skulspike92 Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 So, I have a lot of free time and and old computer and want to try out a version of linux and try to learn some code of some programs and make sense of all the things I hear about on the show, and be able to do it. My question is, what version of linux should I download on this old computer? Also, what are some programs that are easy to learn code for. I will probably get the book "program name" for dummies, and youtube a bunch of videos about this program to try and make sense of it. Also, if you know any website that has useful help on these programs, listing them won't hurt any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Ubuntu or one of its variants, if you've not used Linux before it will give you the least amount of problems. There are others, but Ubuntu is geared towards people who ask questions like "what version of Linux should I download?". It has forums and something vaguely approaching a documentation wiki (although its no FreeBSD handbook), so it should be a perfect place to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D1g1ta1 Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 So, I have a lot of free time and and old computer and want to try out a version of linux and try to learn some code of some programs and make sense of all the things I hear about on the show, and be able to do it. My question is, what version of linux should I download on this old computer? Also, what are some programs that are easy to learn code for. I will probably get the book "program name" for dummies, and youtube a bunch of videos about this program to try and make sense of it. Also, if you know any website that has useful help on these programs, listing them won't hurt any. Never been a huge fan of Ubuntu but if you need a disto that gets you up and running its a good choice. I stick with Gentoo / freeBSD / Debian I dont know why im thinking you would like Gentoo : maybe because thats my primary OS Installed right now :) Ultimately the best advice I can give you is first figure out a language you want to learn and go from there. Each distro has its quirks so you will end up learning the management portion as well while you are trying to learn programming. Last thought is i know plenty of programmers and a few of them code on a windows based OS. Either way good luck.. https://help.ubuntu.com/ http://www.gentoo.org/ http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1...book/index.html http://www.debian.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I love FreeBSD but its not a very good desktop OS, its far better for servers. Gentoo is a circle jerk tbh, its not an amazing experience when it comes to your first introduction to Linux. Debian is good, but I'm not a fan of the free/non-free debate (lack of Broadcom drivers for PowerEdges for instance), so Debain based is generally better than actual Debian imho. Another good distro for newbies is Fedora. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabster21 Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Depends what you want out of it. You say you have plenty of time and it's not your main OS. If you really want to find out more about linux and have the time, well have fun with Gentoo - some call it fun. Other than that it usually comes down to packages and management. If all you're going to do is browse the web, many will suit. However you tend to find programmers of certain languages like certain ones et cetera. If you want to try FreeBSD but not so sure what you're doing, look at PCBSD. If you like new features Fedora is popular for this, you can make use of the rawhide repository, this is a daily/nightly build of the latest packages. So it's not very noob friendly in the sense if something goes wrong you're probably not going to know how to fix it. Basically check out http://www.distrowatch.com , read what some of the top distros are about and see what takes your fancy. You can always ditch it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skulspike92 Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 ok I'll check those out... Im gonna look at your link cabster and also consider Fedora Getntoo and Ubuntu. Im gonna look up which is more user friendly to people who know nothing like me. And yea this is just going to be another comp in my basement that will be used for some web surfing when I'm bored and my bro is on this comp. BTW the Linux based comp will be a Pentium 4 dual core at 3.2 ghz with 1gb ddr3 ram, might upgrade to 2/4 if i get some spear money. Also, right now on my windows comp its a i7 960 @ 3.8 with 12gb DDR3 ram with a 5870and gigabyte UD5 MB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 That machine should run almost any flavor of *nix or *BSD with little problems (depending on specific hardware). CentOS and FreeBSD are nice, but I can't be arsed to learn them when Ubuntu works what I want to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IOSys Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 (edited) If you really want to learn Linux, Gentoo isn't a bad distro to choose.. True, it is not as easy as Ubuntu.. and that's exactly why it's a great place to start learning Linux .. CentOS and FreeBSD are nice, but I can't be arsed to learn them when Ubuntu works what I want to do. Now that's the spirit of a true hacker [/s] Edited July 13, 2010 by IOSys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Gentoo is a piss poor place for a newbie to start, mainly as it does not represent Linux as a whole (borrows heavily from FreeBSD). If you want the hard option, I would recommend something like FreeBSD as it does make you do everything yourself, but is documented and follows a very logical structure. Same with Debian or CentOS. Ubuntu however, remains the best choice for someone with no exposure to Linux at all, and somewhat limited Windows ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabster21 Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Ubuntu or some spin of Ubuntu is a good place to start IF you were looking to replace your Windows machine. You're not though. The guide you get with Gentoo is pretty well written, you will get introduced to the file system and the components that make up the OS. That doesn't mean you couldn't get this from another distro, but what's the point in using a distro where "everything just works" when you're not using as your main system and you want to learn? You'll turn it on and say "Oh, it looks kind of like Mac. Nice? What now?" Like I say, most distros have a goal. See which one suits you but it really isn't going to matter, you can jump everyday if you really felt like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 ...but what's the point in using a distro where "everything just works"... LOL, that has to be the best quote on record about Linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skulspike92 Posted July 14, 2010 Author Share Posted July 14, 2010 so is ubuntu and gentoo the 2 main os's that I should look at and see what fits me? or should I also look into FreeBSD and personally, I am one of those people that wonder... why does this work? and how does it work? and want to take these things apart like you were saying about Gentoo cabster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Posted July 14, 2010 Share Posted July 14, 2010 It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to compile everything from source and find out how everything "works" you might look into Gentoo. Personally that's too much work for me, just to get an OS up and running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skulspike92 Posted July 15, 2010 Author Share Posted July 15, 2010 (edited) right now I installed Ubuntu and I'm gonna fool around with this for a little and try out Gentoo for a little bit after I mess around with this *EDIT* The system is now a dell inspiron 1520 laptop and not the pentium 4 system Also, are there any programs or books that will help me out in learning code? Edited July 16, 2010 by skulspike92 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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