading the flame wars, the jucey bits and the plane old nitty-gritty on the less savory aspects of Linux (dependency hell).
Hours I whittled away weighing the pros and cons of a handful of promising distros I deemed user-friendly to a Windows user.
I'd used Windows for over ten years, so the decision to leave was not to be made lightly.

The Debian-based looked the best and several were evaluated carefully by yours truly. At long last, I burned a live CD of the distro that yelled "Try me!" the loudest.

That very one that so many people hold in such bitter contempt ...The black sheep of the Linux family...Linspire had won the race and the covited spot on my hard drive.
I know just saying the dreaded word:"Linspire" can get a person Dugg down and cause some Linux users to puke through their noses. or exit the room screaming..And I probably should have warned you first that I might use the "L'Spire word.
And I'm keenely aware that nothing about Linspire (unless it's bad news) gets Dugg anywhere but down...But I like it and it helped me say goodbye to Windows, which should count for something.
- subgeniusd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@Waterrat: "I know just saying the dreaded word:"Linspire" can get a person Dugg down".
  
  Well I'm in Xandros right now (mentioned extensively in the article) and I don't give a flip about any LFS/Slackware user's opinion about it. This is also a fully configurable distro with an active tweaker community of advanced users that even have their own area in the Xandros forums.
  
  I am impressed with the moves Linspire is making and think that ANY company that presses the cause forward merits support from all of us. I always include Linspire/Freespire when recommending options to interested Win converts.
  
  I hope that one day even the purists/fundamentalists will get tired of our 3rd rate status and get behind anyone and everyone helping to increase the migration away from Windows.
trogdoor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is just my personal opinion, but I think the majority of Digg users don't need an 'easy' linux distribution. Many people will be more confortable to begin with, but at some point most Digg users will have learned enough about Linux to start doing really interesting things, things that Xandros has not made a point to make easy to do because their target demographic does not want to do them.

As said in the article, a distribution like Xandros will annoy linux 'power users' , but believe me, it probably won't take more than a few months, if that, before you are a power user yourself and you start getting annoyed with Xandros too.

That said, I personally think that Ubuntu is a good comprimise that will accommodate users of verying ability quite well, and if you want a system you can easily understand the workings of, I recomend Slackware.

But to each his own, and if you find a disribution you feel confortable with, by all means stick with it.
- Waterrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 I was a power user in Windows...And your right,I'm not there yet with Linux...Still taking baby steps.(Just now learning about Wine.)
  I plan to have two hard drives in my next 'puter,with React OS, Linspire and some other distros...Maybe even BSD.
SmartAssProds, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I know I'm responding to a very old article, but whatever! I think anything that gets Linux out there is a good thing, and I really don't care which distribution(s) anyone uses, as long they're no longer uses M$ windoze. Personally, I like Ubuntu and it's what I've installed on all of my computers, including laptops. By the way, I started using UNIX in the '80s, before anyone had invented the GUI, so I'm VERY comfortable at the command line; I use Ubuntu now because I like it.
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What's the best Linux for beginners?

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