I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix? Eric
----- Original Message ----- From: Martin, Eric <martine@worc.k12.ma.us> Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 09:04:51 -0400 Subject: [Wlug] Another distro Question To: Worcester Linux Users Group <wlug@mail.wlug.org> I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix? Eric, Are you familair with the Knoppix hdinstall? It is not 100% perfect yet, but sometimes that the linux feel :). As it is using debain as its under pinnings, you can then show them how to migrate from knoppix to the debain stable/unstable repoistories and update their systems. If you are looking ofr more of a windows based installers where you answer some questions, install and don't touch it again, then they are all toss-ups. Why don't you think RPMS give you the Linux feel? If you are loking for the barebones to the metal feel go with Gentoo, but this I think will scare general users. Thanks Brian
Suse is a good looking distro....pretty icons and colorful screens. Mandrake 10 is also full of eye candy. Fedora Core is really dry and bland...if you want to show people cool stuff, i'd avoid it as you are. Knoppix is harddrive installable, too, if you want. Mepis has a livecd too but I forget how that looks....i think it was colorful as well. --- "Martin, Eric" <MartinE@worc.k12.ma.us> wrote:
I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix?
Eric
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Is this course as much about learning Unix/Linux commands or the distribution itself? I believe that virtually any Linux distribution could be a good choice if you are spending most of your time discussing how to use the command line and general administrative tasks. Once the command line basics and bash shell scripting is covered, specific distributions could be covered. I would then say that Fedora or Suse are good general choices. Slackware is good too but it is not necessarily for a new user. On Tue, 2004-08-17 at 09:04, Martin, Eric wrote:
I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix?
Eric
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Martin, Eric wrote:
I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix?
The knoppix 3.4 hard disk install with the "debian" option gives you a very nicely configured system that should more-or-less work on most modern hardware. It is NOT debian, although based on debian, but for your purposes should be just fine. Be advised that getting it to a normal debian state is NOT trivial, although the results can be quite satisfying. So if you're going to use knoppix to start with, continuing on with the hd install will give the same features and look while allowing further customization. Just keep in mind that it's not *really* debian, and some updates can give headaches. It's not also notably secure. - Bob
I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix?
I would say Slackware would be a good distro to show people Linux. It's simple, secure, and stable. It does have the tgz packages, but you dont have to use them. The only problem is the install is not as pretty as some of the other distros. -Joe
Slackware for beginners, ugh, I'd say not. If you want a good beginners distro, go with Gentoo (though it still has a little learning curve for installation and setup) or get one of the distro's that does more for you like Fedora Core 2 (which I'm running and like a lot), Mandrake or Suse. They make much better beginner friendly distro's. Remember, you want to make the switchover easier on users, otherwise they won't make it. IMHO, Slackware would be too hard to learn for a beginner (but don't get my wrong, I love Slackware, just not for a beginner). Chuck On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 05:32:12 -0400, Frank Rizzo <joe@crankhouse.com> wrote:
I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix?
I would say Slackware would be a good distro to show people Linux. It's simple, secure, and stable. It does have the tgz packages, but you dont have to use them. The only problem is the install is not as pretty as some of the other distros.
-Joe
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-- Chuck Haines chaines@gmail.com ------------------------------------------- Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity WPI Class of 2005 ------------------------------------------- AIM: CyberGrex YIM: CyberGrex_27 ICQ: 3707881 -------------------------------------------
I agree that the install might not be quite as user friendly as a Mandrake or SuSe, but if you're thinking about using Gentoo you should also think about using Slackware. Like I said before - it's a pretty straight forward distro, you get out of it what you put into it. Great for learning, IMO. On Thu, Aug 19, 2004 at 05:39:53AM -0400, Chuck Haines wrote:
Slackware for beginners, ugh, I'd say not. If you want a good beginners distro, go with Gentoo (though it still has a little learning curve for installation and setup) or get one of the distro's that does more for you like Fedora Core 2 (which I'm running and like a lot), Mandrake or Suse. They make much better beginner friendly distro's. Remember, you want to make the switchover easier on users, otherwise they won't make it. IMHO, Slackware would be too hard to learn for a beginner (but don't get my wrong, I love Slackware, just not for a beginner).
