There are other distrubutions that debian? *shock*

But would you recommend starting with this? With Mandrake,Red Hat etc will I just get annoyed after a while and want to change to Debian. There are a stack of CDs and manuals for Debian on ebay for under a tenner claiming the migration is simple.

Debian isn't that hard to set up. The nasty thing is X-Windows, that isn't nice to set up. But if you know the model of your graphics card then you should be fine. Mandrake is a nice dist, but it gives you too much shit. I would give Debian a try first, and if that doesn't work then try Mandrake

I would give Mandrake a go. It installs easily and does all of the thinking for you during installation. If and when you start to develop on your Linux box then you'll probably prefer to change to Debian because it will allow you to take back more control. But I would use Mandrake to refresh your experience and build up your confidence with Linux again. Windows has probably dumbed you down.

You'll also have the advantage of allowing Mandrake to figure out those nasty X-Windows settings for you (which you can then make a copy of and use that to get it right when you change to Debian).

That's helpful folks, Duggie, Stephen thanks for the Mandrake advice, I'll give it a shot.

I started with Caldera years ago, but never found any problems installing debian. Or X.

But then, I never had a fancy-schmantzy graphics card, and it all Just Worked.

Go for Debian. You will probably learn lots as you install it.

I don't believe Debian fits in with his criteria. He wants to take an old(ish) PC and install linux on it. In Andy's own words, he wants to see if it "is possible for a retard to get linux up and running as a desktop operating system". With that in mind, I think Mandrake will be a great comforter for him.

I used it to set up a PC at home (I had no idea what its insides consisted of). Mandrake did all the probing around and set it up without any effort from me. It got all of the USB peripherals, printer and sound working without bothering me with technical questions.

Once you're up and running, and if you decide to start using it for anything other than a desktop PC, then I would recommend you switch to Debian (for 'apt-get' if nothing else). But until then you should find Mandrake gives you exactly what you want, without making you think or do too much!

Duggie for president.

Don't listen to him. Debian isn't as bad to install as it used to be. A friend of mine, a WinSysAdmin, installed it first time, never having touched linux before.

It runs on old hardware. My machine at home is now very old hardware, but not quite P66 old.

This is a Holy War, you have started, young Jaffs. Next you will be asking why you shouldn't install emacs...

I would question Marc's argument. For instance, he claims that he never had any problems installing X Windows. However, I put it you that Marc has indeed had problems with X Windows in the past. Does he not recall breaking X Windows on his development machine in BlackStar? On more than one occasion! Debian wants/likes you to fiddle with its settings. I wouldn't recommend it for a novice.

Yes, but I learnt how it all hangs together. Debian is greating for fiddling, yes, and by fiddling you can learn things about your system.

If you want your hand held, then stick to windoze.

I see no problem in a novice doing it. Or Andy. *bam*

Considering Andy has a headstart on total noobies, then I would say go straight for the Debian.

Oh, and my troubles with X were more trying to get nVidia 3dfx drivers going.

And the second time I broke it meant less time fixing it, as I had a grasp of what I was doing, after the last learning experience.

I don't believe that being "great for fiddling" makes for a good 'my first linux' experience. In fact, I think it would put off most novice users, including Andy (with his previous experience as a linux user).

That feeling when your pc won't boot up and you realise you've messed up something is fine when you're playing around and it's not your pc. But when it *is* your pc and you realise you've broken something that cost you several hundred pounds and worked before you started playing around, that's not a very warm feeling inside. Kind of spoils your Saturday afternoon.

Install Mandrake and you should be heading out for drinks a couple of hours later, safe in the knowledge that you have a nice wee desktop pc at home, safely connected to that broadband connection.

I most whole-heartedly disagree. (But not about the pub.)

It is a myth that debian is a pain to install, and it shouldn't be any worse than mandrake.

Of course, there is the possibility that you could not have your machine start up in any distro, if you wipe out the wrong file. That shouldn't be a concern as to choosing which one.

Installing a distro that 'does it all for you' will lead to mistakes being made when anyone moves up a gear. The idea isn't to have a windoze clone, it is to have a system you have control over.

The whole philosophy of the system is different from M$. You shouldn't be expecting M$ with a different interface, as that isn't what it is.

And it is very hard to break things. Sure, they stop working, but doesn't that lend to the arguement that if the only thing you installed debian for was apt-get, that that will help you out in most cases?

Install Debian and you should be heading out for drinks a couple of hours later, safe in the knowledge that you have a nice wee desktop pc at home, safely connected to that broadband connection, and a decent distro installed to boot.

Folks, I actually purchased a copy of Mandrake 9.2 a few hours ago on ebay, so I am going to start with that, £4.92 including postage and an installation manual, the bloke also offers tech support for the install.

teh suq. d00d.

AND AND AND you stopped our barney. No fair. No fun.

pah.

/me walks off in disgust.

From my experience, it's pretty easy to break a Linux distribution. It's usually pretty easy to fix, but only if you know what is wrong. Experience will bridge that gap, but a new user is unlikely to know how to solve the problem.

If you manage to break something at an early enough stage during installation, let's say X-Windows (because it's very easy to mess that up) then it could lead to you abandoning Linux altogether.

Similarly 'apt-get' only becomes useful when you know what to install. Experience will tell you that apt-get makes installing new software very easy. But until you have the experience it is much easier to use a distribution which does that work for you.

That was fun. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again.
Good luck with your install Andy, any trouble give us a shout. But you will be fine.

No! Buy a Mac!

oh sorry, wrong flame war.

Good luck with the install.. Duggie was right, go for Mandrake first time round.