Which Linux version is the best for beginner to learn?

if you learn Slackware, you learn Linux.

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I think same goes for Gentoo. Full hands on approach.

If you have zero knowledge about Linux, I mean, you dont even know what Gnome or KDE is, you can start from Ubuntu, its friendly and almost easy as Windows, you have a lot of software to try and the journey will be easy.

Once you have tried Ubuntu for about 3 weeks, you can start to learn some easy console commands like installing software, move files, copy files, extract files, all in the terminal.

After you feel comfortable you can use Fedora... Ubuntu has a lot of software included since the installation, in Fedora, you have to install the software that you require.

After that, you are ALMOST ready to use Slackware, but first i recommend you to read the Slackbook because with that, you will learn how Slackware works.

Recap:

Beginners: Ubuntu, Mint, Puppy, Mandriva
Middle: Fedora, OpenSUSE
Hard: Slackware, Arch Linux
Hardcore: Gentoo xD

Frankly, I don't think which linux distribution to start with really matters unless you have to compile from the scratch like Gentoo.

Any engineers who have around 20 years experience learned Unix with almost zero knowledge of it. I only had a very limited experience of MS-DOS 20 years back and on the very first day of my engineering career, I was given a Unix workstation, and I had to learn how to use it. That's how we learned it, and I don't see the reason why you cannot do that with LInux today.

If any, only issue I can see is installation since you have to deal with partitions, but you can find a lot of information nowadays and it won't be very difficult to understand it.

If you are a beginner then , Ubuntu will be best for you . It is most user friendly and even can be installed inside windows. Just try it out.

Go for Fedora or Ubuntu

I believe that Ubuntu is the best version of Linux for beginners; inasmuch as, it has friendly interface, and you can try it from live CD, in addition, its installation is easy.

I think Ubuntu is the best version for Linux beginner.so many hard driver,you don't need waste your time to find hardware driver.

Kiss_Bush said:

I think Ubuntu is the best version for Linux beginner.so many hard driver,you don't need waste your time to find hardware driver.

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This is why I dislike Ubuntu, it's so dumbed down that the people who use it never know what they're talking about.

The drivers have nothing to do with the distribution whatsoever. They are part of the Linux kernel which is more or less common to all Linux distributions (except for a few minor patches).

I strongly recommend gentoo, unlike slackware it has a brilliant package management system and it builds everything from source so your programs are built to your own needs, rather than the needs of whoever built the binary package.

Linux Mint is actually based on Ubuntu Linux, but simplified for users coming from Windows. The user interface has been tweaked to look and behave more like Windows. Most common applications like the flash pligina as well as video and audio decoders come pre-installed with the base distribution, meaning less things to configure for the beginner user. Linux Mint has a very polished software installer where hundreds of applications can be downloaded and installed in one click. You can also view a screenshot of the application that you are about install so that you can see what the application is about. Furthermore all free Ubuntu applications can also be installed on Linux Mint thanks to another installation utility: the package manager. On the downside there is no possibility to buy paid support and no application store for commercial applications. A great advantage for users that come from the Windows world is that thanks to Wubi you can install Linux Mint alongside Windows: it is like installing a Windows application. Upgrading Linux Mint to the next version is less intuitive than with Ubuntu, a design decision to ensure that the user understand that there is always a risk of problems during upgrades. This is not an issue if you intend to stick with your first Linux installation for a long time, but can be a problem if you want to upgrade your software from time to time. Should you run into troubles the community is great for providing help but is smaller than the one of Ubuntu.






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I have used both ubuntu and fedore... I would say for begineers, ubuntu is the best to use. There is very little difference but ubuntu comes with an option of installing within windows, i dont think fedora has that option..

More than anything, you can find more help and related documentationm, updates etc for ubuntu compared to fedora. Ubuntu also works great on embeded systems...

victoryrez said:

I have used both ubuntu and fedore... I would say for begineers, ubuntu is the best to use. There is very little difference but ubuntu comes with an option of installing within windows, i dont think fedora has that option..

More than anything, you can find more help and related documentationm, updates etc for ubuntu compared to fedora. Ubuntu also works great on embeded systems...