Chuck
On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 05:32:12 -0400, Frank Rizzo <joe@crankhouse.com> wrote:
I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix?
I would say Slackware would be a good distro to show people Linux. It's simple, secure, and stable. It does have the tgz packages, but you dont have to use them. The only problem is the install is not as pretty as some of the other distros.
-Joe
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-- Chuck Haines chaines@gmail.com ------------------------------------------- Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity WPI Class of 2005 ------------------------------------------- AIM: CyberGrex YIM: CyberGrex_27 ICQ: 3707881 ------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
On Thu, 19 Aug 2004, Chuck Haines wrote:
Slackware for beginners, ugh, I'd say not. If you want a good beginners distro, go with Gentoo (though it still has a little learning curve for installation and setup) or get one of the distro's that does more for you like Fedora Core 2 (which I'm running and like a lot), Mandrake or Suse. They make much better beginner friendly distro's. Remember, you want to make the switchover easier on users, otherwise they won't make it. IMHO, Slackware would be too hard to learn for a beginner (but don't get my wrong, I love Slackware, just not for a beginner).
I consider Gentoo a good learning distribution for people who want to get to know Linux (layouts, etc), but I'm thinking that a course at public schools will probably have low end hardware to work with. I'm not sure how much learning they'll do while they wait for their packages to compile on the older hardware. Glibc itself would take at least a class. Has anyone tried installing Gentoo using pre-built packages? I know it's supposed to be possible, but I've never tried it. I'm not sure how usable it really is. -- Greg Boyce
On Thursday 19 August 2004 09:26 am, gboyce@badbelly.com wrote:
Has anyone tried installing Gentoo using pre-built packages? I know it's supposed to be possible, but I've never tried it. I'm not sure how usable it really is.
GRP works nicely to get you up and running (ive used it once or twice), but after that the binary package support works pretty nicely ... for example, i have 4 little identical arm machines, and they all share a package directory over NFS ... when one builds a package, the others can update using the binary package that was created ... build once, emerge four times there is also a binary package host feature which i use with my slow routers ... on a central server i run a chroot that mirrors the routers ... i keep that system up-to-date and constantly build binary packages ... then on my routers, i point portage to the ftp server which has all the binary packages and they use that to update -mike
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tuesday 17 August 2004 9:04 am, Martin, Eric wrote:
I'm teaching a Beginners Linux course in a few weeks for Nitelife with the Worc Pub Schools. I was almost ready to go with Fedora, but I don't think that has what I'm looking for. I want something easy for people to pickup, and I don't think RPMs don't give you the linux feel. I'm going to start out w/Knoppix, but I also want to get into a disk install. I've only used Gentoo, RHAT, and Knoppix. A friend mentioned SuSe, but I've never used it. Very open to suggestions, I want as people to enjoy this class, not think that linux is out of their grasp. So, the question is what distro would people recommend for beginners aside from Knoppix?
Eric
HI Eric, Are you actually going to be allowed to obliterate the existing hard drive contents on the computers for this Linux class? If so, that's actually a good thing! I teach an intro course for the Chelmsford Community Education program, and I'm not allowed to blow away Windows on their hard drives (shucks...). So, I stick with Knoppix and user level concepts and it has worked out rather well. Later, Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFBIoMPHl0iXDssISsRAjhwAJ0dy1gHGR4xp2mECx/P3QsMDVA7BgCfSlmC 5j7MiYpm0+Hz2AHNX7gXbm8= =yCuv -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (10)
-
Andrew Robert -
Andy Stewart -
Bob George -
Brian Waite -
Chuck Haines -
Frank Rizzo -
gboyce＠badbelly.com -
Martin, Eric -
Mike Frysinger -
Mike Leo