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To taste the true power of ANY Operating System Install it on Bare and supported hardware free from any other OS, Then only the true power will be noticed.

Secondly Why you want to install Linux With or Within WINdows??
Go for an USED PC and do your nasty research on IT

bluehole said:

To taste the true power of ANY Operating System Install it on Bare and supported hardware free from any other OS, Then only the true power will be noticed.

Secondly Why you want to install Linux With or Within WINdows??
Go for an USED PC and do your nasty research on IT

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Installing Ubuntu will load grub image and incase u get stuck or manage to crush ubuntu ( like i did ) ur windows wouldnt load. I am not suggesting loadiing within windows as the best option.... for for users who want to begin with OR use ubuntu for just certain limited things like a school project, within windows is the best way to go....

Its always better than VMware or Virtualbox for sure.... and its almost the same like a different installation, like a dual boot option and stuf..

I think the first time you learn the linux, the best way is to buy a good book (or you can borrow from library), and the Linux forum is also your good friend.
Redhat, centOS is also good version, a lots people could share their excellent experience,
or you could just forget the version, just learn the shell concept, coding style, makefile, how to manage your server...etc.

The various version would not interfere with this basis.

Fedora or ubunto is easiest for the people who r coming from windows but u guys want to go for the more seure thing then there is RedHat Linux and FreeBSD are there too in my opinion FreeBSD is more secure and working fine with all the things u can almost all things on FreeBSD...........
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”,[1] as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX (many of whose original developers became FreeBSD developers), FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant. Thanks to its permissive licensing terms, much of FreeBSD’s code base has become an integral part of other operating systems such as Mac OS X that have subsequently been certified as UNIX-compliant and have formally received UNIX branding.[2] With the exception of the proprietary Mac OS X, FreeBSD is the most widely used BSD-derived operating system in terms of number of installed computers, and is the most widely used freely licensed, open-source BSD distribution, accounting for more than three quarters of all installed systems running free, open-source BSD derivatives.[3]
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Oh wow, wikipedia doesnt help too much =P

You cannot recommend FreeBSD to a beginner because that person needs to learn at least the basic commands. As i said, Ubuntu /Mint is for beginners, then you can use Fedora because you can personalize it as you wish, then, if you really wanna learn Linux and be closer to BSD distributions, you can use Slackware.

Luciferus said:

Oh wow, wikipedia doesnt help too much =P

You cannot recommend FreeBSD to a beginner because that person needs to learn at least the basic commands..

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I have never understood why people wants to start with "Linux for Beginners". Throw them in the pool, and they will learn how to swim. That's how the engineers learn the stuffs.

If the person is willing to learn, it really doesn't matter which Linux they learn. They will learn.
If the person is not willing to learn, it really doesn't matter which Linux they learn. They won't learn.

Using OS is not a rocket science.. it's a matter of patience and reading books, and if one doesn't have that patience, they won't get anything from any distribution.

I have never dabbled in Linux until I tried Ubuntu. I then tried a few other distributions and went back to Ubuntu. I found it relatively easy to learn and highly user-configurable. Please bear in mind that I have done C++ and VB programming and have my own PC/Networking biz. I consider myself an advanced Windows (and DOS, believe it or not ) user. The main thing to keep in mind with Linux is while there are many applications that can do almost everything you want, and most are free, the support is still not as widespread as for Windows. You might run into some driver issues, for example. It's getting there, though, and the Ubuntu forums are a great place to learn. I highly recommend you download and burn a "Live CD" of Ubuntu 10.10 ("Maverick Meerkat"). With this cd you can boot into Ubuntu and try it out without actually installing it onto your system. I would not run the latest version, 11.xx, which was released only a few months ago, because from mine and many others' experience with it it seems not as stable as Maverick Meerkat. Give Ubuntu a shot. You may like. Good luck whatever you decide.

Ubuntu version is the best for beginner to learn..

harryhyden said:

Ubuntu version is the best for beginner to learn..

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Ubuntu might be the easiest distribution for a beginner to use, but they're certainly not going to learn much with it.

Will you send me command line to help learn Linux.
Thanks
cr.sukumaran@gmail.com